There are six open head coaching jobs around the NFL for the 2025 cycle. Some jobs are more attractive than others, as teams with draft assets and salary cap capital are looking for new leaders. But some of the eventual hires will have a tough time pulling their new teams out of the mud due to their financial and stability situations, making their openings perhaps less than desirable.
Which newly hired head coach will be walking into the best situation? And which will have their work cut out for them?
Which NFL Coaching Vacancies Offer The Best Opportunity To Win?
Here are our rankings for the best NFL head coaching jobs available this off-season:
1. New England Patriots
Though they played themselves out of the no.1 pick in the draft, New England has some of the best assets of any of the open jobs. Their pick fell to 4th, but they already have the player they believe is their quarterback of the future. Drake Maye showed enough flashes of brilliance in 2024 to convince them, and they can instead select talent at another position in order to fill out the roster. There will be plenty of work to do in adding new talent, but the Patriots should have the capital to be able to make some serious changes and additions this off-season.
Combine young assets with the cap situation, and you have the best available coaching job on the market. The Patriots are projected to have the most cap space of any team in the NFL at roughly $131 million, giving a new regime plenty of opportunity to be successful.
2. Chicago Bears
The Bears are loaded up with early round draft picks, currently holding 3 of the top 41 for the 2025 NFL Draft. They also have the player who they hope is their franchise QB, having selected Caleb Williams first overall last year. There is plenty to fix in Chicago, having suffered 10 straight losses in a season with higher expectations, but there is talent on the roster to work with.
Chicago is projected to have the 5th most cap space this spring, and will likely be spending big money on offensive linemen. They could also look to the draft to help get Williams some protection. There are multiple elite lineman talents in the projected range of their 10th overall selection.
3. Las Vegas Raiders
From an asset and team building standpoint, the Raiders have one of the better available coaching situations. They’ll have the 6th overall pick in the upcoming draft, and have cornerstones like Maxx Crosby and Brock Bowers already in place to work with. And aside from the Patriots, no team in the NFL will make more money to spend during the off-season.
But their quarterback situation is a tough one. Their available cap space likely won’t be spent on a top-tier pass thrower, as there aren’t many names on the free agent market that are anything more than one-year placeholders. Given this year’s talent in the draft, they’ll be too late to nab one of the few elite prospects with that 6th pick.
A new coach would also face the threat of instability, as the Raiders will already be moving on to their 5th head coach (including interims) in the Las Vegas era. Since Jon Gruden left the first time in 2002, the team has had 13 different lead men take the helm.
4. Jacksonville Jaguars
Trevor Lawrence may not be considered in the upper tier of NFL quarterbacks, but he provides some of the better stability at the position for any of the open jobs. The Jaguars already have some young talent in place on both sides of the ball, including wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr., who racked up 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns during his rookie season in 2024. Jacksonville ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of spendable money this off-season, with a projected $43 million to spend in free agency.
The issue with the Jaguars’ job is their retaining of general manager Trent Baalke, who has now survived through multiple coaching regimes despite having little success himself. Having him in place might actually limit the options that Jacksonville has in terms of new a new head coach, and makes it one of the jobs that is less attractive.
5. New York Jets
The situation in New York is a messy one, and any candidate who is hired on will have their hands full in getting the franchise back on the right track. There are of course massive question marks surrounding quarterback Aaron Rodgers, as well as wildly expensive wide receiver Davante Adams. The team doesn’t have much of a shot of replacing Rodgers with a draft prospect, as their 7th overall pick is out of range for one of the top QB talents.
The general manager situation is up in the air as well, and the Jets are currently holding interviews for both positions. How much of the decision-making for both jobs will be influenced by owner Woody Johnson? And how true are the reports that he makes his decisions based on what his 18-year-old son says, as well as Madden ratings?
They should free up a good chuck of money if they rid themselves of Adams’ contract, but New York is currently projected to rank no. 21 in terms of cap space in the NFL.
6. New Orleans Saints
New Orleans is in a tough place all around. Their roster features productive veterans on both sides of the ball, but they are aging and becoming too expensive for the Saints to keep around much longer. The team has been in “salary cap hell” for a few seasons now, and that will continue in 2025. As of early January, they are projected to be more than $63 million over the salary cap, meaning that they’ll likely have to part ways with some of their veterans just to meet the NFL cost requirements.
If the Saints were any good in 2024, there might be reason for optimism. But they ranked 19th in defense and 24th in offense last season, and have plenty of improvements to make on their roster and essentially no money to do so. Their first round draft pick isn’t wildly valuable, either, as they are set to select 9th overall in April.
