Atlanta Falcons Jumped the Gun on John Harbaugh Interview Announcement

So, is nobody going to acknowledge that the Atlanta Falcons jumped the gun on their announcement that they interviewed John Harbaugh?

Harbaugh, 63, was fired by the Baltimore Ravens last week and his phone instantly went nuclear with more interest than he can handle, apparently.

The Super Bowl winner has taken his sweet time coordinating interviews with interested teams, but some details have started to leak.

Most notably, on Monday, the Falcons announced on social media that they completed an interview with Harbaugh.

But here’s the thing.

A few hours later, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported that Harbaugh hadn’t done any formal interviews, but he has spoken with teams to hear their recruitment pitches and explore interview coordinating.

Here’s the other thing.

In the game of leverage, Harbaugh has all of it.

After the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mike Tomlin broke up after 19 years on Tuesday afternoon, the NFL has ballooned to nine head coach openings.

Everybody in the AFC North fired their coach except the Cincinnati Bengals, who retained Zac Taylor.

Even with all of these openings, Harbaugh remains the prize.

According to reports, New York Giants executive Chris Mara, brother of owner John Mara, met with Harbaugh at his house on Sunday for an informal meeting.

The NFL is waiting with baited breath to find out where Harbaugh will land.

Teams are chasing this guy, and rightfully so.

The Ravens were only under .500 three times in all of his years leading them.

So it feels a bit foolish that the Falcons would trip on themselves like this.

Look, Harbaugh is about winning Super Bowl titles. He likely doesn’t care about social media formalities.

But hasn’t everything about this last week felt like Harbaugh needed everybody to know that he’s controlling this process? He's been fired for a week and is still telling the universe that he's only done informal meetings.

At 63, he would almost certainly best fit within an organization that has a bit of talent and could be ready to compete sooner than later. The good news for Atlanta is that they fit the bill. They invested a first-round pick into Michael Penix Jr. and have premium young talent on both sides of the ball.

It seems like the premature post might not matter too much as the Falcons will likely land an interview with Harbaugh later this week.

Longtime NFL insider Dianna Russini reported that the Falcons, Giants and Tennessee Titans “appear” to be the frontrunners.

But he still hasn’t even met with anyone yet. It’s hard to gauge exactly how this will play out. But it will certainly slow the 2026 head coach hiring cycle.