The 2025 NFL season hasn’t started yet, but already some coaches are feeling the heat. A mixture of underperformance, failing to break through the conference ceiling, and a general feeling of needing an upgrade has left several coaches entering this season without a lot of safety.
Over on The Feed, we had some great discussion going on who will be the first NFL coach to get fired this season. Let’s dive into some of the answers and add a few more of our own. Here’s how we would rank the hot seat coaches coming into the 2025-26 year, by who is most likely to be the first one fired in-season.
Remember, readers can start their own discussions on The Feed, too. It’s SB Nation’s new message board. We might even turn your post into an article.
Morris inherited a mess when he arrived in Atlanta, but the objective of him joining the Falcons was to get this team to the next level — and that didn’t happen. If he’s unable to get this team over .500 in his second year there’s a very real chance the organization cuts bait and tries again.
It would be woefully unfair to only give Morris two seasons to right the ship, but this is a team that believes it should be contending for the NFC South Championship at the very least. Anything less than that is a failure, and this team has had enough of that in its past.
The biggest thing working against Sean McDermott is the unknown. The Bills have consistently been one of the best teams in the AFC, and breaking up that streak is a hard pill to swallow — but deep down there has to be a gnawing feeling that maybe someone else could get this team over the playoff hump and into the Super Bowl.
While I think it would take until the playoffs, some of you think a slow start could accelerate the process.
McDermott is a solid coach, but there’s nothing truly special about him. Buffalo needs to navigate this decision carefully, because nobody wants to be like the Eagles when they fired Andy Reid in a similar situation. That said, there’s only so many losses to the Chiefs in the playoffs this team can weather with a new stadium being built in Buffalo, and the hype for this team being to the moon once more.
We’ve officially moved past the “Mike McDaniel wunderkind” era, and have more or less hit “maybe he’s just a dork?” The Dolphins struggles’ were inexorably tied to Tua Tagovailoa’s injury last season, but the tea leaves have been swirling in such a way that indicates the veneer has worn off with McDaniel and the locker room is losing faith in him.
As one of commenters pointed out, the team also lacks depth at a lot of positions — which is a real worry.
Couple that with the mercurial nature of Tyreek Hill and there’s a very real chance this season could explode in Miami, and not in the good way. While the organization signed McDaniel to a multi-year extension in 2024, you’re only as good as your last season in football. It’s one thing to lose out to the Bills in the AFC East, but if ownership sees the Patriots catch up (or pass) the Dolphins in 2025 someone will need to answer for it.
This season is the all-in gambit for both Brian Daboll and GM Joe Schoen. This is a market which doesn’t necessarily demand excellence, but it asks for a hell of a lot better than what the Giants have put on the field.
Everything hinges on Jaxson Dart this year. He will take over the starting job eventually, because we’ve all seen Russell Wilson at this point in his career — with Daboll and Shoen going out on a limb by making Dart a first round pick. It will require not necessarily making the playoffs or even contending, but showing the fanbase (and ownership) that the football team is headed in the right direction.
That makes Daboll’s future shaky, especially with the numerous holes this roster has.
Tomlin might be the best problem solver in the NFL when it comes to personnel changes, but it feels like this year he might have bitten off more than he can chew — or, more aptly, had too much shoved in his face. Aaron Rodgers was a desperation signing, and he doesn’t have what it takes to turn this team into a contender based on what we saw with the Jets.
More importantly for Tomlin, it’s just starting to feel like this era is coming to a close, similarly to Bill Cowher resigning following an 8-8 season in 2006. Pittsburgh has been languishing in the “very good, but not great” category for years now, and it might be time to shake things up.
It’s tempting to put both of the Eagles ex-coordinators on this list (along with Arizona’s Jonathan Gannon), but I think Steichen is the one in a worse spot right now. Not only has he failed to get the Colts to take the next step, but his staff’s inability to develop Anthony Richardson is a huge knock against them.
Steichen isn’t a bad coach, but he seems lost. At this point he’s just shuffling around deck chairs trying to look busy, and has benefitted a lot from playing in football’s weakest division. That changes in 2025 with the Jaguars poised to take a big step forward, and the Titans hoping Cam Ward can be the franchise QB they’ve been waiting for. If both those things happen then the Colts could find themselves struggling around the cellar of the AFC South, which would lead to a change.
Sooner or later putting Zac Taylor on the hot seat will end up being correct. Year in, year out the Bengals coach has managed to dodge the axe — which could speak more to the organization’s unwillingness to pay a new coach, rather than a vote of confidence in his abilities.
Far too often Taylor has mismanaged this team, both in-game and outside of it. He enters this season with a .470 winning record as a head coach, and this comes despite having a Top 3 quarterback and Top 3 wide receiver. It’s just not good enough. There is no reason this team should waste the prime of Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase with Taylor as head coach unless the Bengals break through and manage to have a playoff run which extends beyond the Wild Card round.
This is where the rubber meets the road, and right now Taylor’s seat is the hottest in the NFL.
