The start of the 2024 season is only a few weeks away, but a handful of coaches enter the season with "win or go home" mandates from ownership. Although some of the coaches sitting on this hot seat list have enjoyed success with their current teams, the short attention spans of owners and observers force coaches to maintain their winning ways or risk losing their jobs in a league that annually turns over around 25 percent of its head coaches.
Given the NFL's ultra-competitive environment, here are five coaches facing immense pressure to deliver big results this season:
Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys
The one-time Super Bowl winner sports a .620 career winning percentage and guided the Cowboys to three straight seasons with at least 12 wins, but he enters 2024 with a "Super Bowl or bust" mandate. The Cowboys' epic postseason failures have led to concerns about his ability to take "America's Team" to the next level despite his impressive resume and winning pedigree. With a circus atmosphere around the team due to the uncertainty around the contracts of Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons, McCarthy will need to shine as a ringmaster to notch a fourth consecutive season with 12-plus wins and a deep playoff run to remain the leader of the NFL's most polarizing squad.
Robert Saleh, New York Jets
The fourth-year head coach is running out of time and excuses to get the job done in the Big Apple with a four-time MVP at quarterback in Aaron Rodgers and a collection of emerging stars on each side of the ball. Though it is hard to count on a 40-year-old gunslinger bouncing back from a season-ending Achilles, the talent around the future gold jacket recipient makes the Jets a lock to make the postseason tournament in an ultra-competitive AFC field. As one of the few teams in the NFL with a defense loaded with enough blue-chip talent to win games with minimal contributions from the offense, Saleh must find a way to chalk up Ws with or without Rodgers and Co. playing at an elite level. Given the playoff expectations around New York, Saleh must deliver this season or find work elsewhere after a so far disappointing run with the Jets.
Nick Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles
Despite guiding the Eagles to a Super Bowl LII appearance and a 10-1 start in 2023, Sirianni is coaching for his job this season after the team's epic collapse. The brash head coach seemingly lost control of his team after his offense and defense sputtered to the finish line. Though the Eagles' new coordinators — Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio — should add more organization, structure, and discipline to a team that desperately needed direction, Sirianni must show improvement as a leader despite owning a .667 winning percentage with a pair of playoff berths on his resume. If Jalen Hurts and Co. regain their mojo and the defense responds to Fangio's tough-love tactics, the Eagles' polarizing coach could extend his stay in Philly.
Matt Eberflus, Chicago Bears
After sitting on the hot seat for most of the 2023 season following a rocky start as the Bears' leader, Eberflus is back on the hibachi with the football world expecting the "Monsters of the Midway" to surge to the top of the NFC with Caleb Williams directing a new-look offense loaded with pass catchers and playmakers. The Bears' upgraded WR corps features Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze teaming with D.J. Moore to give the rookie QB three big-bodied pass catchers to target on the perimeter. As D'Andre Swift settles in as RB1 behind an offensive line with the capacity to blow defenders off the ball, the Bears should be able to impose their will on opponents ill-equipped to deal with an explosive offense with the capacity to win with force or finesse. With a hustle-hard defense specializing in creating disruptive plays at the point of attack, Eberflus should have the Bears vying for a playoff berth this season.
Brian Daboll, New York Giants
The honeymoon is over for Daboll after the Giants slogged through a disappointing 2023 campaign that failed to build on the momentum created by the team's unexpected playoff run during his rookie season in charge. Despite masterfully crafting an offense that helped Daniel Jones convince the franchise to fork over $40 million annually, Daboll could not find a remedy for the offensive woes last season. In addition, the coach's personal spat with defensive coordinator Don "Wink" Martindale prompted the defensive wizard to vacate his post in the offseason. Though the Giants have upgraded the personnel on each side of the ball, the head coach's questionable decisions, as well as Saquon Barkley's free-agent departure, put the pressure on the 2022 NFL Coach of the Year to get the team back on track this season.
Three Coaches Most Likely to Be Fired Midseason
The NFL is a business, and at the end of the day, success is what matters. Head coaches lose their jobs every single season, and the 2024 year will not be any different. Could there be head coaches who lose their jobs in-season? It's happened before, and it may happen again.
Let's dive into three head coaches who are the most likely to get fired first in the 2024 NFL Season.
Robert Saleh has never finished with a winning record during his tenure as a head coach in the NFL, but he's also never been given a stable QB situation. The 2023 NFL Season was supposed to be the first year for that, but Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles just a handful of plays into the season. With Rodgers surely set to return close to 100% at least, the clock might start ticking for Saleh.
