The Raiders have kicked off their second round of head coaching interviews.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter has completed his second interview with the team. The Raiders have interviewed 14 candidates thus far, although two of them — Kevin Stefanski and Jeff Hafley — have been hired by other teams.
Hafley was on the list of second interviews with Las Vegas, but his agreement with Miami leaves Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero as the only other reported candidate set to meet with the team again.
The Ravens and Browns have also scheduled second interviews with Minter, so the Chargers may be looking for a new defensive coordinator in the near future.
Curt Cignetti has come a long way, in a short time.
In only two years of big-time college football — at a previously small-time Big Ten program — Cignetti has climbed to the top of the mountain. The question now becomes whether he’ll try to climb the same mountain again, or whether he’ll look for a new mountain.
Cignetti has recently said he’s “not an NFL guy.” There’s nothing like a giant bag of cash to change a guy’s mind, however.
The first question is whether one of the six NFL teams currently looking for a head coach will make the call.
If it doesn’t happen now, it never will. Cignetti is 64. He has no NFL experience. But what he has done in such a short time at Indiana can’t be ignored.
Owners are looking for quick fixes. Has there ever been a quicker fix than what Cignetti did in Bloomington?
It won’t be cheap, either to buy out his contract ($15 million) or to hire him. He’s in line to get upward of $13 million per year in a place where he’ll likely be able to stay as long as he wants. Although it’s far from easy to keep winning national championships, the money is there to be consistently competitive (thanks in part to alumni like Mark Cuban).
Regardless, Cignetti has proven himself time and again. From IUP to Elon to James Madison to Indiana, the former West Virginia quarterback, whose father (Frank Cignetti Sr.) bridged the gap in Morgantown between Bobby Bowden and Don Nehlen, has seen his ship come in. Will an NFL owner now sidle up with a superyacht?
If an NFL team looking for a coach believes Cignetti could be the answer, and if the owner is willing to write the check to make it happen, why not make the call? Plenty of teams could do a lot worse.
Plenty of teams have. And history tells us that, in the current cycle, plenty of teams will.
Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter remains in the mix for several head coaching openings.
Jeff Zrebiec of TheAthletic.com reports that Minter is expected to have a second interview with the Ravens this week. Minter had a virtual interview with the team last week and would have an in-person meeting this time around.
Minter is also slated for second interviews with the Browns and Raiders after completing his second season as the coordinator for the Chargers. Minter has also been a defensive coordinator under Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and he was on John Harbaugh’s Ravens staff earlier in his career.
Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver and Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady are others who have advanced to the second round of the search process in Baltimore.
Before the 2026 coaching carousel exploded from two to 10 vacancies, the thinking was that first-time head coaches would have a hard time getting any of the available jobs.
So far, the four jobs that have been filled have gone to candidates who have previously been head coaches: Giants coach John Harbaugh (18 years with the Ravens), Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski (six years with the Browns), Titans coach Robert Saleh (three-plus years with the Jets), and Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley (four years at Boston College).
Six jobs remain open — Raiders, Browns, Cardinals, Ravens, Steelers, and Bills. Each will need to decide whether the preference is to hire someone who has been a head coach before, or whether to make the projection that a career assistant will be able to step into one of the 32 NFL head-coaching jobs.
It is a fundamentally different assignment. The head coach trades Xs and Os for the big-picture challenge of running a team, of communicating with a full locker room of pro athletes, of dealing with the media, and of properly delegating tasks to people who can be trusted to accomplish them.
Former head coaches who have gotten interviews in the current cycle include Sean McDermott, Mike McCarthy, Brian Daboll, Mike McDaniel, Jonathan Gannon, Jason Garrett, and Raheem Morris. Although some college coaches were lurking, it’s currently believed none will make the leap to the next level.
With so many jobs open, it’s likely at least one will be a first-time head coach. For now, however, they’re 0-4. It remains to be seen how many of the 10 total positions will be filled by someone who has never before been a head coach.
The catch rule has become a problem for the NFL, all over again. And it could (if not should) become a topic for discussion in the looming offseason conversations regarding potential tweaks to the rules.
At least one head coach plans to advocate for a careful examination of the various controversial catch rulings from the 2025 season, with the goal of asking questions and obtaining clarity as to what is and isn’t a catch.
There are three current problems with the catch rule, in our view.
First, the league focuses too heavily on taking a third step to complete the process of making a catch. Even though the rulebook expressly lists other ways to perform an “act common to the game” (extend the ball forward, take an additional step, avoid or ward off an opponent, or have possession long enough to do any of those things) after securing possession and getting both feet down, the league has inexplicably made the third act all about taking a third step.
Second, the league created two different standards in defending controversial rulings from key games. On December 7, an interception in the Steelers-Ravens game was reversed to a catch by Aaron Rodgers based on reasoning (as articulated by NFL V.P. of instant replay Mark Butterworth) that cannot be reconciled with the failure to do a full replay review (presumably involving Butterworth) of the key overtime interception in the Bills-Broncos playoff game.
Said Butterworth in a pool report regarding the Rodgers catch: “The offensive player had control of the ball and as he was going to the ground, there was a hand in there, but he never lost control of the ball and then his knees hit the ground in control. So therefore, by rule, he is down by contact with control of the ball.”
Here’s the real issue that needs to be resolved, even if it means that the league has no choice but to admit that one of the two rulings was wrong — does the requirement to maintain possession when going to the ground not apply if a player is down by contact with possession of the ball? Under the Butterworth standard, it doesn’t. Under the outcome of the Bills-Broncos play, it does.
Third, and this one is broader than the catch rule: How does replay work? Who makes the decision(s)? And what is the standard for activating a full-blown review, in lieu of the “Orwellian” involvement of expedited replay assistance?
The threshold question is whether the league cares enough to spend the time and effort necessary to raise and resolve these issues. It should. The integrity of the game resides in the margins, and the most critical line the NFL must clearly draw relates to when, where, and how a catch has, or hasn’t, been made.
