5 NFL Head Coaches That Need To Be Fired And 5 that Deserve One More Year
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
As the 2025 NFL season winds down, the coaching carousel is starting to spin once again, and this year’s decisions will shape the league for seasons to come. Some head coaches have shown real progress, developing young talent, stabilizing shaky franchises, or proving their systems can win with time. Others, however, have run out of momentum, answers, and support as their teams continue to fall short of expectations.
In this deep dive, we break down five NFL head coaches who truly deserve another year in 2025 based on measurable improvement and long-term potential, and five head coaches who need to be fired as organizations prepare for a reset.
Which NFL head coaches need to stay or need to go?
Aaron Glenn, New York Jets — Deserve Another Year
East Rutherford has been a special kind of hell for NFL head coaches for two decades now and Aaron Glenn walked straight into the meat grinder in year one.
To put it lightly, he had a quarterback room in flux. Plus, an offensive line with more questions than answers, and a franchise that has the media and fans alike breathing down its neck.
There is no two ways about it, of course 2025 has been ugly for Glenn. The Jets have been among the worst in the league all season, but their defense is starting to come together in spurts and he’s doing his thing, implementing simulated pressures and complex looks.
Another feather in his cap is that the locker room hasn’t quit on him, and he’s been able to hold players accountable without losing them—even after the mid-season fire sale. That matters in a building that’s seen guys tune out rather quickly over the years.
Please give him a real offseason to fix protection, stabilize the QB plan, and keep a consistent staff together, and let’s see what happens.
One year in the Meadowlands isn’t enough for an honest read on his coaching ability, and nuking another rebuild would just reboot the same Jets cycle fans are sick of. Let him build a roster around his scheme instead of changing the sign on the door again. Who knows if the front office actually aligns personnel correctly, you might finally see a defense-and-run first team that keeps them in games and gives the Jets a chance to get their quarterback situation sorted out.
The alternative is what? Another coach with another optimistic press conference and the same mess waiting to ensue? Jets fans deserve an actual plan, and Glenn has shown the early command presence to earn that second year before judgment day.
Pete Carroll, Las Vegas Raiders — Need to Be Fired
Las Vegas was supposed to get a jolt from Pete’s swagger and a professional touch on the offense with his guy, Geno Smith, under center.
Instead, the Raiders have been utterly non-competitive.
Worse, the team really doesn’t appear to have any semblance of a clear direction.
Are the Raiders leaning on vets or starting over with the kids? Carroll’s reputation for child-like energy and gum-chomping antics can’t even hide the dysfunction in this disjointed operation.
In a division with Mahomes, Herbert, and now Bo Nix cooking in Denver, standing still is moving backward… let alone the backpedal sprint that the Silver and Black are locked into.
Vegas needs a modern reboot and a coach who can align the front office with the roster build and get this team off the mat and competitive again.
They hired him for immediate juice, but it never arrived, and it is time to cut bait.
Hanging onto a legacy name instead of chasing a fit-for-2025 staff is how you stay in last place. If the Raiders want to matter in this division again, they need a builder who embraces analytics, fourth-down aggression, and player development. Pete isn’t that anymore.
Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns — Deserve Another Year
Kevin Stefanski has already proven he can win when he isn’t cycling through quarterbacks every month. The only problem is that Cleveland can’t seem to find a signal caller ready for the demands of leading an NFL team.
This isn’t an NFL locker room quitting on its head coach. It’s a roster handcuffed by quarterback chaos and injuries on the line. Stefanski’s scheme made journeymen look competent in past seasons, and the players still respect the process. Get him an actual quarterback, invest in protection, and let him run it back.
Fire him now, and you risk a full teardown with no guaranteed upgrade, the most Browns move imaginable… just one more swing of incompetence to chase Myles Garrett out of town.
Cleveland needs to stick with the coach who’s already shown he can manage egos, call a game, and steady the ship.
Don’t spend it on another experiment when you already have a proven guy in the building. You can fix personnel faster than you can replicate a trusted locker-room voice. Stefanski is still the right voice in Cleveland.
Jonathan Gannon, Arizona Cardinals — Need to Be Fired
Out in the desert, the patience is fading, and progress has deteriorated into stagnation.
Another miserable year for the Cardinals, and with the hard reset of a Kyler Murray departure looming, it feels like handing Gannon a pink slip is a natural next step.
The year-over-year growth was supposed to be realized by now. Gannon came with the promise of cleaner situational calls, fewer busted coverages, and a creative plan to leverage speed on both sides of the ball.
Instead, Cardinals games keep turning into borderline unwatchable slogs, and Gannon’s defense hasn’t produced consistent stops either.
Arizona’s fans do not want to wait and want change.
This was the year to show a leap, and it never happened. Arizona needs a coach who can develop a consistent offense, win games on the margins, and develop its young pieces.
Time for a new voice with a real plan. The NFC West is too competitive to sit in neutral… staying the course here is just choosing more disappointing outcomes.
A reset in the desert now beats another year of pretending that you are just one or two games away—when the standings tell a drastically different story.
Todd Bowles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Deserve Another Year
Tampa got off to a great start this season but man, with Carolina breathing down their necks, that feels like it was years ago at this point.
