The NFL’s 2026 coaching cycle is nearly complete, and if all goes as expected, after Super Bowl 60, the Las Vegas Raiders will make the last hire: Seattle Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak. This would mark the 10th hire of the cycle, and with that, it once again reveals an issue in the league that has been present for a while.
Of the 10 new HCs, none of the Black HC candidates were hired, and a former NFL LB explains why he thinks this has happened again.
Emmanuel Acho Breaks Down Why the NFL Has Only Three Black Head Coaches
Last season, in another busy coaching cycle, out of the 7 HC hires, only one, Aaron Glenn, was Black. Now, looking around the NFL, after Mike Tomlin stepped down, and Mike McDaniel and Raheem Morris were fired, the NFL only has three Black HCs (Glenn with the New York Jets, DeMeco Ryans with the Houston Texans, and Todd Bowles with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
With how many talented Black coaches there are throughout the league, having only three HCs in charge does not make sense, and former Philadelphia Eagles LB Emmanuel Acho believes there is a clear reason this issue is happening.
On “Speakeasy Talk Show,” this is what Acho presented: “10 HCs were hired in this cycle, none were Black Americans. How does that happen? Because a majority of coaches that are hired were offensive coordinators, but the majority of offensive coordinators are former quarterbacks.
And until you get those Black quarterbacks that retire and become Black OCs, then they will become the head coaches. Of the 21 offensive coordinator vacancies that are about to be filled, only 2 are black coaches: 1 is Eric Bienemy, the other is Mike McDaniel.”
.@EmmanuelAcho thoroughly breaks down the black coaching disparity in the NFL pic.twitter.com/PBMJqmXLsg
— Speakeasy (@speakeasytlkshw) February 2, 2026
“So the pipeline to becoming a head coach in the National Football League is an offensive coordinator, the pipeline to becoming an offensive coordinator is typically a former quarterback, and we just now have a Black quarterback pipeline. So when people try to say there are systemic issues both in society. or systemic issues in the NFL, these are the systems we are talking about.”
Since the rise of Sean McVay with the Los Angeles Rams, finding that next great young offensive coach to take over the league has been the goal of every team with an HC opening.
As Acho mentions, because there are few Black OCs in the NFL, there are also few Black HCs. This may be something we see in the future, but for now, it does not exist because the pipeline from QB to OC to HC is not in place.
