NFL coaches by age: Ranking the youngest and oldest head coaches

There’s been a changing of the guard in the NFL.

The league’s two oldest coaches are moving on from teams they’ve won championships with, as Bill Belichick is out after 24 seasons with the New England Patriots and Pete Carroll is out after 14 seasons with the Seattle Seahawks.

The Patriots wasted little time naming Belichick’s successor, and their new head coach is 34 years younger than the six-time Super Bowl champion. The change is even more stark in Seattle, where the new head coach is 36 years younger than his predecessor.

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How young is the NFL’s youngest head coach? Here’s a look at NFL coaches by age.

Who is the NFL’s youngest head coach?

Jerod Mayo earned several new titles when he was elevated with the Patriots, and he lost one of them in a matter of weeks.

The former Patriots linebacker and one-time Super Bowl champion is the new head coach in New England. Not only is he Belichick’s successor and the first Black head coach in Patriots history, but at 37 years old, he became the youngest head coach in football.

Mayo is just 30 days younger than Sean McVay, who was the NFL’s youngest head coach in 2023. McVay became the youngest head coach in league history when the Los Angeles Rams hired him in 2017. He has gone on to make two Super Bowl appearances and took home the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl LVI.

McVay joked about Mayo overtaking him as the NFL's youngest head coach at a press conference earlier this month.

"There's a lot of other guys that, depending upon where you draw the line of what you consider youthful,” McVay said. “I was certainly really young. Thirty [years old] was young. It's crazy when you think back. Sometimes when I look at Mr. Kroenke, I say, 'What the hell were you thinking, man?"

Less than three weeks after Mayo was hired, the Seahawks made Mike Macdonald the new youngest head coach in the NFL. The Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator will head to Seattle at 36 years old.

Macdonald, Mayo and McVay are joined by the Minnesota Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell (38), Indianapolis Colts’ Shane Steichen (38), Houston Texans’ DeMeco Ryans (39) and Tennessee Titans’ Brian Callahan (39) as current NFL head coaches under 40 years old.

Who is the NFL’s oldest head coach?

With Belichick, 71, and Carroll, 72, currently out of head coaching jobs, Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs is the league’s oldest coach at age 65. He is joined by the Baltimore Ravens’ John Harbaugh (61), Dallas Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy (60), Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Todd Bowles (60), Los Angeles Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh (60) and Denver Broncos’ Sean Payton (60) in the 60-and-older club.