The ideal coaching hire (Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel) for every NFL team with a 2025 opening

Black Monday came and went with little fanfare; it turns out NFL teams are much more content to fire their head coaches before the season officially ends than in the past.

The New York Jets, New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears all fired their top playcallers in the midst of the 2024 campaign. The New England Patriots gave Jerod Mayo about an hour to reflect on his Week 18 victory over the Buffalo Bills before asking him to leave the premises. Only the Jacksonville Jaguars canned their head coach Monday, making the obvious decision to leave Doug Pederson behind after a 5-18 record in his final 23 games.

That leaves five openings to fill among the league's 32 franchises. None of these teams are in great shape -- teams that send their coaches to the unemployment line rarely are. But some situations are better than others and the right leader could be all it takes to spark a postseason run.

Who fits each opening the best considering current depth charts, ownership and the executives making roster building decisions? Let's examine what could be the best case scenario for all five teams.

1. New England Patriots: Mike Vrabel

Let's begin with the most obvious fit. The Patriots could have hired Vrabel in 2024 but stuck to their succession plan with Jerod Mayo. Mayo's rookie mistakes were too much for an aging Robert Kraft to tolerate and, fairly or not (probably not), he was fired after a single four-win season.

Did his firing have anything to do with the New York Jets reaching out to Vrabel for their own coaching vacancy? It's possible! What we know now is most sources around the league believe Kraft has a clear cut No. 1 when it comes to the next man to fill Bill Belichick's shoes.

It makes sense. Vrabel is a rare Belichick-influenced NFL coaching success story. He won 54 games across six seasons with the Tennessee Titans and led Ryan Tannehill to an AFC Championship Game -- beating the Patriots along the way. He's avoided the taint of the Belichick coaching tree because he was a player in New England and not a coach; a trait shared by Minnesota Vikings play-caller and 2024 coach of the year candidate Kevin O'Connell.

There's room for a throwback, run-heavy game to thrive in the NFL alongside a young, big-armed quarterback. Jim Harbaugh proved it in his 2024 return, leading the Los Angeles Chargers to the postseason behind Justin Herbert and a steady diet of handoffs between the tackles. The Patriots have a passer with Herbert-esque upside in Drake Maye. They also have a deficient offensive line and few receivers of note -- and about $130 million to spend this offseason.

Vrabel and New England make too much sense to ignore. But asking the Patriots to get things right since Tom Brady's departure has been an iffy proposition.

2. Chicago Bears: Ben Johnson

Johnson is a madman; a diabolical offensive mind capable of dazzling you with hard-fought runs between the tackles or trick plays that turn his offensive linemen into red zone targets. The current state of the Bears could make the first piece of that puzzle difficult, but his innovation could be a thunderstorm over the desert that's been Caleb Williams's NFL development.

Chicago can offer the most enticing landing spot for a rising playbook architect. Williams, 2024's top overall pick, flashed signs of brilliance and the ability to follow different gameplans across a turbulent and ultimately disappointing rookie campaign. D.J. Moore will only be 28 years old in 2025 and would be significantly happier in a functioning offense. Rome Odunze and Darnell Wright are both recent top 10 draft picks. D'Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson aren't Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomrery, but could be useful with better blocking.

That last part will be Johnson's biggest challenge. He's been able to create a tome of game-changing plays thanks to one of the league's best offensive lines. The Bears, on the other hand, have seen their primary quarterback get sacked on at least 10 percent of his dropbacks every season since 2020. The scrambling nature of Williams and Justin Fields is a big part of that, but Johnson will have to devise a quick-hit passing game that won't have the luxury of handing the ball off to create third-and-short situations on a regular basis.

Still, the Lions were a moribund franchise with a quarterback the Los Angeles Rams no longer wanted and a fourth round pick at WR1 and Johnson made them a juggernaut. Chicago may offer him the best chance to do the same outside of Michigan.

3. New York Jets: Aaron Glenn

There is little optimism to be found when it comes to New York's quarterback situation. Aaron Rodgers will be 42 years old next winter and is coming off his worst season as a pro. He wasn't bad enough to lead the Jets to the top of the 2025 NFL Draft and the team lacks the salary cap space to make a splash in free agency this spring -- a marketplace in which Sam Darnold may be the best available passer and probably does not want to return to the sideline where he once saw ghosts.

