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The Tennessee Titans’ firing Brian Callahan this week signaled the unofficial start of the coaching carousel.
Six weeks into the season, a league built for parity is finding there is little to go around. Nearly half (14) of the league’s teams this season are two games over .500. Three others have winning records and another three (the Chiefs, Panthers and Commanders) are 3-3 with an upward trajectory.
On the opposite end, six teams are 1-5, with their playoff hopes all but over in October. Only one of those teams (the Saints) has a rookie head coach. Callahan was the first coach to be dismissed, but there are toasty seats across the league.
Mike McDaniel, Miami Dolphins
2025 Record 1-5
Career Record 29-28
For a while, McDaniel looked like the future of coaching. He was different. He was fun. He was creative. But McDaniel’s schtick has run out of steam. The Dolphins have the longest postseason drought in the league, and that’s not changing this season.
After being blown out by the Colts in week one, you can at least hand this to McDaniel: his team has fought. Even after losing Tyreek Hill for the season, the Dolphins’ offense has been productive. But after another inexplicable late-game collapse last week against the Chargers, it feels like his time has run out. The on-field product has been poor. And the vibes in Miami seem as fractured as anywhere in the league.
The on-field malaise has seeped off the field. In his postgame comments to the media last week, Tua Tagovailoa exposed problems in the locker room. He criticized players for missing or arriving late to player-only meetings, as well as the team’s weekly preparation. When players start publicly criticizing the culture, a coach is on borrowed time.
Blame for this year’s debacle should go across the organization. It was owner Stephen Ross who decided to run it back with McDaniel and GM Chris Grier this season, despite little evidence that the two could field a playoff-caliber team. Grier has assembled another disheveled roster, patching together a lopsided defense. He placed all his chips on the defensive front, leaving the weakest secondary in the league exposed. McDaniel’s offense has shown signs of life since week one, but Miami’s defense has been so uncompetitive that it’s almost meaningless.
The Dolphins have a manageable schedule coming up. But wins over the Browns or Falcons are unlikely to move the needle. They will only delay the inevitable. Whether it’s in-season or at the end of the year, McDaniel will be out. To finally end the 25-year hunt for a playoff win, though, the Dolphins will need more sweeping changes.
Hot Seat Meter 10/10
Aaron Glenn, New York Jets
2025 Record 0-6
Career Record 0-6
Coaches are rarely one-and-done in the NFL. Owners are too proud. Executives aren’t keen to admit that they hired a dud. If a coach is axed after one season, it’s typically because of an off-the-field scandal or because they commit the cardinal sin: they make the team look incompetent.
The Jets fired Robert Saleh last season, a defensive-minded coach whose pitch for the head coaching gig was that he would improve the team’s culture. That didn’t work. So Woody Johnson pivoted to Aaron Glenn … a defensive-minded coach whose pitch was that he would establish a new culture. So far, it’s been a complete failure.
Expectations were low for the Jets this offseason. Somehow, Glenn has driven them down. They are worse defensively than at any point under Saleh, sitting 28th in EPA/Play. The offense can churn out yards in the run game, but cannot get anything going through the air unless it’s garbage time.
More importantly, Glenn looks in over his head. He isn’t a scheme guru; he’s a culture-builder. He was supposed to restore accountability and competency to the building. He would say what needed to be said, and he would be on top of the little details that can be the difference in one-score games. But he’s continually flubbed his lines. He effectively quit on his own quarterback at the end of the first half against the Broncos in week six, then lit up a reporter for asking if the coach was pondering a quarterback switch. In all six games, he has bungled timeouts, struggled to grasp the basics of end-of-half situations and coached not to lose rather than trying to win. If that were all, Glenn would likely be given time. But it’s not. His own unit has fallen off a cliff – and he’s refused to make any staffing or schematic changes to stem the bleeding.
The Jets are not a talented team. But with the current roster, they shouldn’t be winless. There is talent along the offensive line, a handful of playmakers at the skill positions and quality starters at every level of the defense, though it’s hard to tell at this stage of the season.
Glenn has taken every opportunity to point back to his time in Detroit, when he was working alongside Dan Campbell. Going from laughing stock to contender was a slow build. Campbell won only three games in his first season as Detroit’s head coach. But even when losing, the Lions never looked unprepared or incompetent. The Jets do.
Glenn can afford to lose more games, so long as the Jets start to look competitive. That starts with a quarterback change or an overhaul of the defense. But with a tempestuous owner, Glenn cannot afford any more management calamities.
Hot Seat Meter 6/10
Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns
2025 Record 1-5
Career Record 41-49
Stefanski is a two-time Coach of the Year who is fighting for his job, thanks largely to the failings of his front office and owner.
