What John Harbaugh And Mike Tomlin’s Departures Mean For NFL Coaching
Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh (L) and Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin shake hands after chatting at mid field before their game in Baltimore on Thursday, November 28, 2013. (Doug Kapustin/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Tribune News Service via Getty Images
The NFL playoffs are underway, but head coaching news from across the league is what’s currently dominating the headlines.
There are currently nine NFL head coaching vacancies, with long-tenured coaches like John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin no longer on the job.
Harbaugh was the Baltimore Ravens head coach for 18 seasons before his firing on Jan. 6following an 8-9 season in which the team missed the playoffs for just the sixth time in his career. Mike Tomlin stepped down after a 9-8 season and a 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs on Sunday night. Tomlin made the playoffs 13 times in 19 years and never had a losing season.
Both Harbaugh and Tomlin won a Super Bowl for their respective franchise, yet reaching the playoffs at a high clip wasn’t perceived as enough.
Aaron Rodgers Comments On The State Of NFL Coaching Cycle
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers just spent one year with Mike Tomlin but earned the future Hall of Famer’s respect in that span. From Rodgers’ view, he doesn’t understand why a coach of Tomlin’s caliber or Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur would be viewed on the hot seat.
“I mean, this league has changed a lot in my 21 years. You know, when you hear a conversation about the Mike Tomlins of the world, Matt LaFleurs of the world, those are just two that I played for, and when I first got in the league, there wouldn’t be conversation about whether those guys were on the hot seat,” Rodgers said. “But the way that the league is covered now and the way that there’s snap decisions and the validity given to the, you know, the Twitter experts and all the, you know, experts on TV now who make it seem like they know what the hell they’re talking about, to me that’s an absolute joke.
Erik Spoelstra Shares Thoughts On Harbaugh, Tomlin Departures
Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, who’s in his 18th season with the franchise, was disappointed to hear that Harbaugh and Tomlin are no longer with the Ravens and Steelers.
“I was sad about that,” Spoelstra said when speaking about Harbaugh and Tomlin. “And I was really bummed about the John Harbaugh news as well. Because I’ve been fans of both of them for years.”
Not only was Spoelstra bummed, but he was also surprised.
“They’re titans of the game and I just always thought that they’d be there for forever,” Spoelstra said.
Spoelstra has had similar sustained success to that of Tomlin and Harbaugh. Spoelstra has made the playoffs in 14 of 17 seasons thus far and has won two NBA championships. Spoelstra said teams can rebuild or reload, but having a proven leader in charge is essential.
“It’s a sad day,” Spoelstra stated. “We’ll see if they can find leaders with somebody else that can be as consistent as they’ve been, you know, for multiple decades. That’s a bummer.”
Spoelstra said some of his greatest opportunities have been from disappointing seasons, where the team “really went to work” during the offseason finding ways to get better.
Spoelstra noted the difference between having ownership willing to stick with a coach through trials and ownership that could succumb to making change on a whim.
“I think if you took a case study on all the leagues, when it’s a time for a change, when they make the changes over and over and over, if it actually benefited the organization or not,” Spoelstra explained. “I would guess not.”
The Coaching Carousel Shows No Signs of Slowing
Per Matt Warren of SB Nationmore than 75% of current NFL head coaches have been hired since 2021. Further, more than 25% of the NFL will have a new coach again in 2026 with nine of 32 NFL teams having a coaching vacancy. It feels unsustainable, but in the age of social media where there’s hyperconnectivity and loud collective grievances from fanbases, it also feels like mass firings are here to stay.
Tomlin, for example, despite never having a losing season, still faced chants of “Fire Tomlin” from Steelers fans, a reminder of how amplified fan sentiment contributes to the pressure on coaches.
Calls for coaches with high pedigrees to be fired come even for those in their first season. Pete Carroll, who won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks in 2013, was fired after his first year on the job with the Las Vegas Raiders following a 3-14 season. In today’s league, success is never permanent, and prior accolades seem to mean less.
Bill Polian, retired general manager of the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts recently spoke with the Sports Business Journal about fans and their impact in the coaching cycle.
“Not every owner is quick to pull the trigger if there’s a downturn in record, but there’s enough over time to get to those numbers,” Polian said. “The overarching part is that every situation is different. The one constant of this era is the amplification of dissatisfaction via social media, followed quickly by mainstream media.”
Evidence suggests the NFL will continue to see a high rate of coaching turnover, and the key question remains how many of these hires will meaningfully change a franchise’s direction. The sustained success that Harbaugh and Tomlin brought to the Ravens and Steelers is increasingly rare.