How can you fix this franchise without a franchise quarterback? By leaning into the foundation that crumbled in 2024 after firing head coach Robert Saleh.

New York may shy away from another defense-first coach after years of inept offenses, but a rising star like Glenn could lay the base that makes the Jets defense elite once more. The talent remains on the roster, from a backsliding Sauce Gardner to the Wilson brothers to a rising pass rushing star in Will McDonald IV. Glenn, who devastated the Minnesota Vikings behind a defense ravaged by injury in Week 18, could be the perfect hire to bring out the best in them.

He'd need an offensive mind to build around whomever is throwing passes in northern New Jersey, but he could raise the floor of Jets football back to its seven-win Zach Wilson stasis while waiting for a QB upgrade. That's nothing great, but it's so much better than the garbage we saw in 2024.

4. New Orleans Saints: Jesse Minter

There's not much to like about the Saints' current situation. The roster's most recognizable names are former stars fading toward retirement. The quarterback is a 34-year-old Derek Carr, who has perpetually been good enough to win some games but rarely the most important ones. No team in the NFL has a worse salary cap situation than the -$66 million New Orleans has to spend, per Over the Cap.

That makes the Saints an undesirable landing spot in the short term (and, given general manager Mickey Loomis's approach to spending big on veterans, loading up the team's future salary cap commitments and inability to consistently draft young stars in recent years, possibly the long term as well). New Orleans could opt for a short-term bridge to create a brighter future for a bigger name hire down the road. That's sort of what they did by promoting Dennis Allen to the top job. Or they could take a swing at a rising star like Johnson or Glenn and hope for the best.

Minter is a guy who can be a little bit of both. Jim Harbaugh's defensive coordinator at Michigan and the Los Angeles Chargers has spent nearly two decades as an assistant but his stock has risen dramatically the last two seasons. He's only got five years of NFL experience under his belt, which could preclude him from the top jobs this hiring cycle.

Instead, the Saints could make a small bet on the 41-year-old. If he's as good as his last two years suggest, he could shine beyond the boundaries set by New Orleans's roster management. If not, he can guide the team through the muck and create the backdrop for a proper rebuild for the next man up in two years. That's a pessimistic way to look at it, but given the state of the Saints in 2025, it's a feasible one.

5. Jacksonville Jaguars: Liam Coen

The best fit for Jacksonville would be Ben Johnson. But 2025's hottest coaching candidates will enter the Jaguars' interview process fully aware one of the league's least effective executives will be lording over roster decisions. Trent Baalke's firing in San Francisco led to John Lynch (and Kyle Shanahan's) franchise revival. In four seasons with the Jags he's made two first overall picks, spent more than $400 million in free agency and is the man behind a 25-43 regular season record.

Thus, the gap between Jacksonville's perfect fit and the guy it can actually hire is massive. Remember, this is a team that botched its last hiring process so badly that it didn't stumble onto Doug Pederson until February. Expecting greatness is a fool's errand.

Who'll be the "good enough" pick? Coen could fit the bill. The Rhode Island high school football legend has built himself up over 15 seasons as an assistant. He's got the Sean McVay rub thanks to four seasons with the Los Angeles Rams. He was Kentucky's offensive coordinator while Will Levis fooled the world into thinking he might be an NFL franchise quarterback.

He coached Baker Mayfield to the best season of his pro career as offensive coordinator for the NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But his in-game adjustments haven't always matched his reputation as a play-caller and could slide him down the ladder of prospective coaching candidates. Would he shrug, look at the Jaguars and buy in?

The lure of working with Trevor Lawrence and Brian Thomas Jr. may be too much to pass up. The former No. 1 pick has been damaged goods following a breakout 2022. Injuries have marred each of Lawrence's last two seasons, but he remains a blue chip prospect even if time is running out to seize his potential. Thomas Jr. looks every bit the WR1 Jacksonville badly needs to maximize his quarterback's talents.

The Jaguars need help elsewhere and have a general manager who absolutely cannot be trusted to fill those gaps effectively. Even so, Coen could be the coach that makes this team more than the sum of its parts -- at least when it comes to slinging the ball.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: The ideal coaching hire (Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel) for every NFL team with a 2025 opening