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Dolphins Close To Hiring General Manager

By | at January 8, 2026 9:51 pm

The Dolphins are suddenly without a head coach after firing Mike McDaniel on Thursday. The team also doesn’t have a full-time general manager, but it appears that’s about to change.

The Dolphins expect to make a decision on a GM by Friday, Jeff Darlington of ESPN reports. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald passes along similar information, writing they’ll choose a candidate by Friday night or Saturday.

Since the Dolphins parted with longtime GM Chris Grier on Halloween, Champ Kelly has held the position on an interim basis. He’s one of four finalists for the job, joining Chargers assistant GM Chad Alexander, Packers vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan and 49ers director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams.

The Dolphins interviewed Kelly on Wednesday. Their in-person meetings with Alexander, Sullivan and Williams occurred Thursday, per Darlington. Sullivan previously conducted a Zoom interview with the team on Tuesday, according to Albert Breer of SI.com.

Alexander wasn’t on the Dolphins’ list of GM possibilities until Tuesday. They added him hours before the Ravens fired head coach John Harbaugh, Jackson writes. With Harbaugh now available and on the Dolphins’ radar, it’s worth noting that Alexander was in Baltimore’s front office for the majority of the coach’s 18-year run there. Alexander worked in the organization with Harbaugh for 11 years.

Once the Dolphins identify a front office leader, the focus will turn to finding McDaniel’s replacement. The head coaching hire will be a collaborative effort between the GM and owner Stephen Ross, per Jackson. Unsurprisingly, though, Ross will have the final say.

Since taking over as majority owner in 2009, Ross has signed off on hiring four head coaches. None of his previous selections – McDaniel, Brian Flores, Adam Gase and Joe Philbin – won a playoff game. The Dolphins have only gone to the postseason three times under Ross. McDaniel was at the helm for two of those seasons, but back-to-back sub-.500 campaigns cost him his job.

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Jets Request DC Interview With Vikings’ Daronte Jones

By | at January 8, 2026 9:23 pm

Chris Harris replaced Steve Wilks as the Jets defensive coordinator late in the season and will have an opportunity to retain his role. However, that won’t stop Aaron Glenn from considering other options for the job. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Jets have requested an interview with Vikings passing game coordinator/DB coach Daronte Jones.

[RELATED: Jets Unlikely To Fire OC Tanner Engstrand; Chris Harris Keeping DC Job In Play]

The 47-year-old coach has bounced around a bit in recent years. He had two-year coaching stints with the Dolphins and Bengals before his first stint in Minnesota in 2020. After serving as the Vikings defensive backs coach under Mike Zimmer for one season, Jones left to become LSU’s defensive coordinator in 2021.

Brian Kelly ended up not keeping him around for a second season, and Jones ended up returning to the Vikings on Kevin O’Connell‘s staff. Jones spent one year as the DBs coach before earning a promotion to defensive pass game coordinator in 2023.

The coach has been involved in the DC cycle for the past few offseasons. He interviewed for the Giants job in 2024, and he was a candidate for the Bears, Jaguars, and Saints gigs in 2025. We heard earlier tonight that the Cowboys had also requested permission to interview him for their defensive coordinator job, and there have been rumblings that he could just earn a promotion to the role in Minnesota if Brian Flores ends up leaving.

Harris only had a brief stint as the Jets interim DC, and he didn’t build much of a case to keep the job in 2026. The Jets gave up 35 first-half points to the Patriots in Week 17 before allowing a Bills team without Josh Allen to score 35 in the regular season finale.

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Falcons, Cardinals Request HC Interviews With Packers’ Jeff Hafley

By | at January 8, 2026 8:55 pm

Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley has emerged as a popular candidate in this year’s head coaching carousel. The Falcons and Cardinals have requested interviews with Hafley, according to Albert Breer of SI.com. The Titans were the first club to request a meeting with the 46-year-old.

With the Packers preparing to face the Bears in a wild-card round matchup on Saturday, Hafley can’t interview with anyone until next week. His defense, which ranked 11th in scoring and 12th in yards during the regular season, helped the Packers to the postseason. They’ll enter the playoffs shorthanded, though, after superstar pass rusher Micah Parsons tore his ACL in Week 15. In his first season under Hafley, the former Cowboy produced 12.5 sacks in 14 games.