Some more early-season struggles with as talented as this roster is could force GM Joe Douglas to make a bold move. Saleh seems to have a great grip on his defense, but the offense needs to show up. Could the seat already be warming up for Robert Saleh heading into the 2024 NFL Season?
Dennis Allen is not a viable head coach in the NFL and is surely not going to be the HC of the New Orleans Saints beyond the 2024 NFL Season. He's got one winning record during his tenure, and that came in 2023. The Saints had one of the easiest schedules in the NFL in 2023 and managed just nine wins.
It's just not worked out for Allen, but his boss, GM Mickey Loomis, should have embraced a rebuild the second Sean Payton left the building. Well, a so-so start for the Saints in 2024 could force them to sell off some players at the deadline and perhaps embrace a new era, which would likely mean Allen is removed from his position.
Well, Matt Eberflus, there are truly no excuses now. The Chicago Bears have the best roster they've fielded in quite some time, and now Eberflus seems to have a viable QB in Caleb Williams. The defense ended the year holding their opponents to less than 20 points per game, which is a huge statistic that could push them over the edge in 2024 if it carries over.
The Bears are stacked with their play-makers on offense, have a very good RB in D'Andre Swift, and just seem to have everything needed to be a rock-solid football team in 2024. If they can't at least show signs of life in 2024, I do not think GM Ryan Poles would waste any time - an in-season firing of Matt Eberflus is 100% on the table in my opinion.
The NFL's Five Worst Coaches Heading into 2024
Being an NFL head coach is a Herculean task.
The buck stops with you everywhere. You’re expected to lead by example and deliver even when you’re having a bad day. All of those teensy-tiny in-game decisions with timeouts and fourth-down calls come down to your headset. For better or worse, your team’s identity is ultimately a blend of your personality and leadership style. And when a player or two fails in disspiriting defeat, it is your responsibility and yours alone to paint yourself as the scapegoat, putting your own job security at risk while taking fire from a relentless media contingent.
Please, anyone looking for a job, don’t line up all at once.
The men below might not be cut out for everything that’s asked of an NFL head coach. From frustrating inertia and indecision to troubling roster situations and team mental implosions, they all have their own glaring flaws that are impossible to ignore. For my money, for their own unique reasons, they are the current worst coaches in pro football, “leaders” who are almost a deterrent to their teams enjoying any semblance of progress. For posterity, I did not include rookie coaches, as assigning them any evaluation without any exposure to the NFL would not be fair.
Here are the NFL’s worst sideline leaders heading into the 2024 season.
Brian Daboll, New York Giants
Evaluating Daboll in a proper fashion depends on your perspective.
On the one hand, he made a Daniel Jones-led offense and undermanned Giants team look competitive en route to a berth in the Divisional Round in 2022. Those Giants had no business qualifying for the NFL’s de facto quarterfinals, and it was because Daboll pulled all the right strings, maximizing everything he had in the cupboard. He looked like the NFL’s next great coach for pulling off such a masterful campaign. On the other hand, the Giants fell back to Earth in 2023. With a thud. They started 2-8. They lost eight games by double digits, four by at least 20 points. They were in the bottom five in total offense and total scoring, and they were only slightly less embarrassing on the defensive end.
Even a meme craze centered around stereotypical Italian backup quarterback Tommy DeVito would not make the Giants more interesting or competitive.
The question is: Where does the buck stop with Daboll?
I don’t think it was fair to expect him to replicate the magic of 2022 in his sophomore season. The Giants’ roster wasn’t good enough to sustain that kind of play for another season. But we’re in Year 3 now. Big Blue spent a lot of money and draft capital on both of its trenches this offseason. Rookie receiver Malik Nabers is the type of playmaker the Giants haven’t had since prime Odell Beckham Jr. Another 6-11 campaign filled with few bright spots for Daboll isn’t going to sit well with New York ownership. He deserves patience to see his program through, but rampant losing makes everyone anxious and skeptical about whether a plan is worth waiting for. The clock is ticking.
Matt Eberflus, Chicago Bears
The Bears are fortunate that general manager Ryan Poles seems to understand Caleb Williams is Chicago’s meal ticket. Because without earnest investment in supporting the No. 1 overall pick quarterback, it’d be hard to have much faith in the Bears’ procedurally generated head coach. Well, if I’m being candid, even with Williams around, I don’t feel positive that Eberflus is destined to be his steward for a decade-plus as the Bears ideally morph into an NFC power.
The laundry list of Eberflus’s mistakes to this point speaks to someone who takes way too long to learn from their mistakes. In 2022, Eberflus’s mismanagement of games helped the Bears to the worst record in the NFL. It was excused as a learning experience on a team with a roster that closer belonged to the CFL. OK, sure, fine. But in 2023, Eberflus continued his rash of mistakes. Despite having press cornerbacks and no consistent pass rush (at least until Montez Sweat arrived), he elected to have the Bears play a soft zone for the first half of the year, leaving their unit’s fatal flaw even more vulnerable. Make it make sense.
