Matt Miller's Scouting Notebook: Top Candidates for NFL Head Coach & General Manager Openings

You’re going to want to bookmark this post. Or at least “like” the tweet it’s promoted in. The reason for that is because there are expected to be a high number of head coach and general manager firings this year and this post will be our sole list of the top candidates as curated from conversations with agents, decision-makers, and our own analysis of the prospective coaches and general managers.

Already we’ve seen head coaching jobs open in Las Vegas and Jacksonville. There are strong rumors that the general manager job with the New York Giants if effectively open. More will be coming soon with the NFL voting to amend the hiring rules and allow teams with open jobs to begin interviewing candidates the last two weeks of the regular season.

For the first time in NFL history, there is an actual league-backed incentive to fire your coach early.

The new rule states that if the head coach position is considered “open”—meaning the head coach is no longer employed or has been notified that he will be let go following the season—the club may begin interviewing candidates on January 2nd.

As with all things NFL, teams will jump the gun on this. But nevertheless, it adds another layer of intrigue to the final two weeks of the regular season—which could be great news for assistant coaches whose teams make deep playoff runs. And that could benefit three minority candidates who are near the top of our list of candidates—Eric Bieniemy, Todd Bowles and Byron Leftwich.

Today’s Scouting Notebook is a heavy one. With Urban Meyer out in Jacksonville, players declaring left-and-right for the 2022 NFL draft, and college football’s signing day dominating the news cycle there is a lot to get to.

We’ll start with the top head coaching and general manager candidates.