Coaches on the Hot Seat Heading Into the NFL Season
Coaches with professional sports teams are typically the first ones out of the building when things for a franchise don’t go as expected. Coaches are typically scapegoats for a struggling team as many will claim that they “lacked leadership” or “built the team poorly,” making it easy for fans to move on to another new coach. However, many times the coaches themselves are not the problem with the team. This is why we see teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, who have had eight different coaches over the past 13 years, have had no change in success as a result of instituting a new coach. Although coaching changes happen more in the NBA than in the NFL, there are many instances where good coaches end up on the hot seat for one reason or another, which may result in them getting fired. Therefore, let’s look at the coaches who are on the hottest seats heading into the new NFL season.
Mike McCarthy - Dallas Cowboys
If I told you that there is a coach who was on the hot seat with the sixth-best winning percentage of any coach currently in the NFL, better than coaches like Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, and two-time Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski, people would be very confused as to why. Mike McCarthy is that coach. If you have a strong opinion on Mike McCarthy, you probably immediately started mentally jumping up and down shouting that the man is running the Dallas Cowboys and can’t win a playoff game. This will be a common criticism of coaches down this entire list. Despite McCarthy’s tremendous regular season success with the Cowboys going 42-25 during his tenure, his playoff record is 1-3 with them as well. Coaches get fired based on the perceived expectations that teams set out with at the beginning of the year. The Cowboys and their obnoxious fanbase every year can’t help themselves by continually shouting “This year will be the Cowboys year!” For Mike McCarthy, this expectation created by the media, NFL fans, and Jerry Jones is unrealistic and will likely result in McCarthy’s termination if the Cowboys don’t make the Conference Championship this year.
Nick Sirianni - Philadelphia Eagles
Nick Sirianni is a young and passionate coach who bolsters the third-best winning percentage of any NFL coach and yet he finds his way onto this list. Why? After the Eagles lit up the league two years ago, and made it all the way to the Super Bowl just to lose to the Chiefs, the team was looking to redeem themselves and make it back to that spot last season. Despite a promising start to the season picking up right where they left off, they quickly began to fall off. There were rumors of dysfunction and strife between the players and coaches, which quickly led to people questioning Sirianni’s leadership. A good coach should always be able to steady the ship and keep the organization level-headed without division. Nick Sirianni based on numerous reports failed to do that last season. Could Sirianni be out of his depth as a young NFL head coach? That question will be answered very quickly once the Eagles start the season as a top contender in the NFC East.
Matt Eberflus - Chicago Bears
Matt Eberflus is in a situation unlike anyone else on this list. Eberflus has been the head coach of the Chicago Bears for the past two seasons and he lacks success of any kind. He has a 10-24 regular season record with no playoff appearances or any allocates to his name. Now the Bears have made significant roster changes and have seemingly changed the mentality of the organization as they look to build around the first overall pick, Caleb Williams. With a strong defense, and now seemingly explosive offense on paper, the city of Chicago is now chomping at the bit to finally get back into NFL relevancy. The fans in Chicago will have only one recourse if things go poorly this season, fire Matt Eberflus.
Mike Tomlin - Pittsburgh Steelers
Mike Tomlin is an amazing coach and leader of the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise, but frankly, his record over the past several years just hasn’t been good enough. It is fascinating because for years Tomlin has been stuck with lackluster rosters, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Some of that may be his fault as the Steelers aren’t an attractive place for offensive free agents as they know that they aren’t the priority in Tomlin’s eyes. Mike Tomlin is one of the last true old-school coaches who want to run the ball and play tough physical defense. His mentality and ability to mold young players are amazing, which results in the Steelers winning more games than they should given their talent. However, since they continually are mediocre in terms of regular season records, they end up too far down in the draft to get a franchise-changing draft pick. This lack of natural roster talent, combined with a middling offense, may be the demise of Tomlin as the Steelers head coach if they don’t at the very least win 10 games and make the playoffs this year.
Sean McDermott - Buffalo Bills
Sean McDermott deserves very similar criticism to Mike McCarthy. His winning percentage as the Bills head coach is amazing at 64%, fourth in the NFL, but he has not been able to get over the Chiefs-sized hump. Even at times when the Bills had a comparable quarterback and roster to the Chiefs, Sean McDermott has gotten out-classed by Andy Reid in big playoff games. The reason why McDermott is much lower on the list than McCarthy is that Buffalo is a small market and therefore faces less unreasonable expectations than the Cowboys do every year. With that said, the Bills have been viewed as a dominant force for years in the NFL and yet haven’t made a Super Bowl with superstar Josh Allen on the roster. With the departure of Stefon Diggs and basically the entire Bills secondary, Sean McDermott and the Bills may be in massive trouble if they regress, or even worse miss the playoffs, due to being in a strong AFC East division.
