The ride is moving noticeably slower as of Wednesday morning. As the NFL's coaching carousel continues to spin while ten different franchises attempt to better themselves with a leadership change, another potential door has closed with the news that the Cleveland Browns decided on Todd Monken to serve as head coach. The reports leave only two openings for coaches hoping for such a rare opportunity to serve as the ship's captain.
Matt Nagy was never tied to the Browns' job posting via interview or rumor, so Cleveland as an off-the-table possibility isn't a big deal on its own. However, the crunch does mean that others who were tied to Cleveland are now looking at the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders with even greater interest. The options have been whittled down to two.
Nagy began the coaching cycle with plenty of reasons to believe he was charting a course back to head coaching waters after first earning such a post with the Chicago Bears from 2018 to 2021. Starting in October, immediately after the Tennessee Titans fired Brian Callahan in Week 5, Nagy was a rumored favorite, and that momentum continued to pick up well past Black Monday—the day that several coaches get the axe following the official conclusion of the regular season each year.
The Browns' decision to hire Todd Monken brings the coaching carousel even closer to a halt, and Matt Nagy is still on the outside looking in.
Nagy was listed as one of three finalists to be the Titans HC, but as it turns out, none of those reports were true. Two other finalists—Kevin Stefanski and Jeff Hafley—were hired by other teams instead—the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins, respectively—and Tennessee general manager Mike Borgonzi pivoted to Robert Saleh as his choice instead.
Three other teams were "in" on Nagy with varied interest, from rumored ties to official interviews, but nothing has panned out. The Baltimore Ravens replaced John Harbaugh with Jesse Minter. The Cardinals were reportedly going to call Nagy, but nothing official has been announced even as Arizona has zeroed in on the likes of L.A. Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur or Seattle Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak.
The Las Vegas Raiders are the other team still looking for their head coach, and they've actually interviewed Nagy. That's his best bet at this point, but there's typically a decent amount of smoke at this point in a hiring process that points toward an obvious candidate. Nagy has none of that working for him this late in the hiring cycle. Things can change, but any sort of head coaching offer feels like a long shot at this stage.
As for Kansas City, where Nagy has spent the last four years on Andy Reid's staff, mostly as the Chiefs' offensive coordinator, they have already replaced him with Eric Bieniemy. That leaves Nagy out in the cold in case he was hoping for his longtime home to provide him a safety net of sorts. Nothing is officially done and the carousel is still in motion, but Todd Monken's hire indicates the opportunities are drying up, and Nagy is likely going to be left on the outside looking in.