Amid NFL head coach hiring cycle, Black coaches still fighting for seats at the table

Nearly a third of NFL club owners began this year’s hiring cycle seeking new head coaches, signaling major changes on the sidelines. The key question: will Black coaches benefit?

When the 2025-26 season kicked off, the NFL had five Black head coaches: Todd Bowles of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Aaron Glenn of the New York Jets, Raheem Morris of the Atlanta Falcons, DeMeco Ryans of the Houston Texans, and the dean of the group, Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

With the firing of Morris on Jan. 4 and the resignation of Tomlin on Jan. 13 – in 19 seasons as the Steelers’ on-field leader, Tomlin never had a losing season – only three Black head coaches remain. Additionally, Mike McDaniel of the Miami Dolphins, who is biracial, was fired on Jan. 8. Dave Canales of the Carolina Panthers, who is Mexican American, was the league’s other coach of color this season.

This always bears repeating: The NFL is an overwhelmingly Black 32-team league.

The number of players who identify as African American has been as high as 70 percent. Representation among coaches of color and Black coaches in head coaching, proponents of inclusive hiring throughout the league contend, is important because head coaches are the faces of football operations.

Under commissioner Roger Goodell, the NFL has strived to create a truly inclusive workforce from the front office to the field. The NFL, Goodell has said repeatedly, believes it’s a good business practice to embrace the diversity of both its employees and fans who support the most successful league in professional sports. But of the 10 openings this cycle – tied for the most in a single cycle – four have been filled by white coaches: Kevin Stefanski moved from the Cleveland Browns to the Atlanta Falcons, former Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley succeeded McDaniel in Miami, and longtime Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh is now running the New York Giants. Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was hired by the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday.

Only the Tennessee Titans have picked a coach of color: Robert Saleh, formerly the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive coordinator. Saleh, an Arab American of Lebanese descent, became the first Muslim head coach in league history when he was hired by the New York Jets in 2021.

With five openings remaining, close observers of the league’s hiring landscape have identified two major hurdles for coaches of color: the broader hiring climate in corporate America and the omnipresent issue of nepotism.

Several hiring experts interviewed by Andscape fear that the ongoing pushback against inclusion could have an adverse effect on candidates for head coaching and executive openings.

For some time, N. Jeremi Duru has sounded the alarm.

Duru, a professor of sports law at American University in Washington, D.C., is regarded as one of the foremost experts on inclusive hiring and diversity issues in the NFL, particularly in matters of coaching and front-office opportunities. It would be disappointing, Duru said, if some clubs succumb to the wrongheaded narrative that diversity makes organizations weaker.

“My grandest hope is that individual clubs are not impacted in their thinking by this national narrative – this absurd narrative – that by casting a wide net and thinking intentionally about equity and inclusion, somehow that means you’re not thinking about excellence,” said Duru, the author of the definitive book on the creation of the Rooney Rule, Advancing The Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL.

“It’s a fallacy. But it’s a fallacy that has gained some traction. And, yes, I am worried. And I’m really hoping that that NFL clubs that have openings don’t fall into that. Because if they do, it’s going to be a challenging year, obviously, for people of color.”

For NFL employees of color eager to climb the career ladder, the league’s rampant nepotism presents a constant challenge – especially in the coaching ranks.

It’s no secret: NFL coaches hire their sons, their mentors’ sons, their friends’ sons and their sons’ friends. In fact, many of the league’s prominent coaching families, through their extended connections, control a large portion of NFL hiring.

To be sure, some of the league’s employees of color have benefited from their family ties in the game, too. But because people of color – mainly Black people – were prohibited from occupying top-tier positions in management for the overwhelming majority of NFL history, the numbers disproportionately favor their white counterparts. Of course, that doesn’t mean whites who have an easier path to NFL jobs are necessarily unqualified – it just means they have an advantage.

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson, who engineered the team’s impressive turnaround this season, has referenced his unconventional journey, noting he did not come from a famous “coaching dynasty” or a prominent, high-profile coaching tree. Factor in that relatively few coaches of color get a boost from their family ties, Duru said, and then imagine how much harder the climb is for them.

“The general point is that if you’re not a part of one of these families, or close to one of these families, you’re at disadvantage – even Ben Johnson acknowledged that,” Duru said. “Ben Johnson is not a coach of color, but even he suggested he was [once] at a disadvantage because he’s not part of one of these families.

“When you think about the Black community in the NFL, yes, there are a handful of Black head coaches in the league. But we’re talking about a community that only goes back [about 40 years, when Art Shell in 1989 became the first Black head coach of the modern era]. The NFL is over 100 years old [it was founded in 1920]. For over 80 percent of the NFL’s life, there hasn’t been an opportunity for Black coaches to build up these family trees that would allow them to gain this traction that these other folks have because of their family trees.”

Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who is Afro Latino, is part of the most successful coaching tree of the Super Bowl era: the Bill Parcells-Bill Belichick tree. In three seasons as Miami’s head coach, Flores went 24-25 with two winning seasons.

Flores, who sued the NFL after the Dolphins fired him, has interviewed for head coaching vacancies in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. On Wednesday, Flores re-signed with the Vikings, but contract language permits him to leave if he is offered a head coaching position.

Then there’s Vance Joseph of the Denver Broncos. On Sunday, the team’s defensive play-caller will try to help Denver defeat the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. The Raiders are believed to be seriously considering Joseph, according to league sources involved with hiring.

Duru hopes that by the end of the cycle, coaches of color will have reason to be optimistic about what occurred.

“With this many head coaching opportunities available in this cycle, it would be unfortunate if the numbers fell below what the numbers were going into this season,” Duru said. “It would be very unfortunate.”

Despite modest gains over the last three-plus decades, Black coaches are still fighting for seats at the table. Amid so much change, they’re hoping to add more.

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