John Harbaugh is out as the Baltimore Ravens head coach in the biggest NFL coaching decision of the cycle, just days after his team missed out on the playoffs with a last-second loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Harbaugh has been in charge in Baltimore since 2008, coaching 18 seasons and winning the Super Bowl in 2012, and is now expected to be the No 1 target of multiple teams looking for a new head coach.
The decision was first revealed by NFL insider Adam Schefter, with general manager Eric DeCosta informing the team of the decision on Tuesday evening.
Only Mike Tomlin – whose Steelers beat the Ravens to the playoffs on Sunday Night Football – is a longer-serving coach than Harbaugh, who leaves Baltimore with a 180-113 record.
Multiple teams are now set to battle it out for Harbaugh, including the New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans, all of whom have fired their head coach after a disastrous season.
The Falcons, Cardinals and Browns are also without a head coach, giving Harbaugh, 63, a wide variety of options heading into the offseason.
It could all have been extremely different for Harbaugh and the Ravens had kicker Tyler Loop made his last-second field goal against the Steelers on Sunday night.
Baltimore was two points down in the shootout against Pittsburgh, with a win taking them into the Wild Card round of the playoffs, but the rookie inexplicably missed and sealed his team’s fate.
It is the first time since 2021 that Baltimore has missed the playoffs, and only the second time since 2017.
Harbaugh leaves the team with one Super Bowl ring – beating his brother Jim’s San Francisco 49ers in 2012.
In 2023, the Ravens lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game, but that is the closest they had come to repeating their past success.
This season, the Ravens began with a dismal 1-5 record, but climbed back into the race for the AFC North at 8-8 and could have won the title on Sunday.
It was reported earlier in the week that his job security was ‘up in the air’ and it seems the team’s failure to make the playoffs sealed his fate.
