No NFL owner has hit the panic button yet, despite some incredibly disappointing starts. All 32 men who started the season as coaches are still employed.
But that could change soon.
With the final weeks looming and patience running out, the heat is turning on some coaches whose teams are caught in an irreversible downward spiral. And some others probably already know that they will spend the second half of the season playing abroad, knowing that their time is also short.
So which coaches’ seats are the hottest after the first month of the regular season? Here is my revised list.
The first three years of the DeMeco Ryans era in Houston have been fantastic and disappointing. The Texans had double-digit wins every year, won at least one playoff game every year, and still managed to come out as underdogs. That was especially true the last two years when their offense and young quarterback couldn’t keep up with their league-best defense.
And now the bottom has completely fallen. The defense has regressed. QB CJ Stroud has remained neutral since his rookie season. They still don’t score many points. And, worst of all, they are 0-4.
Firing the 42-year-old Ryans would be harsh, and he is more than likely to be pushed into some major staff changes. But the window is about to close to land a promising quarterback on an entry-level contract. And if they start over at the position or give Stroud a lucrative contract, don’t be shocked if they at least consider hiring a coach who can make that investment pay off.
There’s probably a way this season could have started worse for Jim Harbaugh’s team, but it’s hard to see how. QB Justin Herbert, the franchise’s cornerstone player, is making a comeback under his guidance. He brought in a new high-profile offensive coordinator, Mike McDaniel, to start Herbert, and they look like a terrific matchup. And given Harbaugh’s strong hold on the staff, it doesn’t help that his offensive line is still struggling, his receivers can’t catch and the defense doesn’t look the same now that DC Jesse Minter is gone.
In other words, they could be even worse than their 0-4 record suggests, and Harbaugh has looked like a deer in headlights in some of his press conferences, where he obviously has no answers to offer. He has two years and $32 million left on his deal after this season, and he went 11-6 in each of his first two years. But look at the schedule, an 0-9 start might not be out of the question.
That will have owner Dean Spanos wondering if the 62-year-old coach still has what it takes to turn the sinking ship around.
Matt LaFleur was thought to be on the hot seat last year when a team with Super Bowl expectations stumbled to a 9-7-1 record and then blew a wild-card game to Chicago. But apparently that was good enough for the Packers’ ownership board to give him a contract extension.
That probably signals he’s not going anywhere, again — good luck getting a board to agree to feed a contract believed to run through 2029 at around $15 million per year. However, the Packers also can’t ignore what’s going on with his team. They are rebounding on offense though with an outstanding young quarterback in Jordan Love and a number of good receivers. And the defense has taken a big step back after losing DC Jeff Hafley.
Maybe the return of Micah Parsons will help that, but nothing comes to help the offense, which was supposed to be LaFleur’s specialty. They are only 2-2, so no panic yet, but they are in danger of being buried in a very dangerous division. Whether the board likes it or not, there will be plenty of calls in Green Bay for LaFleur’s head.
Nick Sirianni has won three division titles, two NFC titles and a Super Bowl in his five seasons as Eagles coach while winning nearly 70% of his regular season games (61-28). But if you don’t think he can handle the fall for a botched season, you don’t know Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and the high standards he sets. This season hasn’t gone completely bad yet, but they’ve opened the door to competition in a weak NFC East.
For the second straight season, their offense is struggling as well — a reminder that Sirianni has been too many coordinators in his choices for most of his tenure. That’s a big part of why they’ve had two disappointing first-round playoff exits over the past three years. He has also always been under scrutiny for his sometimes controversial coaching decisions, which hurt him last Sunday in a crushing home loss to the Rams.
Jalen Hurts threw for just 93 yards in the Eagles’ Week 4 loss to the Rams, raising concerns for Nick Sirianni and Philadelphia’s offense. (Photo by Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Lurie thinks his team should make a run at the Super Bowl every year, and he usually has a good enough roster to do so. If he thinks the coach is holding him back at all, he will make a change. After all, he at least thought to do it to Sirianni three years ago.
Dan Quinn started this season at the top of this list because his Commandos went 5-12 a year after making a remarkable run to the NFC Championship Game. They are now 1-3 and don’t seem to be getting any better. The only thing keeping him from still being in the top hot spot is the injury to QB Jayden Daniels, who was a big part of what ruined 2025 as well.
Daniels is expected back soon, however, with plenty of time on the schedule for the Commanders to turn this around. And luckily for them, it looks like a nice year in the NFC East, so the door is definitely open. If they can’t join them and at least make it to the division title, or at least the playoffs, owner Josh Harris and GM Adam Peters have what seems like an easy decision to make.
Quinn already blew his coaching staff in the offseason, so it’s all up to him now. And they can’t let the window they opened when they went 12-5 in Quinn’s first season suddenly close.
The bar and expectations are low in New York, where Glenn isn’t expected to win with the team he and GM Darren Mougey assembled. They are expected to be more competitive and professional, and there was a hope that Glenn would no longer look so flustered, especially when asked by the media what was going wrong.
Sometimes things have looked good. They beat the Titans in the opener and hung with the Packers and Lions. But they were essentially a no-show against the Bears on Sunday, and Glenn’s decisions, time management and reactions to criticism are back under the microscope. It’s a long season; they don’t have a very good quarterback (Geno Smith) and they are already inundated with injuries.
Glenn must stop this spiral before it spirals out of control. If not, there will be a lot of pressure on Woody Johnson to bring in a new coach — perhaps a high-profile one like Mike Tomlin — especially if they land another franchise quarterback, as expected, in the 2027 NFL draft.
If you’re waiting for the first head coach to be fired, keep both eyes on Tampa, where the wheels appear to have come off the Buccaneers. It’s not just that they’re 0-4, but they’ve looked absolutely terrible, especially on offense. And now, with QB Baker Mayfield out with an injured thumb, there’s definitely room for things to get worse.
It’s also not like Bowles was playing with house money. They’ve gone between eight and 10 wins in each of his first four seasons, and have only a terrible division to thank for making the playoffs three times. Bowles rarely seems to have much of an answer – if any at all – and so far this season it’s hard to argue that his players have responded to anything he’s tried.
None of their next five opponents are undefeated — at Dallas, against the Steelers, at Carolina, against the Falcons and at Chicago — but it’s not exactly a marshmallow march either. If Bowles’ Bucs can’t steal a few wins there, he might not survive the Week 10 sweep.