About a half-hour into his news conference last Tuesday, Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti learned that Mike Tomlin had stepped down as the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ head coach and was asked a question that would’ve seemed ludicrous a few months ago.
Would the Ravens consider Tomlin for their head coach?
“Holy s—, wouldn’t that be awesome?” Bisciotti said with a smile. “Only if John [Harbaugh] takes the Pittsburgh job.”
While two of the NFL’s biggest rivals didn’t flip coaches — Harbaugh signed with the New York Giants Saturday on a five-year deal and Tomlin is not expected to coach elsewhere in 2026 — this has already become one of the most surprising offseasons in the AFC North because of the uncharacteristic turnover. When you factor in Kevin Stefanski getting fired in Cleveland, this division lost three head coaches who combined for 43 years of experience, two Super Bowl titles and three NFL Coach of the Year awards.
The AFC North, which had long been known as much for its stability as its intense rivalries, could undergo more changes in the upcoming months, signaling one of the most uncertain periods for the division.
AFC North reporters Jamison Hensley (Baltimore), Ben Baby (Cincinnati), Daniel Oyefusi (Cleveland) and Brooke Pryor (Pittsburgh) address the impact of new coaches, the situations at quarterback and what it will take for each team to win the division.
How might a new coach (or keeping the incumbent) affect each team?
Baby: The Bengals are banking on stability being the determining factor in a division filled with upheaval. Not only is coach Zac Taylor the only returning coach in the AFC North, but he’s one of six in the league who have been with their current clubs sinc 2019.
Three of the four coaches who preceded him and Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur — Kansas City’s Andy Reid, the Los Angeles Rams‘ Sean McVay and San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan — have won at least a conference championship. So has Taylor. Cincinnati knows Taylor has been able to lead a team to the Super Bowl. And it’s hopeful that an improved roster and a healthy quarterback can be enough for Taylor to do it again.
Hensley: The Ravens are hoping a new coach can create a spark in the postseason. Since Lamar Jackson became the starting quarterback in 2018, Baltimore has the NFL’s third-most wins in the regular season (86) but only three playoff victories.
Though it has been 18 years since the Ravens have had a new coach, they know how a coaching change can immediately change a team’s fortune. Baltimore advanced to the AFC Championship Game in three of Harbaugh’s first five seasons, including a Super Bowl title in 2012. Bisciotti recently joked, “Well, it took [Brian] Billick two years [to win a Super Bowl] and John five [years] … maybe I’ll give this guy six [years].”
Oyefusi: Browns general manager Andrew Berry, who is leading Cleveland’s head coaching search, said the team won’t have any “preconceived notions,” and owner Jimmy Haslam said the team wouldn’t favor expertise on either side of the ball.
But with a young roster on offense, whomever is hired to take the Cleveland job will have their work cut out for them on that side of the ball; the Browns ranked 31st in scoring (16.4). They’ll have to establish a schematic vision — which will drive personnel decisions in an offseason that will be catered to upgrading the offense — and will also have a say in what direction the franchise goes at the quarterback position.
Pryor: Considering Tomlin’s outsized influence on the Steelers’ franchise, it’s impossible to overstate how much the next head coach will affect the team. He’ll be the organization’s fourth head coach since 1969, meaning the Steelers are making this hire for the long haul — and also with the hope the new leader can win right away.
“I’m not going to say, well, we’re going to take a couple of years to figure this out and then we’ll try to compete,” team president Art Rooney II said a day after Tomlin resigned. “I think you try every year. I mean, as I said, some years you have the horses to really get there. Some years you don’t, but you try every year.”
Tomlin also had a significant role not only as a locker room leader and an on-field decision-maker, but he also had a big say in the team’s roster construction and talent evaluation. The next head coach probably won’t have the same amount of power — at least not right away — but he could wind up with a larger role than some of his counterparts across the league.
On a scale of 1-10, how stable is the quarterback position?
Baby: 8.75. Joe Burrow is under contract until 2029 and is one of the league’s highest-paid quarterbacks. When he’s healthy, he’s also one of the NFL’s best.
