Editorial: Which NFL coaches have the hottest seat

The NFL season is halfway home, and naturally, some coaches are fighting for their jobs.

Here, Edison Pellumbi, Michael Fecther and Owen Bucholz will discuss which coaches are likely feeling the most pressure.

Edison:

After an incredible first season in New York, everything has gone downhill for Brian Daboll.

For a third straight year, the Giants are sitting at 2-7 after nine games.

In the previous two, I think it would have been fair to draw most of it up to horrendous rosters, but that isn’t the case this year.

Jaxson Dart is looking like the guy. Before the injury struck, Cam Skattebo and Tyrone Tracy were looking like an incredible young running back pairing.

The offensive line is quite solid when Andrew Thomas is playing. The defense (particularly the defensive line) has had an incredible amount of resources invested in it.

But, once again, the Giants just can’t win games.

Sure, the schedule is extremely hard, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that multiple games have been lost that they should have won.

They became the first team in 1603 tries to lose a game where they led by 18 points with less than six minutes against Denver, mainly because they did not carry a kicker who could make an extra point.

For the second year in a row, the Giants went into a game without a healthy kicker on the roster when they played the Chiefs. Having a kicker wouldn’t have won them that game, but that is inexcusable to happen once, let alone twice.

Jaxson Dart has shown immense flashes, and there is nothing more valuable than a great quarterback on a rookie deal.

The Giants need to take advantage of this and find a new coach who can bring Dart and the Giants to the places they are capable of.

Owen:

Once a decorated head coach who brought hope to the city of Cleveland is now the man taking the blame for all their struggles.

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has been the man Cleveland fans have been pointing the finger at the most for their team’s lack of success.

After a disastrous 3-14 season last year, the Browns have improved very little in 2025, having just a 2-6 start to the season. This record comes with some interesting moves from Stefanski.

He decided to start rookie Dillon Gabriel, who was drafted in the third round of the 2025 draft. This seemed ideal for the Browns, who had a young rookie mentored by an 18-year vet in Joe Flacco.

But, the Browns took an interesting route in a different direction and ended up trading Flacco across the state to their division rival, the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Browns went from having four quarterbacks to just two who are both rookies and have no veteran mentorship to learn from. Essentially, Stefanski and the Browns are throwing them out into the wolves, hoping they'll learn on their own.

With that being said, Stefanski and the Browns collectively as an offense have been abysmal in the past two years. Over the past two seasons, the Browns have averaged less than 15 points per game and have barely broken 300 total yards per game.

Stefanski, being an offensive-minded head coach and a former offensive coordinator, started both of the last two seasons calling plays for the offense. In both seasons, he passed down his duties to the actual offensive coordinator. Both decisions were made in week 8 of the season.

Everything has gone wrong for Stefanski since winning Coach of the Year back in 2023, his second time winning the award. As of now in 2025, his seat is getting hotter and hotter each week.

Michael:

The NFL season is around the midway point and the Miami Dolphins have looked terrible as of late.

Many things have gone wrong for this terrible start to occur, but all of it comes back to three men: quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, General manager Chris Grier and the main culprit, head coach Mike McDaniel.

Owner Stephan Ross decided to fire Grier after a blowout loss on Thursday night to the Baltimore Ravens. This was met with celebration from fans but also confusion that McDaniel was not fired alongside Grier.

McDaniel worked for many other teams all on the offensive side of the ball, before landing the head coach gig for the Dolphins. Most notably as an offensive coordinator under Kyle Shanahan with the San Francisco 49ers.

When McDaniel was given the job in Miami before the 2022 season, it was met with skepticism from the fans after the unexpected firing of the Dolphins' previous head coach, Brian Flores, who had back-to-back winning seasons.

On paper, it looked like a good hire. Cody Benjeman, a CBS sports writer, wrote an article in 2022 saying it was a B+ hire, calling him a “ bold Transparent character”.

In 2025, McDaniel has now shown his true colors. Starting this season, 2-7, the culture has never been in worse shape.

Now, McDaniel is on the hot set and looks like he is just waiting to be fired. Having interviews that make him look lost and confused and with embarrassing quotes like “ To win games you have to win the game not lose the game.”

McDaniel has also lost the locker room as the players since week 1, have been holding player-only meetings in protest of this coaching staff.

The on-field performance has not been any better, being 26th in offense, which was McDaniel's strong suit coming from the 49ers and 24th in defense also being second to last in turnover differential.

Although Ross has not fired a head coach mid-season since 2015 when Joe Philbin was fired in week 4 after a 1-3 start.

McDaniels started his career with the Dolphins, a young upstart head coach who maximized Tagovailoa's potential to now a dead man walking whose time is running out.

Only time will tell when he is fired, but after the lack of culture in the locker room and the inability to muster up wins, that time is coming sooner rather than later.

Edison Pellumbi, Michael Fechter, and Owen Bucholz are first-years majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact them, email ejp5889@psu.edu, maf6740@psu.edu, or obb5166@psu.edu.