NFL head coaching candidates: Ben Johnson, Bobby Slowik lead list for 2025 openings

Nearly a quarter of NFL teams entered the 2024 season with a new coach at the helm. Atlanta, Carolina, Las Vegas, the Los Angeles Chargers, New England, Seattle, Tennessee, and Washington all entered Week 1 with a different coach than the start of 2023.

Even with that much turnover, there's already been two coaching changes in-season with the Jets firing Robert Saleh after Week 5 and the Saints firing Dennis Allen after Week 9.

Saleh was the first but will likely not be the last. Over the last six seasons, there have been an average of seven head coach openings league-wide. There are multiple candidates on the hot seat already.

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Recent history says a half-dozen more could lose their job. Here are current NFL coordinators who could be prime candidates to fill those openings.

NFL coordinators who could become coaches in 2025

Ben Johnson, Detroit Lions offensive coordinator

Johnson becoming a head coach looked all but certain after the Lions' 12-5 campaign last year ended in the franchise's first NFC championship game appearance in three decades.

But Johnson stayed put and continued to evolve. The Lions are the league's top-scoring offense and quarterback Jared Goff is an MVP contender, something few would've guessed when Johnson arrived in Detroit. The Lions are a very efficient offense in addition to their raw numbers, at No. 6 in the league in expected points added (EPA) per rush at 0.06 and sitting fourth in overall EPA per play (0.12) entering Week 10's Sunday games.

Johnson was reportedly interested in the Bears' head coaching position – even though it wasn't vacant – last offseason. A coordinator with his reputation likely has the ability to be pickier about fits than any other on this list.

Todd Monken, Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator

Monken arrived in Baltimore last season to overhaul a stagnant offense. In his first year, the Ravens finished fourth in points and sixth in yards and quarterback Lamar Jackson won his second MVP award.

This season, Jackson and the offense have taken another step forward under Monken's direction. It took them seven games to surpass 500 total yards on offense twice – a feat they did once in all of 2023. They rank first in the league in EPA per play at 0.22 and also lead the NFL in EPA per pass at 0.4. For perspective, they were at 0.07 and 0.09 in those metrics last season.

Monken has done enough to warrant more interest once again after the Chargers and Panthers interviewed him last offseason.

Aaron Glenn, Detroit Lions defensive coordinator

Glenn has finally coached the Lions into a top-five scoring unit in his tenure as they've steadily progressed year-over-year. In 2021, the Lions were 29th in yards and 31st in points allowed. In 2022, they were 32nd and 28th. In 2023, they jumped up to 19th and 23rd.

This year, Detroit is a top-five scoring unit for the first time since 2014. That's without star defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson for the last two games. They're also third in the league in takeaways with 16.

He's also incredibly well-liked among players. An NFL Players Association survey last season put Glenn as the No. 1 coordinator in the league.

Jesse Minter, Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator

Looking for the next Mike Macdonald? Minter may fit that bill. The man who replaced Macdonald at Michigan following the now-Seahawks coach's departure for Baltimore is in his first year coaching at the NFL level. He came with Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh from Ann Arbor to Los Angeles.

Though he's in his first season, he's had a massive impact already. The Chargers entered Week 10 first in scoring defense, 11th in pass defense, and eighth in rush defense in the NFL. Last year, Los Angeles was 24th, 30th, and 17th in those categories. Minter's made that improvement with few changes in personnel.

It may be a year early before Minter gets more interest but he'll deservedly get interviews in the next coaching cycle.

Joe Brady, Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator

Brady was the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach for one of the best offenses in modern college football history; The 2019 LSU Tigers had a Heisman-winning quarterback in Joe Burrow and future NFL star wideouts Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson.

A pitstop in Carolina preceded his current time with Buffalo, starting as quarterbacks coach in 2022. That move paid off when he took over as offensive coordinator last season and helped the Bills win six of their final seven games.

This year, Buffalo's improved under his watch to become one of the most efficient offenses in the league. The Bills enter Week 10 third in the NFL in EPA per play at 0.18, behind only Washington (0.21) and Baltimore.

His tenure's been marked by a development of the run game to compliment the passing game potential of quarterback Josh Allen. That will be appealing to teams looking for offensive-minded head coaches.

Bobby Slowik, Houston Texans offensive coordinator

Slowik was already interviewing with teams for open positions last offseason after his first season as a coordinator. Slowik is from the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree and spent six seasons in San Francisco before moving with DeMeco Ryans to Houston.

Houston's on track to be a top-15 passing offense again under Slowik this year, even with injuries among the wide receivers. The running game has improved in 2024 and the Texans rank 11th in the league in rushing TDs heading into Week 10's Sunday matchups.

How much of that is due to offseason acquisition Joe Mixon versus Slowik's scheme is hard to determine. Still, it'd be a shock for him not to get at least a couple of interviews again in the next hiring cycle.

Liam Coen, Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator

Coen is a bit of a wild card in this for the casual NFL fan. He's from the Sean McVay coaching tree with two stints in Los Angeles: 2018-2020 as a wide receivers coach and assistant quarterbacks coach and 2022 as the Rams' offensive coordinator. Broken up between those two stints are a season with the Kentucky Wildcats as their offensive coordinator.

Coen returned to the NFL this season but, for the first time, somewhere other than Los Angeles. The results are promising; Tampa Bay is one of the top passing offenses in the NFL and quarterback Baker Mayfield ranks second in the league in touchdown passes entering Week 10 (23). The Buccaneers are third in success percentage – a metric designed to measure how success NFL teams are on a play-by-play basis – at 48.1% behind Kansas City (50.4%), Baltimore (50.3%), and Washington (48.5%).

Coen had a top-tier wide receiver duo to work with when healthy in Chris Godwin and Mike Evans. But those same wideouts and quarterback were 27th in success percentage last year under Dave Canales, who is now the head coach in Carolina.

NFL coordinators who could become coaches again in 2025

Kliff Kingsbury, Washington Commanders offensive coordinator

Few people – if any – predicted Kingsbury would be the man to coach the Commanders' offense with a rookie quarterback into the second-most efficient offense in the league through nine weeks. His tenure in Arizona was marked by lack of evolution on offense in-season as well as lack of development of younger players.

If Kingsbury can keep this up throughout the regular season, that could go a long way towards him getting a second chance as an NFL head coach.

Brian Flores, Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator

Flores has a pending race discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and multiple teams, including the Dolphins, Giants, Texans and Broncos, that could keep him from getting interest for coaching vacancies.

On the field, it's hard to argue with the results. Minnesota's defense with Flores at the helm has been one of the biggest surprises of the season. With an offseason to fill out that unit with more players of his choice, they've taken a huge jump into one of the tougher opponents for offenses to handle.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ben Johnson, Bobby Slowik among top NFL head coaching candidates