Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers want to hire Jim Harbaugh from Michigan.

Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers want to hire Jim Harbaugh from Michigan.

Jim Harbaugh hasn’t been shy about wanting to go back to the NFL, and both the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers are interested in hiring the current head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.

Harbaugh and Michigan, which was ranked #2, made it to the College Football Playoff, but they lost in the semifinals. TCU beat Michigan, 51–45, in an exciting shootout where both teams scored 96 points.

Since taking over as Michigan’s head coach in 2015, Harbaugh has a record of 74-25. In the early 1980s, when Harbaugh was a very good quarterback in high school, legendary Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler came looking for him. Between 1982 and 1986, he was the quarterback for Michigan. In the 1987 NFL Draft, the Chicago Bears picked Harbaugh with the last pick of the first round.

Harbaugh was a quarterback in the NFL for 14 years. He played for the Bears, the Indianapolis Colts, the San Diego Chargers, and the Baltimore Ravens. As a starting quarterback, he has a record of 66-74. In 1995, when he played for the Colts, he went to the Pro Bowl and won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award. When Harbaugh’s time as a quarterback was over, he switched to coaching.

Harbaugh did well at college and in the NFL.

Harbaugh’s first job as a head coach was with the college team San Diego in 2004. In three years, he led the Toreros to a 29–6 record. In 2007, he became the head coach at Stanford. He coached for four years in Palo Alto before moving to the San Francisco 49ers in 2011.

Harbaugh led the 49ers to the Super Bowl XLVII in 2012, where they played against his brother, John Harbaugh. Since 2008, John Harbaugh has been in charge of the Baltimore Ravens. The Harbaugh Bowl was a funny name for Super Bowl XLVII, which John won by beating his brother Jim.

As head coach of the 49ers, Harbaugh had a record of 44-19-1 and took the team to the NFC Championship game three years in a row.

In 2015, Harbaugh went back to his old school, Michigan. He was named the AP College Football Coach of the Year in 2021 for leading Michigan to the first of back-to-back Big Ten Championships. Harbaugh was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2022.

Under Harbaugh, Michigan made it to the College Football Playoff the last two years, but both times they lost in the semifinals.

Harbaugh has already talked to the Carolina Panthers.

After a 1–4 start, the Carolina Panthers fired head coach Matt Rhule. Rhule was a great coach for Baylor and Temple in college, but he never got his footing in the NFL. Rhule’s record with the Panthers was 11–27, and he was fired after five games of his third season.

Steve Wilks is the Panthers’ interim head coach for the rest of the season. Since taking over, he has a 5-6 record. Wilks is one of the possible candidates for head coach for next season.

The Panthers started the season with odds of +13000 to win Super Bowl LVII. For most of the season, they were long shots.

David Tepper, who owns the Panthers and is worth a lot of money, talked to Harbaugh to see if he was interested in becoming their next head coach. It wasn’t a formal interview, which the Panthers can’t do until next week when the season is over.

Charlotte’s Queen City News said that Harbaugh really wanted to play for the Panthers next season.

Harbaugh just signed a new contract with Michigan that lasts for five years and is worth $36.7 million. He is under contract until 2026, and it would cost $3 million to get out of it.

Harbaugh talked to the Minnesota Vikings and the Las Vegas Raiders during the offseason before last season. Josh McDaniels, the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots, was hired by the Raiders instead. Kevin O’Connell was hired by the Vikings (offensive coordinator from the Los Angeles Rams).

How about Mile High Harbaugh?

After firing Nathaniel Hackett, the Denver Broncos also need a new head coach. Hackett was a first-year head coach who didn’t even make it through a full season before the Broncos fired him after a terrible loss to the Green Bay Packers on Christmas. This season, he had a record of 4–11, and he showed how inexperienced he was by making several mistakes in the first game.

Hackett was the offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. The Broncos only hired him to get Aaron Rodgers to play quarterback for them. The Broncos thought that hiring Rodgers’ favorite OC would tip the scales in their favor, but they were wrong. In the end, Rodgers took advantage of the Broncos’ interest in him to get a $200 million contract extension with the Packers.

The Broncos went with Plan B and made a trade with the Seattle Seahawks to get Russell Wilson. After Wilson had a bad season, the Seahawks benefited from the unfair trade. Hackett and Wilson could never agree on anything, and the results were terrible. This season, the Broncos average only 16 points per game, which is the least of any NFL team.

The front office of the Broncos gave hints that they want to be aggressive in their search for a head coach. Harbaugh is at the top of their list of possible replacements for Hackett. Sean Payton and Dan Quinn are also in the running to be the next Broncos coach.

In the offseason, many people thought the Broncos would win the Super Bowl, especially after they got Wilson from the Seahawks. During the preseason, the Broncos’ chances of winning Super Bowl LVII were as low as +1800. As their season slowly went wrong, their chances of making it to the Super Bowl got worse.