Why Every NFL Head Coach Got Fired

The Titans were the first to fire a head coach, relieving Callahan from his duties after a 1-5 start to the season. At the time, it looked like the Titans would finish with the first overall pick in both years with Callahan at the helm, which isn’t ideal. With a bad 2024 and an abysmal start to the 2025 season, this one seemed logical.

There’s no question Kevin Stefanski is a good head coach. After all, he won Coach of the Year twice for a reason. However, the last two years in Cleveland were abysmal. It all comes down to the quarterback position, and, although he isn’t solely responsible for their problems there, he does share the blame. The offense, which should be good under him, finished 32nd and 31st in points per game in the last two seasons.

The word to describe the Raiders in 2025 is “bad”. This may be an euphemism? Probably. Can we describe virtually every team that finished with the #1 pick this way? Absolutely. But this was a weird marriage from the beginning. The decision to hire Carroll and trade for Geno Smith probably set the team back. Tom Brady will be heavily involved in the decisions as a minority owner, but the Raiders must get a coach who will help build the culture in the locker room.

Almost Everything Was Bad: Jonathan Gannon, Arizona Cardinals; Brian Daboll, New York Giants; Raheem Morris, Atlanta Falcons

The Jonathan Gannon era in Arizona was full of ups and downs. With a bad roster in 2023, the Cardinals were competitive in some games, even beating the Cowboys and Eagles. Then, in 2024, a 6-4 start put them in position to fight for a playoff spot, but they won just two of their last 7 games. Still, it looked like a very promising second year for Gannon. But he couldn’t survive a very disappointing 2025, which ended in a nine-game losing streak. There were some issues he couldn’t control (like Kyler Murray getting injured), but the team took a massive step back this season.

Daboll was the second coach to be fired in 2025, joining Callahan as the only ones to lose their jobs during the season. Daboll started his head coaching career with a banger, leading the Giants to the playoffs and a surprising Wild Card win against the Vikings. And everything went south from there. The Giants didn’t win more than six games in the following seasons, and although the Giants had some nice moments in 2025, they just couldn’t win games.

Raheem Morris finished his second stint as the Falcons’ head coach (was the interim in 2020) with two 8-9 seasons. The record itself isn’t bad, but how the team finished 8-9 is the big problem. They started 4-2 in 2024, a sequence that included a phenomenal 36-30 win against the Bucs. But then-starter Kirk Cousins fell off, and they won just 4 of their last 11 games. The opposite happened in 2025. An overtime loss to the Panthers in Week 11 made it five in a row and pushed their record to 3-7. They then had a great run to finish the year, winning their last four games and finishing 8-9. Again. This was the story of the Raheem Morris’ Falcons. A good team that couldn’t be consistent on a weekly basis.

New General Manager Probably Wanted His Own Guy: Mike McDaniel, Miami Dolphins

When the Dolphins fired GM Chris Grier in October, many thought McDaniel would soon follow. But he was allowed to finish the season, going 5-3 after Grier was shown the door. He also wasn’t fired right after the season. In fact, he was fired less than 24 hours before the Dolphins announced Jon-Eric Sullivan as their new general manager.

Sullivan, who was the VP of player personnel with the Packers, hired Jeff Hafley, who was also in Green Bay, to be the new head coach. So we can assume that the ownership liked McDaniel, but were also open to the idea that a new GM could want his own guy as the head coach.

Message Grew Stale: John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens; Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers; Sean McDermott, Buffalo Bills

These three I’ll lump together because I actually want to make a different point. It may or may not become a full article one day, but I’ll give the short version here. McDermott was, at the end of the day, fired for losing to a team that isn’t the Chiefs. Ownership may have understood that losing to the Chiefs isn’t the end of the world. It can get tiring, but it’s understandable. However, when the Chiefs, Ravens, and Bengals are all out of the playoffs, not making the Super Bowl becomes unfathomable.

Tomlin and Harbaugh have a similar reason. McDermott is also described by this, but to a lesser extent. To better explain what I mean, I’ll use an analogy. Sometimes, in a long-term relationship, things cool down. It’s not that things are bad. You don’t fight. For the most part, you get along. But it isn’t the same as when you first got together; the passion just isn’t there anymore. Because you don’t fight, you may think things are good, so you don’t do anything. Until it finally hits you: you aren’t happy anymore. It wasn’t a failed relationship. It reached a natural breaking point.

That is, to me, the perfect way to describe Harbaugh and Tomlin. You can’t say they weren’t successful. The Ravens have been contenders since 2019. Tomlin never had a losing season in his career. You can’t make fun of how this has only led to Wild Card exits, but it’s insanely hard to do that. They weren’t bad coaches; it just happened that sometimes relationships don’t have to be horrific to end.