Chicago, New England and Jacksonville were all fighting for draft positioning at this time a year ago, with the three teams finishing off seasons that left them at the bottom of the NFL standings.
The disappointing 2024 season led to coaching changes that have paid immediate dividends, with the Bears, Patriots and Jaguars all clinching playoff berths this week in the first year of the new regimes.
The work done by Ben Johnson in Chicago, Mike Vrabel in New England and Liam Coen in Jacksonville is impressive but far from unprecedented. This marked the 20th straight season that at least one team made the playoffs with a coach in his first year on the job, according to Sportradar.
In that span, there has been an average of just over two first-year coaches who have led their teams to the postseason each year, with the three this season tied for the second most.
There were an NFL-record five first-year coaches who made the playoffs in 2022 when Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell, Miami’s Mike McDaniel, the New York Giants’ Brian Daboll, Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles and Jacksonville’s Doug Pederson all did it.