Early Buzz Has Cardinals on the Outside of John Harbaugh Race

The Arizona Cardinals might need to look elsewhere for their next head coach.

Dec 27, 2025; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh walks off the field after the game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Kayla Wolf-Imagn Images | Kayla Wolf-Imagn Images

ARIZONA — The Arizona Cardinals continue the search for their next head coach following the dismissal of Jonathan Gannon, but it doesn't appear as if the organization is truly in the race for one of the cycle's biggest names.

John Harbaugh would be an ideal candidate for the Cardinals considering his pedigree and resume coaching the Baltimore Ravens for nearly the past two decades.

However, according to NFL insider Tom Pelissero, Arizona's on the outside looking in for his coaching talents:

"Former Ravens coach John Harbaugh continues to gather information on potential destinations, and the expectation is he’ll interview with the Giants, Titans and Falcons by the end of the week. Other teams remain interested. But those three appear to have the inside track," said Pelissero.

The Cardinals reportedly reached out to Harbaugh and had preliminary phone conversations with him.

Aside from Harbuagh, the Cardinals have reportedly requested the following 13 names for their coaching vacancy as of publish of this article, which includes all of:

Patrick Brown, Matt Burke, Jeff Hafley, Vance Joseph, Klint Kubiak, Mike LaFleur, Jesse Minter, Raheem Morris, Matt Nagy, Robert Saleh, Chris Shula, Arthur Smith and Anthony Weaver.

Vance Joseph is expected to get a "strong look" at the Cardinals job. You can read more about that here.

Harbaugh, according to Tony Grossi, has the following list of demands for his next spot:

"I talked to a league insider who speculates on what he's heard about Harbaugh's prerequisites to even be interested in your job: $20 million a year. $10 million assistant coach budget. Total authority over the roster. Also would like to select his own guy to lean on, personnel guy."

That just doesn't seem like a realistic option for the Cardinals at this point in time.

Harbaugh would have been nice, and so too would Mike Tomlin — though he's expected to pursue something in broadcasting.

The Cardinals, simply put, will likely have to make a pristine offer to a top candidate or take a lottery ticket on an unproven character.

"I think with the rules in place by the NFL, this is not a quick process, nor do we want it to be," Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort said after the team fired Gannon.

"This is an important decision that Michael [Bidwill] and I are going to undertake, and so we are going to be thorough. We're going to look at a wide range of candidates, and because of the NFL rules that they stand with [in terms of] timing of when we can talk to guys that are still in the playoffs.

"This is not a process that's going to be quick. So a timeline, no, but we're going to be ready, and we're going to be aggressive with our search, and we're going to be thorough with our search. And when we find the right guy, we're going to be aggressive to go get him."