But Burrow has sat out 16 games in the past three years with two major injuries. That’s one part of the conversation that keeps his number from being a rock-solid 10. The other revolves around his contentment with the club. The Bengals have failed to build a good-enough roster to get Cincinnati back into the postseason. Cincinnati has built around the passing attack, but the rest of the team hasn’t been good enough. And Burrow has made two things clear: Losing in recent years has not been fun, and the game isn’t giving him the joy it once did.
Hensley: It feels like a perfect 10 for Jackson and the Ravens. How many other quarterbacks were invited by the owner to attend the final round of head coach interviews? Bisciotti made it clear the Ravens are all-in with Jackson when he said last week, “I want him to be my quarterback.”
Baltimore is looking for a new deal to reduce Jackson’s $74.5 million salary cap figure in 2026 before free agency in March, and it’ll probably take making him the league’s highest paid player at over $60 million per season to do so. A new deal would probably keep Jackson with the Ravens for at least another three seasons. The only concern is the durability of Jackson, who has sat out 15 games because of injury over the past five years.
Oyefusi: 3. Cleveland used a pair of draft picks on quarterbacks last year but isn’t that much closer to solving the franchise’s decades-long search for an answer. The Total QBRs for Dillon Gabriel (31.2) and Shedeur Sanders (18.9) in their rookie seasons ranked 37th and 38th, respectively, out of 38 quarterbacks who made at least six starts in 2025.
Deshaun Watson, who didn’t play in the 2025 season as he rehabbed an Achilles injury, is expected to be on the roster in 2026 but has played in only 19 games in Cleveland because of suspension and injuries. His QBR since making his debut (33.1) would rank last among qualified passers. Berry said that the Browns will “do our work on the quarterback market” this offseason.
1:13
Why the Steelers need a young quarterback
The “Get Up” crew discusses the rebuild required in Pittsburgh following the departure of Mike Tomlin.
Pryor: 1. Is zero an answer? Because the Steelers have one of the most tenuous quarterback situations in the league entering 2026. Not only is Aaron Rodgers‘ one-year contract set to expire, but it also seems increasingly likely that he won’t return with Tomlin’s departure. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Sunday that the Steelers are open to Rodgers returning, but it’s unlikely to happen because of Tomlin’s resignation.
That leaves the Steelers with three quarterbacks under contract: Mason Rudolph, Skylar Thompson and 2025 sixth-round draft pick Will Howard. The former Ohio State national champion showed some promise during his rookie training camp, but it still seems unlikely he’s the next franchise signal-caller. The Steelers have the No. 21 pick in the upcoming draft, but that quarterback class appears to be lackluster, as does the free agency class and potential trade market. Thus, the Steelers’ best option might be to go with another bridge quarterback until they can get to a more promising 2027 quarterback draft class.
To win the AFC North in 2026, the team I cover needs to ….
Baby: Add defensive playmakers. When the Bengals were good in 2021 and 2022, they had Pro Bowl (and All-Pro) caliber players throughout the defense. Jessie Bates III, DJ Reader, Mike Hilton and Trey Hendrickson were just a few of the names on a group that anchored Cincinnati’s success in back-to-back AFC North championships.
Whether it has been coaching or players, the Bengals haven’t found the right mix to replace those defensive players. Bengals executive Duke Tobin has acknowledged the need to plug those holes this offseason.
Hensley: Be more aggressive in free agency. The Ravens are typically among the teams that don’t make big splashes in March because they believe the draft is the best way to build a team. It’s a philosophy that has made them one of the winningest franchises over the past 25 years.
But Baltimore has plenty of needs — including upgrading the offensive line and adding pass-rushers — while entering a critical championship window with Jackson, who turned 29 in January. All of this would hinge on lowering Jackson’s cap number, which would increase Baltimore’s cap spending.
“A deal with Lamar would give us the ability to be more active, to re-sign some more players on the team and to potentially go after a couple of big-ticket items,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said.
Oyefusi: Produce a competent offense. The Browns’ defense — one Tomlin recently called the best unit in the division — was good enough to reach the playoffs, ranking third in success rate (60.9%) this season, behind only the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans.
Cleveland’s offense, though, ranked last in success rate (35.5%). In what was a relative down season for the AFC North, it’s not hard to envision an alternate world in which the Browns were competing for the division title with an average offense.
