Coaching is a hard business, and doing it at the NFL level is the pinnacle.
An NFL head coach not only has to lead a complex operation on the gridiron, but he’s also essentially the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company.
In any case, every year we see the NFL season chew up a segment of its head coaches, the guys whose teams are not hacking it anymore, or have a string of humiliating losses that turn the fan base against them.
Let’s take a look at the season to come and see if we can identify 10 NFL coaches that will be fired before the end of the 2025 season.
Which NFL coaches are in the hot seat in the 2025 season?
Raheem Morris, Atlanta Falcons
Raheem Morris waited 14 years for his second head coaching shot. And unfortunately, he might not have much time to hang onto it.
Morris inherited a talented, if uneven, Falcons roster—and a major quarterback controversy centered around their big ticket man in Kirk Cousins and the second-year signal caller, Michael Penix Jr., who usurped him last year.
The biggest red flag about Morris’s actual performance thus far has been the details around game management, particularly the clock.
This was put on display in a brutal Week 17 collapse that played a major role in Atlanta missing the postseason. If Morris has more blunders beneath the national spotlight, we could see him pushed out and forced into a coordinator role elsewhere once again.
Shane Steichen, Indianapolis Colts
Shane Steichen inherited a rather murky situation in Indy, and to his credit, he managed to keep the Colts competitive in 2024, coaxing just enough moments of competence out of Anthony Richardson and whoever else ended up under center despite a deeply undercooked passing game.
Unfortunately, most of the goodwill earned from that overachieving first year has started to fade out.
And now, they are heading into the 2025 season without much to show for Steichen’s tenure—and with the organization’s decision to roll the dice on Daniel Jones—yes, that Daniel Jones—as a supposed stabilizer.
This isn’t about Steichen’s playbook.
X’s and O’s wise, he has done a good job.
It’s about optics, timing, and volatility. Jim Irsay’s patience is starting to wear thin, and in many ways, Steichen is simply on the wrong side of general manager Chris Ballard’s seemingly unlimited leash and incompetence.
Steichen’s not the problem. But NFL coaches in his spot rarely get the benefit of the doubt. He’s caught between a desperate front office and an erratic owner—two forces that tend to crush the middleman. Unless Richardson makes a second-year leap or Jones somehow adds value, the Colts may hit reset yet again—and Steichen’s probably the first piece moved off the board.
Mike McDaniel, Miami Dolphins
If 2025 brings more of the same that we’ve seen down in Miami since Mike McDaniel took over—injuries, late-season fadeouts, or playoff whimpers—McDaniel could join the long list of brilliant play-callers who never quite made the leap to a sustainable NFL head coach.
His vision of a high-powered, dynamic, and creative offense is clear. The results, less so… It is unfortunately starting to seem like he might be more of a one trick pony than anything else.
That trick, of course, is speed in space with Tua Tagovailoa pulling the trigger. But designing an offense to work only if your quarterback avoids any contact is not sustainable team-building—it’s football on eggshells.
The aforementioned injuries, of course, have been a huge issue for McDaniel… When Tua plays, McDaniel is 25-16. Without him, the Dolphins are ordinary. That’s the problem—and it is made more severe by his inability to schematically keep Tua out of harm’s way.
The reality is that at some point, the Dolphins have to evolve beyond the Tua tether… and if they can’t find a way to compete in a meaningful way in 2025—and the wheels come off midseason, don’t be shocked if McDaniel gets the boot.
Kellen Moore, New Orleans Saints
Kellen Moore has been one of the NFL’s favorite next-head-coach-in-waiting for what feels like half a decade… but now that he finally has the job, the context couldn’t be messier—and you have to think he’s kicking himself for not jumping at a different opportunity sooner.
The Saints are fresh off a turbulent season that saw Derek Carr ravaged by injuries yet again…
And now he’s announced his retirement unexpectedly, leaving Moore with a roster full of mismatched pieces and few clear solutions under center.
It’s not an ideal setup for a first-year coach trying to prove he’s more than just a young offensive mind with a good PR team.
Unless Moore can get immediate buy-in from a locker room in flux and get something tangible out of whoever ends up playing quarterback, this could end up being a one-year experiment that flames out fast. He’s the fresh face in a broken structure—and that’s a dangerous place to be.
Another case of the job coming too late and taking it at the wrong time.
Brian Schottenheimer, Dallas Cowboys
Here’s a hot take for you! Brian Schottenheimer is not going to even make a full NFL season as the Dallas Cowboys’ head coach.
That franchise has been spiraling of late and this is the season that everything flushes down the tubes entirely—and Schottenheimer will end up on the wrong side that.
Because let’s just be honest: Brian Schottenheimer wasn’t hired to be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. He was hired to be a convenient, controllable extension of Jerry Jones.
That’s not a knock on Schottenheimer’s decades of NFL experience, it is just a cold hard fact… because when your last offensive coordinator stint was as forgettable as Schottenheimer’s, it’s hard to justify this leap unless someone upstairs decided they wanted a yes-man.
That someone, of course, is Jones, who hasn’t truly empowered a strong-willed head coach since Bill Parcells.
Furthering the issue for Schottenheimer, the Cowboys aren’t exactly built to win now… but their owner doesn’t understand that. This team was wildly uncompetitive next year and Jones has deluded himself into thinking that this move can ascend the Cowboys back to forgotten glory.