As a supposed “CEO” coach, the defensively-focused Eberflus also doesn’t appear to have much active input on Chicago’s offense. That’s all well and good, and it’s not entirely abnormal in the NFL landscape, but it also makes his offensive coordinator selections that much more important because they have to stand on their own. Unfortunately, he struck out on Luke Getsy. Badly. Here’s hoping the Shane Waldron decision is different because Eberflus can’t afford another massive misstep on that side of the ball.
Eberflus remains the Bears’ head coach because they won five of their last eight games in 2023. Their three losses were all one-score affairs to playoff teams that could’ve gone the other way. There might be something here. He better build on that late-season success with a young generational quarterback where Chicago has put all of its eggs in the basket. Or else.
Dennis Allen, New Orleans Saints
Ah, Dennis Allen. I have but one question for him: What would you say you … do here?
I’m serious. Allen has a reputation for defensive genius, and the Saints have been no slouches during his tenure so far, but they’ve hardly been elite. They haven’t played like the kind of shutdown defense that lifts all boats and justifies a complete mess everywhere else. They’ve been OK, barely keeping the Saints afloat in a mediocre division and middling conference. With Derek Carr in the fold, the New Orleans offense has somehow become even more predictable, throwing Alvin Kamara to the wolves while expecting Chris Olave to win one-on-one on designed go-routes way too often. The Saints still think utilizing Taysom Hill the way they do keeps defenses on their toes instead of inspiring laughter over an oversized, slower, glorified running back wasting valuable touches.
Klint Kubiak, an ex-San Francisco 49ers disciple, could be the cure for Allen’s Saints’ ailment on offense. (It should be noted that he hasn’t really changed his offense in years, either.) So, I’m not expecting anything groundbreaking from Allen or a franchise that has shown it’s comfortable staying in a mucky, stagnant neutral.
Robert Saleh, New York Jets
Poor Robert Saleh. Already faced with the unenviable task of making the Jets a winner, this man lost his starting quarterback to an Achilles tear one series into the 2023 season. From there, Gang Green’s year unraveled, bit by bit, with backup Zach Wilson at one point saying he didn’t want to contribute to the dumpster fire. Imagine one of the biggest busts in pro football history starting a potential mini-mutiny because he sees an avoidable catastrophe unfolding. If I’m being candid, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have been just as despondent and defeated as Saleh was by Thanksgiving of last fall. Even if the Jets didn’t implode outright, Saleh lost control of the reins in a manner that makes you doubt whether he has the chops to be a difference-making coach.
Saleh deserved another year, a rebound, because the Jets organization, on the whole, deserved a chance for redemption. And the defense is still great, though it has lost some of its luster. The Jets fancy themselves a championship contender as long as Rodgers stays healthy. In the event a 40-year-old Rodgers doesn’t stay on the field for the entire season, Saleh probably can’t say he has that margin for error anymore.
Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys
I’m threading a needle with McCarthy here. Stay with me.
Do I believe he’s genuinely the worst coach in the NFL? Probably not. He’s shown he knows how to optimize a roster for regular-season success. His Cowboys have won 36 games over the last three years and two of the last three NFC East division titles. They’re usually a well-tuned offensive machine with Dak Prescott orchestrating matters and more than hold their own on defense. Yeah, the Dallas roster has been rock-solid, but it still takes someone pulling the right strings to get it across the finish line.
There’s the rub for McCarthy. For as much as he knows how to get the Cowboys to thrive from September through December, nothing about him has changed the moment the football becomes single-elimination in January. His in-game management remains atrocious. He somehow still bungles basic clock and timeout decisions like he’s still on the Green Bay Packers sideline. His game plans, especially on offense, have been predictable and soft, opening the Cowboys to an onslaught from their playoff opponents the moment they feel even a slight stagger from Dallas. They put the Cowboys behind the eight-ball before they’ve had a chance to settle in.
That, in itself, is the biggest issue. Over three years into his tenure, the Cowboys still freeze like a deer in headlights as soon as they face adversity in the postseason. This is not a mentally tough Cowboys team battle-tested for the playoff gauntlet. It’s a front-running group that doesn’t know how to adjust or how to respond when the going gets tough, and that is an indicting reflection of the head coach.
The Cowboys will probably win 11-12 games again in 2024. Heck, they might even repeat as NFC East champions. But as long as McCarthy stays their coach, you can bet on them vomiting all over themselves come playoff time.
