NFL coaching carousel winners and losers: Ravens nail Minter hire, Bills stumble through McDermott exit

This offseason's coaching carousel is one of the wildest in recent memory.

Not only did two head-coaching jobs open during the season, but EIGHT more have become available since the end of the regular season, including two from teams that made the playoffs. The 10 total available head-coaching jobs -- Giants, Falcons, Cardinals, Bills, Dolphins, Browns, Ravens, Steelers, Titans and Raiders -- tie the record for most in a given offseason. 

One job that remains open belongs to a teams with a past regular-season MVP, and one belongs to a franchise with arguably the most job stability in league history. There were -- and still are -- plenty of coordinator openings on both sides of the ball, and more could open depending on what happens with the remaining head-coaching slots.

With that in mind, it's important to take stock of what has happened to date during the hiring cycle. We compiled a quick list of early winners and losers and will keep it updated as more openings get filled.

Winner: New York Giants

The Giants acted quickly and aggressively to land the top available coach of this hiring cycle, finalizing a five-year deal with former Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh before he could take planned meetings with the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons. 

As we wrote last week, Harbaugh should bring immediate stability and competence to a Giants organization that has desperately needed both for at least the past decade, cycling through coach after coach and disappointment after disappointment. Harbaugh should also bring over a strong staff of assistant coaches, and the Giants will be better for having hired him.

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Garrett Podell

Loser: Buffalo Bills

The Bills' decision to fire Sean McDermott in the wake of their divisional-round loss to the Denver Broncos is somewhat understandable. It has been nine years of the McDermott era and seven of McDermott and Josh Allen, and they have yet to achieve their Super Bowl goals. McDermott might not have been the issue standing in Buffalo's way, but teams can only make changes in so many ways, and swapping out the coach is one of them.

The Bills land here less because of the firing itself and more because they elevated Brandon Beane to an even more powerful role despite his presiding over a roster that has backslid over the past several years, then followed it with a disastrous press conference from Beane and owner Terry Pegula explaining both the firing and the promotion. 

Add in the fact that this is not an ideal hiring cycle in which to search for McDermott's replacement, and the Bills land here with relative ease.

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Robby Kalland

Winner (and Loser): Los Angeles Chargers

Whatever one thinks of Mike McDaniel's head-coaching bona fides, there is no arguing that he can dial up an offense. He is one of the best in the NFL at putting players in position to succeed, specifically by getting playmakers the ball in space so they can make things happen after the catch. He also excels at designing a run game. The Chargers have struggled to run the ball for a while, and McDaniel should be able to alleviate that. McDaniel has done all of this over the past few years with a quarterback -- Tua Tagovailoa -- who has clear limitations, yet McDaniel schemed around them. 

Expected to be hired as the Chargers' offensive coordinator, McDaniel can build an offense around a quarterback with significantly more physical talent. The marriage between McDaniel and head coach Jim Harbaugh may be an odd one personality-wise, but from a football-fit standpoint, it's hard to believe the Chargers could have done a better job finding their next OC.

The Chargers are also a loser this cycle, though, because they will no longer have defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who will become the next coach of the Baltimore Ravens. (See below.)

Loser: Cleveland Browns (so far)

Cleveland is still in its second round of interviews, with coaches such as Todd Monken and Jim Schwartz already getting their turns and others like Jesse Minter, Grant Udinski and Nate Scheelhaase reportedly in the mix. There is still a chance the Browns can land the plane here, and this designation could change if they make a home-run hire. (We'll switch them from loser to winner if and when they do.) 

For now, though, they belong here. Cleveland fired Kevin Stefanski, and he immediately landed another -- and probably more desirable -- job as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. The aforementioned McDaniel pulled his name out of consideration for the Browns' top job before deciding to become an offensive coordinator instead. Meanwhile, more jobs keep opening and pushing this one further down the pecking order.

Winner: Tennessee Titans (kind of)

The Titans hired former San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator and New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh as their next coach. Perhaps just as importantly, they did not hire now two-time former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, which had been heavily rumored before the Saleh news broke, given the connection between Nagy and Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi from their time in Kansas City. 

Nagy showed little propensity for putting players in position to succeed during his tenure as head coach of the Chicago Bears, and the Chiefs' offense backslid significantly upon his return to his previous role, so it never made much sense that he was considered the favorite to land this job.

Saleh's time in New York did not go particularly well, but that stemmed almost entirely from the revolving-door situation at quarterback. His defense ranked as the best in the league during that stretch. If the Titans are right about Cam Ward, things could be different this time around.

Robert Saleh rightfully gets a second chance with the Titans, but his OC hire will determine success

Zachary Pereles

Loser: Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins fired McDaniel, and he immediately became the top candidate for nearly every offensive coordinator opening while also interviewing for multiple head-coaching jobs. In the wake of his firing, the rumor mill kicked into high gear that Miami wanted to pursue Harbaugh, but he showed more interest in other opportunities.

The Dolphins ultimately hired the Green Bay Packers tandem of Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley as their general manager and head coach, respectively. Hafley went 22-26 in four seasons as the head coach at Boston College before becoming Green Bay's defensive coordinator, where his defenses played very well early in the season before slipping down the stretch. He is a well-respected defensive mind, but it's fair to question whether this was the most inspiring hire in the grand scheme of things.

Winner: Baltimore Ravens

Baltimore moved on from Harbaugh to kick off its offseason, but rebounded from that by making what seems like the most sensible hire the Ravens could have made in Jesse Minter. Minter was with the Ravens as as a defensive assistant and then defensive backs coach for four years (2017 through 2020) before moving to the college ranks at Vanderbilt and then Michigan, where he worked as Jim Harbaugh's defensive coordinator before making the jump to the NFL and handling the same role with the Chargers. 

His defense over the last couple of seasons has been very good, and he's shown that he's able to build quality units despite not having elite talent. At the very least, he should get the Ravens closer to playing the kind of defense they did under Mike Macdonald. A lot will obviously depend on his offensive coordinator hire -- and there are already rumors of Kliff Kingsbury -- but this hire itself is a good one.

Winner: Dallas Cowboys

Dallas moved on from former defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, whose unit was arguably the worst in the league this season. Eberflus was thrust upon head coach Brian Schottenheimer by the Jones family, and while he was dealt a bad hand with the trade of Micah Parsons just before the start of the season, he also played that hand badly and things were a disaster on that side of the ball to the point that a change had to be made after just one year. 

The Cowboys landed on former Eagles defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator Christian Parker as his replacement, and it's an inspired move in a similar way that landing former Cardinals offensive line coach Klayton Adams as their offensive coordinator was last year. Parker is a Vic Fangio disciple who is very highly respected and who quickly built one of the best secondaries in the league with Philadelphia.