Head coach hiring for the 2024 NFL season is already complete; as of Thursday, February 1, all eight league positions had been filled.
The Steelers, who will play four of the eight clubs with new head coaches this season, will have ample opportunity to see the new coaches from this hiring cycle in 2024. These four teams play the Los Angeles Chargers at home and the Atlanta Falcons, Las Vegas Raiders, and Washington Commanders on the road.
It’s interesting to note that none of these four head coaches have experience coaching in the NFL, despite the fact that they will all be fresh faces on their teams.
The new head coaches the Steelers will be facing in 2024 are shown here.
Jim Harbaugh, who has coached the Michigan Wolverines for the past nine seasons and led them to an 89-25 record in the Big Ten, garnered media attention when he was named the new head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. This season, the team won the College Football Playoff National Championship. The San Francisco 49ers, who finished as a top-10 defense in terms of yards per game allowed and points scored, had head coach Jim Harbaugh for four seasons. With running back Frank Gore at the center and offensive coordinator Greg Roman, the 49ers also had one of the league’s top rushing offenses during that time. Could a reunion between Harbaugh and Roman be imminent? We’ll find out in time.
The Atlanta Falcons opted to hire Raheem Morris as their head coach in an interesting turn of events. Morris worked as the interim head coach for the Falcons just back in the 2020 season after they fired now-Commanders head coach Dan Quinn. That wasn’t his first go-around as a head coach either, having started his head coaching career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It’s January 14th, 2012. We’re at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. With 14 seconds to play, down three, and facing a third down, the 49ers need a score to keep their playoff hopes alive – without needing to roll the dice in overtime. The Saints meanwhile can end this here with a takeaway and head to the NFC Championship Game themselves. To understand how we got here and to appreciate everything this moment represents, we need to rewind.
Over the course of three and a half seasons, Morris’ overall record as a head coach is 21-38. Positively, the Falcons still lack a franchise quarterback, but at least their offense will have elite players like tight end Kyle Pitts, wide receiver Drake London, and running back Bijan Robinson. We’ll see how it turns out because the Falcons also made a lot of defensive improvements in free agency the previous season.
In the meantime, Antonio Pierce, a former linebackers coach, was hired by the Las Vegas Raiders. Just after Week 8 of the previous season, when it was revealed that they had fired head coach Josh McDaniels, Pierce—an internal candidate—was elevated to the position of interim head coach. This once-laughable club will be one to watch going ahead thanks to his defensive acumen. The Raiders defense took the league by storm starting in Week 9 with an average of 16 points per game allowed and a total of 30 sacks, good for third place.
Dan Quinn, who has served as the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive coordinator for the previous three seasons, was chosen by the Washington Commanders, who were the penultimate team to decide on their next head coach. Quinn was the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 2015 until his firing in 2020 following a 0–5 start. His greatest seasons were in 2016 and 2017, when the Falcons finished with a 21-11 record overall, led by Raheem Morris and a supporting cast that included Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur, Mike McDaniel, and others at different times.
Despite being a defensive coach, Quinn’s teams have a history of being pass-heavy; in four of his six seasons, they have placed in the top eight in pass attempts and the top eight in passing yards. Although his coaching staff has not yet been revealed, there have been rumors that Chip Kelly, who serves as his offensive coordinator, may return to the NFL.
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