But the more likely outcome is that they underperform… at least to his standards… Jones gets impatient, and Schottenheimer ends up getting the boot.
Brian Daboll, New York Giants
The Brian Daboll experience in New York has been a roller coaster, to say the least.
It’s not often a coach wins Coach of the Year and finds himself on the hot seat two NFL seasons later… but then again, it’s not often a team wins a playoff game with Daniel Jones only to immediately fall off a cliff after extending him.
Daboll’s first season looked like a miracle. The offense hid its limitations, the defense made just enough timely plays, and somehow the Giants stole a postseason win. But the last couple of years have made it all feel like less of a miracle and more of a mirage, as the Giants have been riddled with injuries, regression, and a quarterback situation that completely unraveled.
Now, heading into 2025, the Giants are rolling the dice with the three-headed monster of Jameis Winston, Russell Wilson, and Jaxson Dart and hoping for a lightning strike.
That wouldn’t be such a red flag if this weren’t also a referendum year for Daboll, who is simultaneously trying to reclaim play-calling duties and his reputation.
Winston or Wilson may start the season, but Daboll is betting big on the rookie. If Dart doesn’t flash early, or if the offense stumbles out of the gate again, the Giants could be in line for another overhaul. Daboll is a likable football guy. But likable doesn’t keep you employed forever in the NFL… the stakes are too high.
Brian Callahan, Tennessee Titans
On one hand, Brian Callahan was given a shot to be a head coach in Tennessee… The question is, though—did the situation he walked into give him a fair one?
Unfortunately for Callahan, Tennessee might not be capable of that.
The Titans are a team in transition—with one of the league’s most depleted rosters in 2024, they stumbled to a 3-14 finish and were often flat-out unwatchable.
They landed the No. 1 overall pick, which, of course, is a good thing, but on the other side of that coin is the reality that Callahan has to hit a home run with it—and fast.
Callahan is expected to usher in the Cam Ward era, and the pressure to get instant results is going to be immense. Never mind that Ward is raw or that the offensive line is still patchwork at best—Callahan is going to be asked to elevate it all immediately.
He may be a good NFL coach in the long run. After all, the guy is respected around the league, and his offensive system should be quarterback-friendly. But if Ward stumbles or the team looks just as disjointed as it did last year, it won’t matter.
The Titans’ rebuild needs a face. If Callahan can’t become that face quickly, he may end up a placeholder for the next regime.
Dave Canales, Carolina Panthers
While there were definitely signs of improvement down the stretch of the 2024 NFL season for Carolina, the Panthers still looked like a team light years away from relevance.
And while Young’s improvement in the back half of the season was a positive sign, the broader offensive picture remained erratic and toothless.
Now heading into the 2025 NFL season, the spotlight turns back to coach Canales. Owner, David Tepper, isn’t known for his patience or his good sense, for that matter… And with another full offseason to build out his vision, there won’t be many excuses left on the table.
This year is about progress. Measurable, real-deal progress.
If Young plateaus, or if the offense still can’t find its footing, Canales could quickly fall out of favor, especially if some of the other rebuilding teams start to flash. The room for error is razor thin in Carolina.
The Panthers gave him the keys, and now he has to prove he can drive the thing, but he’s doing it going uphill. If he can’t figure it out and the Panthers regress in any sort of significant way, then the tides could turn against Canales quickly.
Jonathan Gannon, Arizona Cardinals
After two seasons, Jonathan Gannon is the proud owner of a 12–22 record, and this Cardinals team still lacks a real identity.
The defense has improved in flashes, and the offense has occasionally shown some spark. Still, for every step forward there’s a step back—and with Kyler Murray now healthy and surrounded by more talent than he’s had in years past, expectations will be very real in 2025.
The Cardinals have one of the softer schedules in the league and a fan base itching to believe that this thing is finally turning around. If they don’t capitalize—if they’re still losing winnable games or Murray looks disconnected from the scheme—it’s going to fall squarely on Gannon.
This is one of the trappings of “cultural setting.” Eventually, people stop grading your tone and start grading your win-loss column.
Gannon has one last real shot to prove he’s more than a storyteller and that he can actually coach this NFL team to tangible results. If the Cardinals underwhelm again, it’s hard to see him getting another year.
Zac Taylor, Cincinnati Bengals
Zac Taylor is a tough one to pin down. He coached in a Super Bowl not that long ago, boasts one of the best quarterbacks on Earth, and has built a locker room that generally believes in him. But look a little closer, and the cracks start to show.
Through six seasons, Taylor is actually still under .500, and the Bengals have made just two playoff appearances.
That magical run to the Super Bowl already feels like it happened in another era… and things aren’t exactly trending up, with Cincinnati’s record the past two seasons sitting at a pedestrian 18–16.
Of course, he has a bit of a cop out with Joe Burrow missing some time, Taylor has no doubt been dealt a difficult hand injury-wise, but this is still a results business—and at a certain point, the Bengals need to start cashing in.
They’ve got an elite quarterback and some of the best playmakers in the league on both sides of the ball with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins on offense and Trey Hendrickson anchoring the pass rush…
That’s supposed to be the recipe. So why aren’t the wins stacking up? That is the question that ownership will start asking Zac Taylor in a hurry if the Bengals struggle this year. He’s not in the hottest seat entering the season. But if things start off slow, it won’t take long to warm up in a severe way.