NFL Coaches in the Hot Seat: Head Coaches Fired & Next Up

The NFL is a win-now league where job security is merely an illusion. Just ask the coaches who lost their jobs in 2025. That turnover led to a wave of NFL head coaching changes, with 10 teams hiring new coaches for the 2026 season.

If a team doesn’t start stacking up wins, or at least producing enough highlights to make things interesting, pressure and anxiety tend to follow, and that’s usually the precursor to a coach (and even an entire coaching staff) looking for a new job on the open market.

There hasn’t been a down of regular season football played in 2026 yet, but a handful of head coaches are already feeling pressure to deliver, or they’ll find themselves with a ticket on next year’s coaching carousel.

Here’s a look at the NFL head coaches entering the 2026 season on the hot seat, and what each one needs to accomplish to keep his job. Follow the action all season long with DIRECTV.

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Which NFL Coaches Could Get Fired in 2026?

From recent hires to coaches who have survived on promise for a few years now, and even coaches with Super Bowl appearances and wins over the last few years, these are the coaches who feel the most heat to produce wins in order to keep their jobs.

Zac Taylor – Cincinnati Bengals

Taylor has been on the warm seat for a few years now. It feels like a distant memory when he helped lead the Bengals to their first AFC Championship Game appearance since the early 1990s. But three straight seasons of missing the playoffs, including a 6-11 record in 2025, has turned up the heat on the Cincinnati head coach, especially with one of the highest-paid offenses in the league.

There is every expectation that Cincinnati should be in the playoff hunt. Last year the Bengals were a middling team as Joe Burrow missed extended time with a turf toe injury. What Burrow cannot fix is the Cincinnati defense, which for the second time in two years finished as a bottom-two unit in yards allowed. The Bengals had the worst rushing defense in the league and one of the worst passing defenses as well.

Cincinnati made upgrades along the defensive front, but with high-paid wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins and Burrow under center, a wild-card playoff spot should be the bare minimum expectation. The Bengals also carry one of the league’s most expensive rosters, as reflected in the 2026 NFL payroll rankings. If they miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season, ownership might need to take a hard look at the sideline before squandering a golden opportunity to contend.

Aaron Glenn – New York Jets

The Jets didn’t carry many expectations into 2025, Glenn’s first season as an NFL head coach, so even a 3-14 record wasn’t enough to cost him his job. The Jets’ three-win season left them near the bottom of the league, and their limited expectations entering 2026 once again put them in the conversation over the worst team in the NFL. The most concerning part was just how poor the defense looked after Glenn spent four seasons as Detroit’s defensive coordinator, including two seasons in which that unit ranked as a top 15 group. Glenn’s Jets defense finished 31st in points allowed, dead last in takeaways and among the league’s worst against both the run and the pass.

The Jets still don’t carry many expectations this season, but with a potential high pick in next year’s draft in play and a possible franchise quarterback on the horizon, Jets ownership could be looking for a change. It’s difficult to see Glenn getting another chance to lead the franchise into a new chapter after two straight subpar seasons.

This year the Jets have Geno Smith under center, welcome back Breece Hall and a healthy Garrett Wilson, and added rookies Omar Cooper Jr. and Kenyon Sadiq to the offense. The real marker of success for Glenn will be turning the defense around. If a defensive-minded coach can’t make the Jets even a middle-of-the-road unit on that side of the ball, he might be back on the job market looking for a coordinator position elsewhere.

Nick Sirianni – Philadelphia Eagles

Sirianni is a perennial member of the hot seat club despite bringing the Eagles to two Super Bowls and winning one in his five seasons as head coach. Last year, in their Super Bowl title defense, Philadelphia went 11-6 but was quickly bounced from the playoffs after a season that endured offensive turmoil. The Eagles fielded one of the worst passing offenses in the league and weathered vocal criticism from wide receiver A.J. Brown all year.

Brown has since been traded, and in many ways it’s a new chapter for the Eagles. For Sirianni, the issue is that if the passing offense is again underwhelming, it will prove Brown wasn’t the problem and that the issues run deeper in the organization.

Sirianni might well be joined on the hot seat by his quarterback, Jalen Hurts, who has no guaranteed money left on his contract after this season, which could mean the Eagles look at a hard offensive reset.

Philadelphia still has one of the best offensive lines in the game, one of the best defenses in the league and one of the most aggressive general managers in football, Howie Roseman. The front office will look to take full advantage of its championship window on defense no matter which coach or quarterback stands in the way.

Todd Bowles – Tampa Bay Buccaneers

In four seasons as Tampa Bay’s head coach, Bowles has finished just two games above .500. The Buccaneers missed the playoffs last year on an NFC South tiebreaker after a hot start to the season. Tampa Bay had one of the best rushing defenses in the league but one of the worst against the pass.

The NFC South promises to be just as competitive this year, if not more so, and if Bowles can’t help the Buccaneers win the division and claim a playoff spot, they might be looking at a coaching change. It’s unclear what the overall direction of the franchise is, but Bowles is in a similar position to Mike Tomlin as a coach who is perennially competitive yet has not been able to break through in the playoffs.

Kevin O’Connell – Minnesota Vikings

O’Connell became one of the league’s rising coaches after arriving in Minnesota, leading the Vikings to a 13-4 record before following it up with an even better 14-3 record two years later. But he has yet to win a playoff game in two appearances.

After earning a reputation as a quarterback whisperer, O’Connell let Sam Darnold leave in free agency for Seattle, where Darnold went on to win a Super Bowl. He then entrusted his offense to J.J. McCarthy, whom the Vikings traded up to draft in 2024 before McCarthy missed his rookie season with a knee injury. McCarthy struggled throughout 2025, and O’Connell at times voiced frustration in press conferences, signaling some discontent between quarterback and coach.

Entering 2026, O’Connell has a quarterback question mark to answer heading into training camp. If McCarthy can take a step forward, he might win the job, or it could go to Kyler Murray, signed at a bargain rate this offseason after a middling run with the Cardinals. Minnesota is in one of the most competitive divisions in football, but the Vikings still have one of the best defenses in the league, so whoever starts at quarterback should regularly have a chance to win games. If O’Connell can’t get the Vikings back into the playoffs, no matter how much promise he once carried, he might be looking for a new job in 2027.

Shane Steichen – Indianapolis Colts

Steichen has had a remarkably average run in three years as the Colts’ head coach, finishing 9-8, 8-9 and 8-9. That last mark came after Indianapolis started 8-1, seemed to finally find some offensive direction and was brimming with playoff hopes. Then came a season-ending injury to Daniel Jones that tanked the Colts’ campaign.

With Jones seemingly on track to return in 2026, the pressure is back on the fourth-year head coach. The AFC South looks like a very winnable division heading into the season. But if the Colts miss the playoffs for a fourth straight year, Steichen’s handling of the quarterback position and the team’s decision to place its full faith in Jones could put him back on the coordinator market in 2027.

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