With Parsons’ season over, he may have played his last game in Hafley’s defense. That’s assuming another team hires Hafley as its head coach. While Hafley doesn’t have head coaching experience at the NFL level, he did lead Boston College from 2020-23. BC went 22-26 and made trips to two bowl games during that four-year span.

Hafley, previously an assistant with the Buccaneers, Browns and 49ers, returned to the pros in 2024. The Packers’ defense ranked fifth in scoring and sixth in yards last year, which earned Hafley a head coaching interview with the Jets. They went on to hire Aaron Glenn instead.

A year after the Jets passed on him, Hafley will have more chances to convince teams he’s worthy of his first head coaching job in the pros. He’d be the second straight defensive-minded hire for Atlanta or Arizona. The Falcons sputtered to a 16-18 record in two years under Raheem Morris, who’s also among Arizona’s HC candidates. The Cardinals gave Jonathan Gannon the ax after he posted a disastrous 15-36 mark in three seasons.

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Commanders Interview Lunda Wells For OC Job

By | at January 8, 2026 8:51 pm

The Commanders have interviewed their first potential replacement for Kliff Kingsbury. ESPN’s Todd Archer reported earlier today that the organization had requested permission to interview Cowboys tight ends coach Lunda Wells for their OC vacancy. ESPN’s Adam Schefter later reported that Wells completed an interview this evening for the job.

[RELATED: Commanders, Kliff Kingsbury Part Ways]

As Dan Quinn is tasked with rebuilding his coaching staff, he’s considering a familiar face to guide his offense. Wells served as the Cowboys TEs coach throughout Quinn’s three-year stint as the team’s defensive coordinator. Quinn actually pursued Wells two years ago to lead his offensive line, so the Commanders HC clearly thinks highly of the coach.

Wells had an eight-year stint with the Giants to begin his NFL coaching career, working his way up from an offensive quality control coach to tight ends coach. During his two seasons in that latter role, Evan Engram had two of the best yards-per-game showings of his career. Wells moved to the Cowboys in 2020, where he guided Dalton Schultz to his most productive NFL season before developing Jake Ferguson into a Pro Bowl-quality tight end.

Wells was also recruited by the Bears last offseason, so the 42-year-old has clearly been emerging as a popular name in coaching circuits. The Cowboys made an effort to retain him last offseason, including signing the coach to an extension. Now, he may have an opportunity to take that next step of his career with a division rival.

After being forced to move on from his offensive and defensive coordinator, Quinn also fired offensive line coach Bobby Johnson yesterday. The team kicked off their DC search by requesting an interview with Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham.

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Mutual Interest Between John Harbaugh, Browns For HC Job?

By | at January 8, 2026 7:54 pm

John Harbaugh could end up sticking around the AFC North. According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the Browns are “definitely doing their diligence” on the former Ravens head coach. Interestingly, that interest may be mutual.

Cabot says that Harbaugh is “believed to have legitimate interest” in the Cleveland job, even with their uncertainty on offense. Besides an opportunity to play his former team twice a year, Cabot notes that there a handful of reasons why Harbaugh could be a logical fit for the organization.

For starters, the coach has deep Cleveland roots. Both John and Jim Harbaugh grew up as Browns fans, and their parents even honeymooned at a Browns game. Both of their parents are Ohio natives, with Jack Harbaugh once playing football at Bowling Green. John Harbaugh, of course, ended up tormenting his favorite childhood team throughout his Baltimore tenure, going 27-8 during his 18 seasons as the Ravens head coach (including a 12-5 record in Cleveland).

Next, Harbaugh also has interest in working alongside a pair of Browns coaches. Cabot says that Harbaugh would consider retaining defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, and the former Ravens head coach is also a big fan of offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. That duo already interviewed for the Browns HC opening this week, and Cabot notes that the franchise would love to keep both of the coaches in some capacity depending on the outcome of their search.

Of course, there are also rumblings that Harbaugh would likely recruit Ravens OC Todd Monken to his next stop, per Armando Salguero of Outkick.com. There have been a handful of reports that Harbaugh’s unwillingness to fire Monken in Baltimore may have contributed to his ouster with the Ravens. Interestingly, the Browns requested a head coach interview with Monken.

