4. Joe Brady - Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills situation was a bit odd, to say the least. After the team's Divisional Round loss to the Denver Broncos, it felt like the floodgates opened, and not in a good way. The team fired Sean McDermott after nearly a decade and had a pretty disastrous press conference with GM Brandon Beane and Terry Pegula.
The head coaching search led them to land on Joe Brady, who was already with the team. Many wondered why Buffalo did hire an outsider given the team's continual playoff failures, but Brady is a sharp offensive mind and was doing wonders with Josh Allen and the Bills offense since his arrival in 2022. This feels like a solid hire, as no one would be shocked if the Bills didn't skip a beat.
3. Jesse Minter - Baltimore Ravens
Jesse Minter was with the Baltimore Ravens from 2017-2020 and is obviously well entrenced in the Harbaugh coaching tree, spending time on both Jim and John's staffs over the years. Minter has been highly-regarded as a top-tier defensive mind who already had solid relationships in the Ravens facilities. The Ravens do need a bit of a reset on defense, but the team already has a high-end offensive infrastructure in place with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. The Ravens should instantly be a better team in 2026.
2. Robert Saleh - Tennessee Titans
Robert Saleh quickly earns his second head coaching stint after a bit of a wild tenure as the New York Jets head coach. After that tenure, he returned back to the San Francisco 49ers as the team's defensive coordinator. A huge reason why I believe the Saleh hire is going to work out is because defensive success follows him, and his decision to hire Brian Daboll as the offensive coordinator to pair up with Cam Ward is one that is going to work out in a big way.
Daboll has worked well with younger QBs in prior seasons like Josh Allen earlier in his career, and Jaxson Dart in 2025. The former Giants' head coach is going to get the most out of Ward in 2026, and Saleh's steady defensive presence is going to have an immediate impact on the Titans' unit,
1. John Harbaugh - New York Giants
The best hire of the 2026 head coaching cycle, and our no. 1 coach in our power rankings, is John Harbaugh with the New York Giants. There are teams in the NFL that simply need stability, period. Teams like the Giants, New York Jets, and a couple of other clubs have gone through a plethora of head coaches and continue to be the epitome of dysfuction.
With Harbaugh, the Giants now have a proven winner and someone who can stabilize things for a 5-7 year period. Fortunately for the Giants, the roster already has quite a few pieces that indicate major success could be on the horizon, but they've been missing a head coach to help it all come together.
Harbaugh's tenure with the Baltimore Ravens got a bit stale, as the early playoff exits just continued to disappoint, but a new beginning for the Giants and the veteran head coach could quickly turn into the G-Men making the playoffs nearly every year. At some point, teams have to top hiring first-time head coaches if they continually fail to work out.
The Giants got serious and brought in someone who knows how the NFL works. This is a home-run hire.