But Bowles has done well with this team the past couple of years…
And he still has a veteran defense that competes, disguises coverages, and keeps them in games despite the inconsistent offensive outputs that we’ve seen since Baker was saddled with a mysterious, nagging, and clearly impactful injury.
Blowing it up now would waste a defense that still travels and a coach who knows how to drag opponents into the mud.
It may be frustrating in the moment, but Tampa would be wise to give Bowles another offseason to regroup following his former offensive coordinator, Liam Coen’s, departure.
With the right hire, they can pair Bowles’s defense with a coherent offensive identity and rediscover that marriage of the run game and shot plays that worked so well for the Bucs last year and at the beginning of 2025.
He’s earned his right to pick an offensive architect and go one more lap. If it flops, fine, but firing him now would be a big mistake.
If ownership wants a splash, do it in NFL free agency or with a coordinator hire, not another head coach.
Dan Quinn, Washington Commanders — Need to Be Fired
Yes, the Commanders had one heck of a year… last year… but it is hard not to feel like that was all a mirage.
Washington’s defense has cratered, the offense looks disorganized, and the “culture build” pitch is falling flat without the wins to keep it afloat.
It is hard to find one single problem with the Commanders. I mean, they still can’t rush the passer consistently, the back end blows assignments, and the offense sputters when forced off script.
Sure, losing Jayden Daniels for a chunk of this season hurt, but that was almost more a symptom than the illness in the Nation’s capital.
And in a division with Philadelphia and Dallas, you can’t show up with the same stale answers every week. Washington needs a new voice who can elevate a young quarterback and coordinate complementary football.
It may be painful after all the promise of last season, but the 2025 results say it’s time to move on before another year of drift wastes the few bright spots on this roster. This isn’t about patience. It’s about a ceiling that’s already been reached. Hand this job to someone with a real offensive vision.
Mike McDaniel, Miami Dolphins — Deserve Another Year
While it has been a tough go for Mike McDaniel in South Beach the last couple of seasons, it looks like this team is starting to trend in the right direction and perhaps, even more importantly, they haven’t quit on McDaniel despite all the noise.
And let’s not forget, McDaniel still schemes open grass better than most. And this team is fighting back after a horrible start to the year.
Rather than part ways with the young head coach, how about the Dolphins do a hard refresh in the trenches, get healthier at receiver, and let one of the most inventive play designers in the league cook again.
The next coach won’t bring a more explosive playbook than this one.
Miami’s ceiling rises faster with a better roster than with another head coach. Keep the coach, upgrade the roster. That is the solution for the Dolphins.
Kellen Moore, New Orleans Saints — Need to Be Fired
Kellen Moore was hired to unlock this group. While the quarterback situation is largely out of his control, it’s been months of stalled drives and general embarrassment.
When you look closely at this team, it actually gets worse than their paltry record. The red zone sequencing feels off, the run-pass balance swings wildly, and the defense is a hot mess.
New Orleans needs a head coach who can blend scheme with situational awareness, find and develop a quarterback, and get the Saints back into relevance in the NFL.
Moore’s sample says he isn’t that guy. Better to rip the Band-Aid now and find someone who can get this roster playing competitive football again…
Hopefully, soon, because the Saints have one of the best fan bases in the league. They are longing for meaningful football games.
Zac Taylor, Cincinnati Bengals — Deserve Another Year
Hard to feel good about another lost season of Joe Burrow’s prime in Cincy, but the context matters… The early-season injury to Joe Burrow derailed the plan—and with a handful of other key guys, like Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, in and out of the lineup, the passing game lost its timing with players in and out.
Taylor still owns a résumé with January wins, and the team seems to like him. The smarter play is to fix the protection and do a complete purge on the defensive side of the ball, rather than a staff reset.
Taylor has already shown he can elevate when the roster is whole. Pulling the plug on him feels like it would be panic for panic’s sake.
Fans can be mad at the record and still admit the path back is clear: healthy Burrow, functional line, and get a defense that can complement the offense come January.
A team that knows how to win late in the year doesn’t forget; it just needs the bodies to do it. Taylor has earned one last mulligan.
Give him the pieces and judge at the end of next season, but no sooner.
Raheem Morris, Atlanta Falcons — Need to Be Fired
After sitting in the frustrating middle, Hotlanta falls back and falls fast.
Despite having talented pieces on the offense, it hasn’t scared anyone this year and the defense has been inconsistent at best. The ceiling for a Raheem Morris-led team looks capped.
The young weapons, namely Drake London and Bijan Robinson, are the kind of two-headed monster you can build a team around but they need a modern, aggressive offense that actually threatens defenses instead of grinding through field goals.
Morris has kept things professional, but the trajectory is flat, and the NFC South is too open to accept “middle of the road” again.
Atlanta needs a head coach who will lean into pace, motion, and downfield shots in today’s NFL. Time to pivot before another season slips away, capitalizing on the firepower already on the roster. You only get so many rookie-contract years with blue-chip skill talent.
Wasting them on an overly conservative coaching staff like this is the worst kind of football malpractice.
