The NFL coaching carousel might be winding down as teams are slowly finding the head coaches they want. However, it seems that of ten head coaching opportunities that have opened up after this season, none are going to black coaches. ESPN’s Adam Schefter has revealed the projected final head coaching hires after this season, and from the looks of things, no African American head coach will be getting hired.
Former Indianapolis Colts star safety and NFL commentator Darius Butler pointed this problem out, suggesting that there is a “pipeline problem” as head coaches of African American descent do not get as much opportunities as ones from the Caucasian kind.
“10 vacancies. Not 1 Black hire. 1 Black OC. We got a pipeline problem!,” he posted on X.
Only Robert Saleh, who is of Lebanese descent, is the only non-white hire as head coach this year, going from being the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator to being the Tennessee Titans head coach for 2026. He is now the fourth Arab-American to hold a head coaching position, though this is not his first stint as a head coach, having been the head coach of the New York Jets previously.
How Many African American Coaches Are Left in the NFL For the 2026 Season?
Currently, there is only one vacancy remaining after the Arizona Cardinals announced Mike LeFleur as their new head coach. That is the Las Vegas Raiders, and they might not be hiring an African American head coach as they are expected to hire Klint Kubiak as their new head coach. This really hammers home that none of the African American coaches still looking for a job have gotten hired as an NFL head coach.
This means that there will only be three African American head coaches left in the NFL for 2026. Only Todd Bowles (Tampa Bay Buccaneers). Aaron Glenn (New York Jets) and DeMeco Ryan (Houston Texans) are the only three black coaches left.
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