Remember when it was unusual for an NFL team to fire its head coach in the middle of the season? The thinking then was that an NFL season is not long enough for a coaching change to impact results, the way coaching changes in the NBA or MLB can, with those leagues playing so many more games.

That’s all shifted as the cacophony that surrounds each failing regime grows louder, amplified by a news cycle on loop and a social media brew of hyperbole and impatience. Every loss is a crisis, every poor decision is a catastrophe and even the most stoic owners get swept up.

That’s part of why there were already three head coaching jobs open with six weeks remaining in the regular season. Another reason: team owners want a jump on the hiring cycle. With rules in place governing when franchises can talk to coaches who are part of playoff teams and the requirement for any candidate pool to include diversity, owners with vacancies want to have time to start vetting prospects and, in the case of candidates who are currently unemployed, perhaps even begin the interviews. The result is that the hiring cycle — which was once a blizzard of activity squeezed into a few days before the playoffs even began — has now stretched out over many weeks. That’s not a bad thing. Slowing down almost certainly means newer faces have a chance to enter the mix, and avoiding a frenzy might — we can only hope — help prevent teams from making bad decisions that, as in other areas of life, are the result of a rush to judgment.

There were eight head-coaching vacancies at the end of the 2023 season — representing a quarter of the entire league — and it was a good cycle for diversity. Four of the jobs (in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Carolina, New England) went to minority candidates. League officials, though, remain concerned about the dearth of offensive coordinators of color, because that is the most popular pipeline that produces head coaches.

This hiring cycle has already featured one bombshell development. When Bill Belichick accepted the job at the University of North Carolina, it removed the biggest and most intriguing name from the NFL pool. Would he have had suitors after being passed over last offseason, following his departure from New England? Which job would have appealed to him most? We’ll never know. But Belichick’s absence means that one of his former players, former Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel, could be the most hotly pursued among candidates who have already been on the job. Among the newbies, Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who drew plenty of interest last offseason, will likely be the most sought after again.

Here is our very subjective ranking of the openings. It will be updated as jobs are filled.