NFL Coaching News: The 2nd Job Test for Stefanski and Saleh

• In NFL coaching news, Kevin Stefanski and Robert Saleh will be taking the “2nd job test” to be a head coach in the league
• History is filled with coaches who took advantage of their second chance and littered with those who failed as badly or worse
• Stefanski and Saleh will get an opportunity to show whether their first-chance failure was based on reasons or excuses

Kevin Stefanski, Atlanta Falcons

This is one of the two jobs just filled where the organization that fired them is so dysfunctional and has such a horrific reputation around the league that the dispatched head coach gets more of a pass than he should.

Stefanski is a two-time NFL Coach of the Year for his work with the Browns. However, apart from those two years in 2020 and 2023 when Cleveland was 11-5 and 11-6, he was below .500 in every other season.

In his last two years, he was 8-26. They had a good defense, but the offense was generally woeful. That is supposed to be Stefanski’s area of expertise. Sure, it can be blamed on poor quarterbacking and the Shedeur Sanders drama. But he was in the room and likely facilitated Baker Mayfield being jettisoned. He was in the room when they traded for Deshaun Watson and gave him a guaranteed contract, only for Watson to show that he was ill-suited to playing in the cold and was not a good fit for Stefanski.

He went through one QB after another, seemingly never finding the one who would be ideal for his system.

Stefanski is another head coach casting lustful glances at other QBs, no matter who his QB is.

It’s not a new phenomenon.

Vince Lombardi had Bart Starr with the Packers, but drooled over Joe Namath.

The Cowboys’ Tom Landry was constantly waiting for his current QB to leave so he could try the next guy. He did it with Don Meredith, Craig Morton, Roger Staubach, and Danny White.

Bill Walsh seriously considered trading Joe Montana to get his hands on John Elway for the 49ers, then in the early days of their pending dynasty. After Montana became an icon, Walsh was dying to get Steve Young an opportunity.

Joe Gibbs won three Super Bowls with the then-Redskins, all with a different QB.

For Stefanski, there seems to be an arrogance and egomania baked into the cake. Nothing is his fault. And the league seems to buy it.

The Browns are known for being a mess, so those who coach there tend to get graded on that curve. Now, in Atlanta, he walks into a great situation…generally.

He wouldn’t have taken the job if he didn’t like the roster. Obviously, he feels he can work with Michael Penix. They have a sound receiving corps, two running backs, and a strong defense. Stefanski can win there immediately.

If he doesn’t, then it might be time to start looking at him instead of the organization.

Robert Saleh, Tennessee Titans

Saleh is getting his second chance fast.

After the Jets fired him 5 games into the 2024 season, he returned to the 49ers as Kyle Shanahan’s defensive coordinator. He again did a tremendous job in San Francisco, helping the ‘Niners get to the divisional round despite crippling injuries to key players Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, and others.

At first glance, this is a far better situation than the Jets’.

There are two ways of looking at Saleh’s time in New York:

• He was overmatched, and despite justified explanations for his failure, he doesn’t have the personality to be a head coach
• It’s the Woody Johnson Jets, so anyone and everyone gets a pass

Both can be effectively argued.

One can only wonder what would have happened in 2023 if Aaron Rodgers hadn’t blown out his Achilles on the opening series. Finishing 7-10 in consecutive seasons with the woeful Zach Wilson as his primary QB was a notable accomplishment.

But Johnson is a looming and unwelcome presence with everything the Jets do. He owns the team, so he’s a necessary evil. He was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom when his brother Christopher Johnson was running the team. Christopher, not Woody, hired Saleh.

When Woody returned, he never seemed happy with Saleh. Was it because he didn’t hire him? Or was it Saleh’s seemingly uncertain personality as head coach?

With Saleh now getting the Titans’ job, there is a perception that the situation is more stable than the Jets.

But is it?

This is the same organization that fired Brian Callahan after 23 games as head coach. That’s on the heels of dismissing Mike Vrabel. The same Mike Vrabel who is 60 minutes away from bringing the Patriots back to the Super Bowl.

As bad as Woody is, Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk has made one misstep after another as she tries to run her late father’s team.

Saleh will walk in with a QB in place. Cam Ward was the 1st overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and has shown flashes of brilliance amid the muck that was a 3-14 season. Their defense was somewhat respectable under defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson (an understated candidate for the Steelers job if they stick to the Rooney template of how they hired coaches in the past).

So Saleh has an essentially clean slate with a QB sitting there.

The players seem to like him. But one mistake he cannot repeat is forgetting that he’s the head coach and should not defer to anyone for any reason. He gets the credit. He gets the blame. It’s his ball, and he must show the leadership he did as Shanahan’s DC, but didn’t as Jets field boss.

Tread or Retread Cautiously With NFL Coaching Changes

In the NFL, it’s a familiar refrain that head coaching prospects should think long and hard before turning down a job they might not deem as the “perfect” fit because there are only 32 of them and they might not get another chance.

Still, with John Harbaugh already taking the Giants job, Stefanski hired as the Falcons head coach, and Saleh named Titans head coach, there are six open jobs.

There aren’t enough experienced coaches to go around to take them all, so the overwhelming likelihood is that some pseudo-recognizable names, shruggable retreads, and hot assistants will get the nod.

The question with two of the jobs that have been filled in Atlanta and Tennessee is whether these coaches were caught in a tough situation and deserve a second chance, or the teams that hired them will see the same things the teams that fired them saw after they’d had them in the building long enough.

Many coaches walked into their first head coaching job amid fanfare but failed. They later became champions.

Mike Shanahan clashed with Al Davis as Raiders’ head coach and was fired after 20 games. He later won 2 Super Bowls with John Elway for the Broncos and should be in the Hall of Fame.

Bill Belichick flamed out in Cleveland with the Browns and was such a miserable human and so hard to deal with that just about everyone who’d had the displeasure of being in his presence warned Robert Kraft not to hire him for the Patriots.

These are case studies of bad situations and brilliant minds who deserved another chance.

Then there’s Josh McDaniels.

He was a Belichick acolyte who was QB coach for Tom Brady in the 2004 Super Bowl-winning season, was the OC in the Pats’ imperfect 18-1 year, and was seen as the next star head coach. As Broncos head coach, he won his first six games before going 5-17 in the next 23 and got fired. Worse, he obnoxiously alienated QB Jay Cutler, leading to Cutler being traded to the Bears.

McDaniels is another emission from the Belichick cult where every assistant from Eric Mangini to Matt Patricia thinks they need to completely mimic the bullying, imperious behavior of the Dear Leader. It didn’t work in Denver, and he was axed.

But, after returning to the safety of New England and winning 2 more Super Bowls, he got another chance in Las Vegas and…acted the exact same way as he did in Denver and got fired again.

This is an example of someone who doesn’t think he did anything wrong the first time, so he repeated the process and made the exact same mistakes with the identical result of getting fired, needing to go back to New England to work under Vrabel.

He’s a great offensive coordinator, but that’s it. There’s nothing wrong with that. But teams need to recognize the difference between head coach and coordinator.

It’s not that easy.

So what’s going to happen with Saleh and Stefanski?

There will soon be over-under wins options in their new gigs. Do you think the second time’s the charm or will they just fall flat again?

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