The Baltimore Ravens’ playoff hopes were dashed as rookie kicker Tyler Loop’s 44-yard field goal went wide right as time expired on the final game of the regular season. Baltimore fell to AFC North rival Pittsburgh 26-24 and will miss out on the postseason for just the second time in eight seasons.
That loss also marked the end of the John Harbaugh tenure in Baltimore.
Baltimore fired Harbaugh today, ending an 18-year partnership that included the franchise’s second Super Bowl title in 2012. He was the second-longest tenured coach in the NFL in 2025. Coincidentally, he was behind the coach on the other side of that nail-biter on Sunday, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin.
The Ravens become the seventh NFL franchise looking for a new head coach for 2026. Baltimore joins Atlanta, Arizona, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Tennessee and the New York Giants in searching for a new coach this offseason.
Harbaugh now joins a pool of coaching candidates to fill those positions. He offers more head coaching experience than any other candidate in this hiring cycle.
Only 13 other coaches in NFL history have more wins than Harbaugh’s 180. That should make him an intriguing candidate for teams looking for experience at the position. Here’s where he could land in 2026:
John Harbaugh landing spots
New York Giants
New York has gone through four head coaches since parting ways with Tom Coughlin a decade ago. The Giants have one year with double-digit wins in that span (2016) and one playoff win in 2022. This is a franchise with a young quarterback and talent at other key positions (left tackle, edge rusher) looking for stability. He’d be a significant pivot from their prior head coaches in a good way as a proven winner.
Atlanta Falcons
Atlanta went with hot coordinator candidates for each of their last two hires and those choices produced five sub-0.500 seasons in a row. The defense improved in 2025 and there’s lots of talent on offense with the likes of Drake London and Bijan Robinson. This isn’t a franchise that needs a massive overhaul. That makes Atlanta a better fit for Harbaugh; he wouldn’t need to start from scratch and build things up quite as much as other openings.
Arizona Cardinals
Arizona has a big question mark at quarterback and will need some upgrades on both sides of the ball, but there’s enough talent to think the Cardinals aren’t too far away from contending. Trey McBride, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson are a very good pass-catching trio and Paris Johnson is a solid starting left tackle. Harbaugh could help find the right fit by adding a veteran quarterback as a young talent works his way in, similar to what the Ravens did with Lamar Jackson and Joe Flacco. There are some intriguing pieces on defense as well.
We opted for those three over Cleveland, Las Vegas and Tennessee for different reasons. Cleveland and Las Vegas may both need a longer-scale rebuild than Harbaugh may be interested in. Tennessee has a solid young quarterback but not much around him at this point.
