As soon as John Harbaugh was fired last week, all fans of the Cleveland Browns thought the same thing: “Could it really happen?”
Harbaugh and his family have strong Northeast Ohio roots, with fond memories of going to baseball and football games in Cleveland and cheering for the Browns. There was hope among the fanbase, given his ties to the area and fondness of coordinator Jim Schwartz, that Harbaugh would be in play for the Browns during their head coach search.
But while the Browns, per insider Mary Kay Cabot, were among the initial teams to reach out to Harbaugh’s camp, they definitely weren’t the most aggressive. That would be the New York Giants, who went all-in on Harbaugh as their No. 1 choice and were finalizing a deal to make him their head coach as of late Wednesday night, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
John Harbaugh and the Giants are working to finalize an agreement to make him New York’s next head coach and, barring a setback, a deal is expected, multiple sources tell ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 15, 2026
The deal is not final and contract numbers still are being negotiated. “There still is a lot to work… pic.twitter.com/CQmSljImf9
Harbaugh’s track record is about as solid as it gets. He won a Super Bowl in Baltimore and made the playoffs in 12 of his 18 seasons. His 180-113 record overall, and 13-11 mark in the playoffs, is elite.
He’s also now a 63-year-old coach who demands a ton of sway and power within the organization. While the Browns would love to taste the kind of stability their rival Ravens enjoyed under Harbaugh over the last two decades, him leaving the AFC North and landing with the Giants is probably best for both sides.
The Browns were never really in the John Harbaugh race
Cleveland never formally requested an interview with Harbaugh, but the average age of their current 10-candidate interview list is 42.4. If you remove the two 59-year-olds, Jim Schwartz and Todd Monken, that number drops to 38.3.
Half of the Browns’ hiring pool is age 39 or younger, and one candidate who’s picking up some steam, Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski, just turned 30 on Monday; if hired by Cleveland, he’d become the youngest head coach in NFL history by 11 months over Sean McVay.
Harbaugh built a proven winner in Baltimore, but was he the right man to execute a major offensive rebuild, with an unsettled QB room and sketchy salary cap situation? The brutally honest answer to that question is no — and Harbaugh himself knew it; why else would he pass on setting up an interview with his hometown team to schedule meetings with the Giants, Titans, and Falcons?
The Browns would be better off with a coach like Udinski, the offensive guru who could help transform that side of the football in short order while essentially living at the facility and resetting the locker room culture.
The Bring Harbaugh Home to Ohio chatter was fun while it lasted, but it never really gained any significant headway. The Browns are better off finding their own version of Harbaugh or Mike Tomln — the young coach who sets the standard and sticks with franchise for a sustained run.
That's something Browns fans haven’t experienced since the 1950s.