The 2024 NFL season has the potential to see a ton of head coaches fired. Robert Saleh, Dennis Allen, and Matt Eberflus were all kicked from their positions, but there will certainly be more rolling heads in the next few months. Which coaches deserve to be on the hot seat, and which could be a victim of overreaction?
Mike McCarthy has been the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys since 2020. Since then, he’s posted a 48-33 record in the regular season, and a 1-3 record in the playoffs. Under McCarthy’s leadership, the Cowboys have lost twice in the wild-card round of the playoffs, and once in the divisional round.
There are plenty of issues in Dallas that go beyond Mike McCarthy though. Jerry Jones is losing the fans’ goodwill because of his business and personnel decisions. Dak Prescott has dealt with major injuries in two of the last four years as well. The number one problem in Dallas is leadership.
The Cowboys are the definition of stagnant, no matter who’s under center, or how talented their roster is. It’s time for Dallas to change things up because Mike McCarthy isn’t leading them to the promised land any time soon.
Brian Daboll is on the hot seat for several reasons, most of which don’t fall on him. The Giants have won two games this season, Saquon Barkley is an Eagle, and Daniel Jones was cut midway through the season. The Giants’ problems fall on GM Joe Schoen in this case.
Daboll is working with what he’s been given, and for the last two seasons, he hasn’t been given much. 2023 saw Saquon Barkley on a franchise tag, and Daniel Jones only playing six games before going down with injury. There are major problems with the Giants’ roster, and it’s up to the GM to make better choices.
Now that the Giants are looking at a fresh start, Schoen and Daboll finally have a chance to get their franchise QB and turn things around. Sometimes things get worse before they can get better, Schoen and Daboll need an opportunity to start their rebuild before they’re fired. Daboll’s a former NFL Coach of the Year, he has what it takes to build a winning culture.
Zac Taylor has been the Bengals’ coach since 2019. In that time, he has posted a 38-44-1 regular season record, along with a 5-2 playoff record. The numbers don’t look great for Taylor, but this situation goes further than that.
Joe Burrow has been the elite lynchpin of Cincy’s offense. With Joe Burrow under center, Zac Taylor’s record as a coach is 32-13, without Burrow, Taylor’s record is 4-28-1. Taylor’s success rises heavily on Joe Burrow, but that’s become the case for the whole team.
Similar to Brian Daboll, Zac Taylor is dealing with some roster issues. His offense leads the NFL in passing and receiving yards, but the defense is one of the worst in the league. Cincy’s defense currently ranks 30th in sacks, 22nd in tackles, and 17th in interceptions.
Taylor has shown that with a strong roster, and a defense that can perform, he can lead his team to the Super Bowl. It’s far too early to fire Zac Taylor, and there aren’t many options better than him on the open market.
Doug Pederson’s time in Jacksonville has not gone the way anybody had hoped it would. Pederson was hired by the Jaguars in 2022 coming off a horrible experience with Urban Meyer. In Pederson’s first season with the Jags, they went 9-8 and won a playoff game. They’d follow that up with another 9-8 season but missed the playoffs.
2024 has seen the Jaguars post a 3-11 record, and Trevor Lawrence is out for the season. Jacksonville hasn’t won a game by more than six points, and Doug Pederson hasn’t handled the situation properly. It’s easy to say the roster isn’t up to snuff, and that is true, but this team was touted by the Jags’ ownership as the “best Jaguars team ever assembled.”.
Pederson has proven he can win games with this team, but there has been no growth to that success, even when Trevor Lawrence was healthy. The Jaguars have a roster that should be competing for a playoff spot, especially in a weak division like the AFC South. The entire blame doesn’t fall on Pederson, but the Jaguars won’t get over the hump as long as he’s on the sideline.
Antonio Pierce is on the hot seat in his first season as the Raiders’ head coach. Pierce was named interim head coach last season before earning the job officially in the offseason. Over the past two seasons, the Raiders are 7-16 under Pierce’s leadership, with five of those wins in 2023. A huge talking point in Pierce’s job security is the prospect of Deion Sanders coaching the Raiders if his son was drafted by them.
Antonio Pierce won over the Raiders’ locker room in 2023, with many players advocating for him to take over the permanent job. One thing being overlooked when it comes to Pierce is the situation he inherited. The Raiders’ top QBs were Gardner Minshew and Aiden O’Connell, neither of which were established starting QBs in the NFL. Pierce also lost his best weapon when Davante Adams requested a trade mid-season.
Pierce has been the Raiders’ head coach for less than 13 months. This team is rebuilding, and it’s too early to fire someone before he can even lay the foundation. Antonio Pierce might not work out in Vegas, but letting him go now could lead to a massive “what-if” down the line, especially if he finds success elsewhere.
The NFL sees a coaching carousel every offseason. With more firings on the horizon, it’ll be interesting to see where these coaches and their teams end up in 2025.
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