The Falcons completed an interview with Antonio Pierce for their head coach position, the team announced Friday.
Pierce currently holds a studio analyst role with CBS after having spent the 2024 season as the head coach for the Raiders.
He spent two seasons as the Raiders’ linebackers coach, including a stint as interim head coach in 2023, earning the full-time job. The Raiders fired him after one season as head coach.
Pierce spent four years coaching at Arizona State, serving as the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator (2018-19), associate head coach/co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach/recruiting coordinator (2020) and associate head coach/defensive coordinator/recruiting coordinator (2021).
Pierce played linebacker in the NFL for nine seasons with Washington (2001-04) and the Giants (2005-09), winning Super Bowl XLII with the Giants.
The Falcons have also completed head coach interviews with Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde, former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, former Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter.
Falcons Clips
Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady will call the team’s plays against the Broncos on Saturday and then he’ll pivot to other matters on Sunday.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Brady will interview with the Ravens and the Falcons for their head coaching vacancies. Those are the first reported interviews for Brady in this year’s cycle.
Brady joined the Bills as their quarterbacks coach in 2022 and moved up to the coordinator job after Ken Dorsey was fired during the 2023 season. He was previously the offensive coordinator for the Panthers and was the passing game coordinator for LSU when they won the national title for the 2019 season.
If the Bills win on Saturday, Brady won’t be available for a second interview with either team until after the conference championships.
No, nothing is done until it’s done. And a deal between the Giants and coach John Harbaugh is not done.
Here’s the latest, from Adam Schefter of ESPN.com: “Giants and John Harbaugh still are working through the details of their contract, and it is not yet done, per sources. The final issues aren’t over money; it’s over language. ‘There’s no derailment and nothing has changed,’ one source said. Talks continue, and the two sides are working to get it across the finish line.”
“Language” is very, very broad. Unless they’re arguing over whether it will be written in English or Spanish, the delay can be about anything other than money.
It could be control over the roster. Over the draft. It could relate to whether Harbaugh will report to G.M. Joe Schoen, or whether Schoen will report to him. Or whether they’ll both report directly to ownership.
It could be over (as we recently learned) whether Harbaugh can resign and immediately go to work for a new team without compensation to the Giants. Or maybe Harbaugh is taking a stand against the boilerplate requirement that any/all disputes be resolved in the NFL’s secret, rigged, kangaroo court of arbitration presided over by the Commissioner.
Really, haggling over language could be about anything. The only thing we know it isn’t about it money.
At some point, they need to get it done. At some point, if one side or the other doesn’t bend or offer a win-win compromise, an impasse will arise.
Either way, Harbaugh has the leverage. The cat is out of the bag. If the Giants don’t seal the deal, they’ll be perceived as losers. So, if Harbaugh holds the line on whatever the issue is (or issues are), the Giants have no choice but to blink.
The news hit on Wednesday night that the Giants and John Harbaugh are working on a deal to make the former Ravens coach the next coach of New York’s NFC team.
As of Friday morning, there has been no announcement.
Here’s what Tom Pelissero of NFL Network said on Friday morning, via AwfulAnnouncing.com: “This is leaning toward John Harbaugh becoming the next Giants head coach, but was not and is not a foregone conclusion. Those talks continue, very well could come to a conclusion in the next few hours.”
So what’s going on? Obviously, nothing is ever done until it’s done. But Pelissero seems to be hinting that someone could be keeping this particular deal from being done.
Of the flurry of Wednesday night reports, none characterize the ink as being on the page. Fortunately, sports media has evolved past the year or two from a decade or so ago during which reporters often declared a given move to be a “95-percent” certainty (after far more than five percent of those propositions failed to come to fruition). Still, the notion that the Harbaugh arrangement may fall apart is enough to make Giants fans a little nervous.
And to make Titans and Falcons fans a little intrigued. Along with the fans of any other team that is perhaps making a Hail Mary throw in an effort to wrest Harbaugh away from the Giants.
Matt Ryan was working at CBS before becoming the president of football for the Falcons and one of his former colleagues will be talking to the team about a similar move on Friday.
Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports that former Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce will interview for the team’s head coaching vacancy. Pierce was fired by the Raiders after his first full season as their head coach and joined CBS for the 2025 season.
Pierce took over the Raiders as an interim coach when Josh McDaniels was fired in 2023 and earned the permanent position after going 5-4 the rest of the way. The Raiders only won four games during the 2024 season, however, and Pierce was dispatched.
Pierce also interviewed with the Giants, but the team he helped to a Super Bowl title as a player is set to hire John Harbaugh as their next head coach.
Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter has completed another head coaching interview.
The Falcons announced that they have completed an interview with Minter on Thursday. The Falcons also interviewed Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley earlier in the day.
Minter has led the Chargers defense to a pair of top-10 finishes in points allowed in his two seasons with the club. The Chargers made the playoffs both years and that success has made Minter a popular figure in this year’s head coaching searches. He’s also interviewing with the Dolphins on Thursday and has met with the Cardinals, Raiders, Ravens, and Titans.