The Browns are in rebuild mode, betting on their rookie class to carry them into a new era. They are stocked with draft picks for next year’s draft, where they will have a chance to maneuver the board to land whichever college quarterback they prefer.
Perhaps Stefanski will show enough down the stretch that he will be kept around to see through the rebuild. He continues to oversee one of the NFL’s best defenses, and if the Browns can land a serviceable quarterback in the offseason, they could compete in the AFC North next season. Stefanski has proven that with solid quarterback play, he can piece together a good offense. But he was handed the roughest of assignments last offseason, asked to work it out with a creaking Joe Flacco – who has since been traded – or a pair of mid-round rookies at quarterback. That was always going to be a recipe for fewer than 20 points a game and a losing record.
By the end of the year, Stefanski will probably be the fall guy for Cleveland’s deeper failings. The Browns will hand the franchise over to a new head coach to usher in a new era with a new quarterback. But Stefanski will land a job elsewhere. The mess in Cleveland is not on him.
Hot Seat Meter 8/10
John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens
2025 Record: 1-5
Career Record: 173-109 (One Super Bowl win)
The injury-riddled Ravens dropped to 1-5 after losing 17-3 at home to the Rams last week, marking the worst start to a season in John Harbaugh’s 18-year tenure with the franchise.
Baltimore hit the bye at the lowest ebb of the Harbaugh era. If they can get the bulk of their starters back from injury after the break, most notably Lamar Jackson, they could still make a playoff run. But the odds of turning the season around are dwindling. Since the current playoff format started in 2020, only one team – Washington in 2020 – has started 1-5 and made the playoffs.
Harbaugh has lived a charmed life in Baltimore. Even during the years when the Ravens have faltered, the blame has never fallen on the head coach. This year is different, though. Baltimore’s defense is a mess for the second season in a row. The group sits 30th in EPA/Play, behind the likes of the Titans, Jets and Bengals. Last season, the Ravens were able to turn it around at the midpoint of the year, overhauling their approach and bringing in outside help to streamline what defensive coordinator Zach Orr was trying to do.
Harbaugh chose to run it back with Orr this season after falling short in the postseason. But it’s been a dud. Even before injuries took over, the Ravens’ defense was out of sorts. They struggled to get lined up, couldn’t communicate and couldn’t impact opposing quarterbacks. Harbaugh often gets a pass for a unit’s failings because he’s viewed as a former special teams coach and is billed more as a CEO-style head coach. But Harbaugh’s branding is a touch misleading. His background is in defense. He sits in every defensive meeting and makes the critical hires. It’s on him, as much as anyone, that the unit has struggled out of the gates two years in a row.
With Jackson at the apex of his powers, the Ravens are operating on a year-to-year timeline. It’s championship or bust every season. But Harbaugh is now 4-7 in the postseason since he won the Super Bowl nearly 13 years ago. And he is facing an uphill struggle even to make the playoffs this campaign.
The Ravens are not a rash franchise. And it’s tough to see who on the market would be a better fit for the Ravens than Harbaugh. But if the team fails to make the postseason, there aren’t many other levers to pull than changing the head coach.
Hot Seat Meter 4/10
Brian Daboll, New York Giants
2025 Record 2-4
Career Record 20-36-1
No coach’s career is teetering as much as Daboll’s. His future rests on the arm of one player: Jaxson Dart.
Daboll went into the season with a singular mandate from Giants owner John Mara: find me a quarterback. After messing around with Russell Wilson for a few weeks, Daboll finally pivoted to the rookie. And the early returns have been strong. Dart has brought electricity to a previously moribund offense, piloting the Giants to two wins in three starts, including a win over the Eagles without go-to targets Malik Nabers or Darius Slayton.
Dart embodies everything Daboll wants in a quarterback: big, strong, mobile and a little reckless. While the rookie has been up-and-down in his three starts, he has undeniably brought a new jolt to the franchise.
This is a proof-of-concept year for Daboll. He entered the season with the warmest seat in the league. But he finally has his own hand-picked quarterback. The schedule for the Giants the rest of the way is tough; their next nine opponents all have a current record above .500.
The win-loss column will matter. It’s hard to run back a coach with 40-plus losses in four seasons. But Mara values stability and isn’t prone to rash decisions. As much as the team’s record, keeping or firing Daboll will come down to the environment. If Dart continues to show promise, if the Giants can snag another pair of upset wins and if the chemistry between the head coach and quarterback remains strong, Daboll will be given another year.
Hot Seat Meter 5/10
