After going 8-9 during the 2025 season and missing the NFL playoffs after a Week 18 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Baltimore Ravens fired John Harbaugh.
The 63-year-old coach won a Super Bowl and went 180-113 (.614) during his time in Baltimore, but the Ravens have not returned to the Super Bowl since the 2012 season. Harbaugh is now the most notable coach available in the 2025 hiring cycle.
After practice on Friday, Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton was asked if he was surprised by the Harbaugh news.
“Yes, it’s funny you say that. Nothing surprises me,” Payton said. “There’s always that… Every year there’s that, ‘I didn’t see that one.’ When you have a guy — and I worked with John in Philadelphia — when you’re at some place that long, that’s hard to do in this league. Those guys, when I say those guys, ownership, and John, and that collective group, have won a lot of games. They were our Achilles heel for a number of years. Then we finally won a game where their kicker missed an extra point. [You] just reach out with a text. That one was a little surprising.”
Payton and Harbaugh overlapped with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1998. Harbaugh was Philly’s special teams coordinator and Payton was the team’s quarterbacks coach. Payton later became head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 2006 and Harbaugh became the Ravens’ head coach in 2008. Payton now coaches in Denver and Harbaugh’s set to fill one of the NFL’s openings this offseason.
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This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: NFL news: Sean Payton reacts to John Harbaugh being fired