In addition to Minter and Hafley, the Falcons have interviewed former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde, Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, and Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver.
Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is a popular name in this year’s head coaching cycle and he finished an interview with a team on Thursday.
The Falcons announced the completion of an interview with Hafley. Hafley has already interviewed with the Dolphins and Titans and the Raiders, Cardinals and Steelers have also expressed interest in him.
Hafley has spent the last two years with the Packers and the team finished sixth and 11th in points allowed during his time on the staff. He was the head coach at Boston College before going to Green Bay and Falcons president of football Matt Ryan is an alum of the school.
The Falcons have also interviewed former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde, Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, and Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver.
Plenty of names have emerged in the 11 days since the coaching carousel started to spin on high speed. One has yet to surface.
In July, Jon Gruden said he’s “working hard to maybe get one more shot” at coaching. If any of the eight teams with current vacancies are interested in Gruden, they’re keeping things very quiet.
Gruden last coached in 2021. He resigned after someone made multiple (apparently strategic) leaks of inappropriate emails sent while he worked at ESPN. He quickly sued the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell for engineering his ouster.
Gruden’s lawsuit has been successful, so far. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that year that his case is not required to be resolved by the NFL’s secret, rigged, kangaroo court of arbitration. That will only continue to make him persona non grata at 345 Park Avenue. Indeed, the NFL still omits the episode featuring the 2002 Buccaneers (and Gruden) from its annual July 4 America’s Game marathon.
So that’s the real question. Will a team do business with a coach with whom the NFL desires to do no business whatsoever? As one source explained it within the past year to PFT, the emails themselves are not believed to be an impediment to Gruden’s ability to resume coaching. The roadblock, if any, is the lawsuit.
Then there’s the fact that Gruden, now 62, has a regular-season record of 117-112, only five games above .500. Since winning the Super Bowl in 2002, Gruden has two one-and-done playoff appearances. (Interim coach Rich Bisaccia led the 2021 Raiders to the playoffs after Gruden stepped down, exiting in the wild-card round against the Bengals.)
The question, all things considered, is whether the juice is worth the squeeze. Even without the complication created by his lawsuit (which shouldn’t be an issue, but will be), does a team think Gruden can recapture the magic from years gone by?
Given that he’s currently unattached to any NFL team, every team with a vacancy is free to talk to him, formally or informally, publicly or privately. If anyone currently is, no one is talking about it.
And here’s the bottom line. With 25 percent of the NFL’s head-coaching jobs still open, this seems to be Gruden’s last, best shot at getting another job.
The most nagging question for some is whether the Raiders would do it. If so, it would be a call made by owner Mark Davis, possibly over the objection of Tom Brady — especially since it was Gruden (according to Davis) who objected to signing Brady when he became a free agent in 2020.
John Harbaugh left the Giants building after interviewing with the club on Wednesday, but it sounds like he’ll be back soon.
According to a late-night Wednesday report from Adam Schefter of ESPN, Harbaugh and the Giants are working to finalize a deal to make him the franchise’s next head coach. Barring a setback, the two sides are expected to come to an agreement.
Schefter adds that the two sides have not yet finalized the deal with Harbaugh’s contract still being negotiated. But without any setbacks, Schefter reports, “Harbaugh is ready to accept the Giants’ deal and the Giants are expected to hire him as soon as possible.”
New York is able to make a hire immediately, having satisfied the Rooney Rule by holding two in-person interviews with minority candidates.
Harbaugh was expected to meet with the Titans and Falcons later this week. But there was always a chance for the Giants to make a strong enough impression to get those interviews off of Harbaugh’s agenda.
Officials from Tennessee were reportedly set to fly to Baltimore on Thursday morning to meet with Harbaugh.
Harbaugh’s interview with the Giants on Wednesday reportedly included spending time with quarterback Jaxson Dart.
Fired by the Ravens last week after an 8-9 finish in 2025, Harbaugh accumulated a 180-113 regular-season record with the Ravens and a 13-11 postseason record in 18 years with the franchise. He coached the Ravens to their second Lombardi Trophy, defeating the 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII to cap the 2012 season.
With Matt Ryan leaving CBS for the Falcons, a Falcons (for now) player will be filling his seat.
CBS has announced that quarterback Kirk Cousins will join The NFL Today for the next two weekends of the postseason.
Last year, Cousins joined ESPN for the divisional round of the playoffs. He had been scheduled to appear on NBC’s Football Night in America during Atlanta’s 2024 bye week, but he later canceled.
Cousins has a future in media, if he wants it. For now, he’s in line to get paid yet again as a free agent in March. A recent tweak to his contract sets the stage for the Falcons to release him on March 11 or 12, putting him on the market in the early days of free agency.
In 2024, Cousins signed a four-year deal with the Falcons, which included $100 million in guarantees. A month later, the Falcons used the eighth overall pick in the draft on quarterback Michael Penix Jr.
Cousins was eventually benched late in 2024. After Penix suffered a season-ending ACL tear in 2025, Cousins started eight games, capping the year with a four-game winning streak, which included a pair of prime-time wins.