To top it all off, Cabot notes that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has admired Harbaugh for many years. As the team embarks on a thorough search for a replacement for Kevin Stefanski, Harbaugh would seemingly be the organization’s main target. Of course, Harbaugh likely leads the list for most (if not all) of the HC-needy teams.

Cleveland’s current list of candidates includes:

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NFL Practice Squad Updates: 1/8/26

By | at January 8, 2026 7:30 pm

A handful of playoff teams shuffled their practice squads today. We’ve listed all of the moves below:

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Houston Texans

New England Patriots

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Minor NFL Transactions: 1/8/26

By | at January 8, 2026 7:25 pm

One minor move to pass along:

Houston Texans

A rookie sixth-round pick, Reed has spent half of the 2025 season on the sideline. He started the season on PUP thanks to a knee injury, but he managed to make his NFL debut in late October. He ended up getting into seven games (one start) for Houston, collecting 14 tackles (12 of which came in one game) in 73 defensive snaps. He landed on injured reserve in December after suffering a forearm injury that required surgery. The Texans will be able to use him as an extra practice body for much of the postseason.

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Ohio State EDGE/LB Arvell Reese Declares For Draft

By | at January 8, 2026 6:28 pm

Arvell Reese is heading to the NFL. The Ohio State edge rusher/linebacker announced that he’s declared for the 2026 draft, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Reese is generally considered the top defensive prospect in this year’s draft, with some pundits even considering him as the top player in the class. While he might not be selected in the top-two considering the Raiders’ and Jets’ need for a franchise QB, he’ll surely be selected within the top-five picks. ESPN’s Jordan Reid recently had Reese going fourth-overall to the Titans, but there’s a chance he may not fall past the Cardinals at No. 3.

Reese mostly played linebacker this season at Ohio State, although many teams would likely target him for an edge role in the NFL. Despite only getting into 97 snaps at the position in 2025, Reese still ranked seventh in the FBS in pressure rate (18.5%). Scouts have lauded his explosiveness and physicality, and his versatility could prove to be an asset as a professional.

The prospect had a rapid rise up the draft rankings in 2025. While his 2024 campaign put him on the NFL map, he solidified himself as a top prospect with a breakout performance this past year. He ultimately finished the season with 69 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, and 6.5 sacks, earning him a consensus All-American nod and the Big Ten Linebacker of the Year award. He was also a finalist for the Butkus Award, which is given annually to the top linebacker in college.

As ESPN’s Jake Trotter notes, Reese joins wide receiver Carnell Tate and safety Caleb Downs as Buckeye players who have declared for the draft this week. Both Tate and Downs are also expected to hear their names called in the first half of the first round.

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Titans To Interview Mike McCarthy For HC Job

By | at January 8, 2026 5:51 pm

Mike McCarthy is now officially a candidate for two head coaching jobs. After scheduling his interview with the Giants, the former Packers and Cowboys head coach is also set to interview for the Titans vacancy, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. The interview is scheduled for next Saturday.

Besides being one of the most experienced head coaching options on the market, McCarthy also has a connection to Titans leadership. Tennessee’s President of Football Operations Chad Brinker worked alongside McCarthy during their decade-plus tenures in Green Bay. Brinker worked his way up from a scouting intern to football administration executive. He left to be the Titans assistant GM in 2023, and he was given full control of the team’s roster in 2024 following Ran Carthon‘s ouster.

Following a 7-10 showing in 2024, McCarthy wasn’t retained as the Cowboys head coach. He still remained in the HC circuit last offseason, interviewing for open positions with the Bears and Saints. He obviously didn’t get either of those two gigs, and he ended up spending the 2025 campaign out of the NFL.

McCarthy made a name for himself as an offensive-minded coach while working with the likes of Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, and Dak Prescott. That would make him a natural fit for the Titans, who are looking to maximize 2025 first-overall pick Cam Ward. In 18 years as a head coach, McCarthy only had five seasons where he finished with a losing record. This would surely be alluring for a Titans organization that hasn’t finished above .500 since the 2021 season.

As mentioned, the Titans aren’t the only team eyeing McCarthy. The coach is set to interview for the open Giants job next week. New York will have the first opportunity to speak to the long-time coach, with that interview scheduled for Tuesday.

McCarthy joins a growing list of candidates for the Titans gig. The current list of definitive and potential targets includes:

More to come…

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