Pryor: Get a quarterback. The Steelers haven’t had a reliable signal-caller since Ben Roethlisberger retired, and they need one to compete in the postseason. Though the defense was inconsistent for most of the season, the Steelers’ unit figured things out, and the offense was the team’s undoing in the wild-card loss to the Texans.
Expecting to win games with a top-tier defensive unit and a middling quarterback just doesn’t work in the modern NFL.
What is an overlooked X factor heading into the offseason?
Baby: Cincinnati needs to get more out of the offense. Defenses are geared toward shutting down Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, and the Bengals haven’t found an answer to create more big plays through the air.
Joe Burrow ranked 23rd among qualified quarterbacks in passing plays of 15 or more yards, per ESPN Research. That is behind Joe Flacco, who was 22nd in that category and would have been slightly higher were it not for his numbers with the Cleveland Browns earlier in the season. That is a puzzle the Bengals have not solved for years. Finding easy offensive wins could make things easier on the entire team.
Hensley: Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum. Even though centers are typically not X factors, the Ravens can’t afford to lose Linderbaum, who came in at No. 2 overall on ESPN’s early 2026 free agent rankings. With his awareness and toughness, Linderbaum is a foundational player for a Baltimore offensive line that needs to upgrade at both guard positions. Re-signing Linderbaum will be key to keeping Jackson healthy.
In the four seasons in which Jackson has started at least 14 games, he has won two NFL MVP awards (and nearly a third) and has led Baltimore to three AFC North titles.
Oyefusi: Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. He has led one of the NFL’s best defenses since arriving in Cleveland in 2023, and Haslam said he would “absolutely” like to keep him with the organization. The final decision, though, will be up to the new head coach, Berry said.
The Browns have interviewed Schwartz for their head coach opening, and he also is reportedly interviewing for the Ravens’ opening. Keeping Schwartz in some capacity — whether it be head coach or defensive coordinator — ensures that one of the NFL’s top defenses remains intact and could be an appealing selling point for an offense-minded candidate.
Pryor: What does Cameron Heyward‘s future hold? The soon-to-be 37-year-old has played some of the best football of his career in the past two seasons, but he has played 15 years in the league and all of them were with Tomlin. Heyward is set to enter the final year of his deal, but he doesn’t have any guaranteed money left on his contract.
Heyward has been a stalwart for the defensive line, but the team has developed more depth behind him in rookies Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black. A Heyward departure could save the Steelers $14.25 million in cap space.
What does the change do to the division rivalries?
Baby: It does reset Cincinnati’s relationship with the Ravens, in particular. The Bengals won the division in 2021 and 2022 before Baltimore took the crown in 2023 and 2024. Pittsburgh’s dramatic win against the Ravens in Week 18 ensured that no team won the division for the third straight year, a feat that still hasn’t occurred since the 2002 realignment. Baltimore has been the team Cincinnati has been focused on the past two years. But that will change in 2026.
Hensley: It won’t be the same initially without Harbaugh and Tomlin, who have overseen some of the most dramatic finishes in this Ravens-Steelers rivalry. They’ve had 30 one-score games, which are the most between two head coaches in NFL history, according to ESPN Research. But players such as Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton, who remembers watching Ray Lewis and Roethlisberger square off, understand the importance any time Baltimore and Pittsburgh play. There is a saying in Baltimore that you’re not officially a Raven until you beat the Steelers. For the first time in nearly two decades, this rite of passage will also apply to the Ravens head coach.
Oyefusi: No matter who is leading the Browns, the franchise will be forever linked to the Ravens; animosity still resides in an older Cleveland generation that remembers its beloved franchise leaving for Baltimore three decades ago. Connections can also be found with the Bengals; the Browns are named after legendary coach Paul Brown, who went on to land an expansion franchise in Cincinnati. And the Browns have been in the same division as the Steelers since 1950, so needless to say, that rivalry isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, even with new faces at head coach.
Pryor: Sure, Tomlin has been a driving force in the recent editions of the rivalry games, but because the Steelers have had so much historic success against the rest of the division, it’s hard to imagine the vitriol between the Steelers and the Ravens or the Steelers and the Browns could disappear.
It will, however, be interesting to see how the fan bases handle a more even playing field between the Browns and the Steelers with both teams set to have new head coaches. For years, the Steelers had the stability the Browns craved. Now, they’re both starting over.
