NFL coaching hot seat rankings: When will Titans move on from Brian Callahan? Can Dave Canales save his job?

A month into the NFL season has passed, and the league is starting to shape itself out with the contenders and pretenders. This is the point in the season where teams are starting to set themselves up for a playoff run or wonder if the 2025 campaign is a lost cause. 

For some teams, the page may already be turning to 2026. Teams have moved on from coaches early in the season in the past as some firings have come by October (as that month starts this week), moving on from a poor start to 2025. Yes, some teams have experienced miserable starts to the season. 

There is certainly a better gauge regarding which coaches are on the hot seat, and for them it doesn't get any easier. With all the coaching turnover in the NFL every season, it's fair to ponder which coaches won't be able to finish the 2025 campaign -- or last past this year. 

So which coaches are on the proverbial hot seat through four weeks in 2025, and is there anything they can do to save their job? 

There is still time to salvage the year, but time is of the essence. These are the coaches that are under the microscope in the second batch of hot seat rankings for 2025. 

1. Brian Callahan (Tennessee Titans)

• 2025 record: 0-4
• Career record: 3-18 (.143 win percentage)
• Previous ranking: 3

The Houston Texans are a lot better than the Tennessee Titans, but Tennessee was just shut out by a previously winless football team. Cam Ward is 31st in touchdown rate (1.3%), 32nd in yards per attempt (4.9), and 31st in passer rating (63.9), and has been sacked a league-high 17 times. 

The Titans are 28th in points per possession (1.16) and 32nd in offensive points per game (12.8). This team doesn't have a good roster, but a team with the No. 1 overall pick at quarterback should be better. Maybe Ward isn't good, but what is Callahan doing to make him better? The offense lacks creativity and the play-calling isn't set up for a rookie quarterback to succeed. The offensive line isn't exactly good either.

Callahan has a lot of flaws as a coach, the the team isn't improving. Tennessee may be the worst team in the NFL, and the clock is ticking. 

2. Mike McDaniel (Miami Dolphins)

• 2025 record: 1-3
• Career record: 29-26 (.526 win percentage)
• Previous ranking: 1

The Dolphins played hard against the Bills in Week 3, which was enough to justify McDaniel buying some time to save the sinking ship that is Miami. The schedule does get easier after Week 4, with Carolina and Cleveland being two of the next three games.

Miami needed a win against the Jets and got it, saving McDaniels's job for the time being. Hate to call these next few games a  "must win" for the Dolphins, but they are for McDaniel if he wants to be this team's coach by November. Miami needs to just rack up wins against the bad teams, which is typically what McDaniel has been good at throughout his career.

This stretch is a strong test for McDaniel's future in Miami. The Dolphins appear to be getting ready to move on, no matter what the organization says publicly. These last two games have been promising. 

3. Dave Canales (Carolina Panthers)

• 2025 record: 1-3
• Career record: 6-15 (.286 win percentage)
• Previous ranking: 4

The Panthers are a bad football team, yet played above their talent level in a shocking shutout of the Atlanta Falcons in Week 3. Outside of that, the Panthers defense have given up 31.7 points per game in those three games (yet are sixth in points allowed per possession at 2.08). Perhaps Canales is getting the most out of this group, but then this team lays a massive egg against the New England Patriots of all teams. 

Carolina is 27th in offensive points per game (17.0) and 19th in points per possession (1.82). Bryce Young is 25th in touchdown rate (3.5%) and 28th in passer rating (77.1). Perhaps tis is who Young is and Canales can't change it. 

Why is Canales in danger? The Panthers have unstable ownership in David Tepper with a quick trigger. They are a bad team in a bad division, a clear bottom dweller in the NFL. If Carolina hits the reset button, Canales may not survive the rebuild. 

4. Brian Daboll (New York Giants)

• 2025 record: 1-3
• Career record: 19-35-1 (.355 win percentage)
• Previous ranking: 2

Daboll and the Giants needed a victory and it came against the previously unbeaten Chargers. The Giants head coach pulled the plug on Russell Wilson in order to save his job and went to Jaxson Dart, who injected some life in the offense and the football team as a whole.

Losing Malik Nabers will significantly hurt Daboll and the Giants offense, and Dart's development. This may not help Daboll going forward, as he needs Dart to develop and show progress in order to justify coming back for 2026.

The Giants aren't the worst team in football. Again, the injuries and schedule aren't helping. 

5. Aaron Glenn (New York Jets)

• 2025 record: 0-4
• Career record: 0-4 (.000 win percentage)
• Previous ranking: N/A

Glenn's start as an NFL head coach could not have been any worse. The Jets were going to be a bad team, but they are 0-4 after four games and look like one of the worst teams in the NFL. Glenn preached all summer about making the team more accountable and fixing all the issues that haunted the franchise in the past, but the Jets are worse. 

The Jets are sloppy, undisciplined, and not smart. Where's the accountability here? How quick will Glenn's act wear thin ina  locker room where his message already appears to not be heard? Could he be a one-and-done head coach? 

New York can still turn things around, but Glenn hasn't delivered on what he promised. 

6. Zac Taylor (Cincinnati Bengals)

• 2025 record: 2-2
• Career record: 48-54-1 (.471 win percentage)
• Previous ranking: N/A

Until the last two games existed, there was no reason to put Taylor on the hot seat. Even though the Bengals lost Joe Burrow, they avenged the slow starts that plagued the franchise and were 2-0 on the year. Cincinnati is 0-2 since, and the Bengals are seriously exposing Taylor in the process. 

Cincinnati ranks last in offensive points per game in the two games without Burrow (6.5), while Browning has thrown for just 265 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions (66.6 passer rating). The Bengals have failed to eclipse 175 total yards in back-to-back games for the first time since 1971, and they now have more such games (three) than the rest of the league combined.

Taylor is an offensive coach right? This is his seventh season coaching right? Has this franchise really been carried by Burrow? 

The past two weeks have not been good for Taylor, who may not have a job for long if this team doesn't improve. Cincinnati is terrible without Burrow, which is an indictment of Taylor as a coach. This isn't the same Bengals team that survived without Burrow in each of the last two years. 

7. Kevin Stefanski (Cleveland Browns)

• 2025 record: 1-3
• Career record: 41-47 (.466 win percentage)
• Previous ranking: 5

Perhaps Stefanski should pull the Daboll route and go with Dillon Gabriel soon, even though he was not a first-round pick. Joe Flacco has been horrid, which should be expected given that he's 40 years old and doesn't have much to work with. 

The Browns have a win because of how good their defense is, not an offense that is 29th in points per possession (1.24) and 31st in offensive points per game (14.0). Again, the only reason Stefanski is on this list is because of the Browns' failure of a front office with the Deshaun Watson contract -- which crippled other areas of the roster over the last few years. 

This team doesn't have a quarterback, and has to see what Gabriel can do. This is going to cost Stefanski at some point, even though he has a good coach. 

8. Jonathan Gannon (Arizona Cardinals)

• 2025 record: 2-2
• Career record: 14-24 (.368 win percentage)
• Previous ranking: N/A

The Cardinals were a sleeper team for the playoffs, and still are at this point in the season, but they have the lowest strength of victory in the NFL (.125) and have just a .438 strength of schedule so far. Arizona lost by a combined total of four points to San Francisco and Seattle, two division games the Cardinals had to have.

The Cardinals need to be better than "close enough" this season, needing more than two wins against bad teams like the Saints and Panthers. Gannon won't help his stock against the titans this week, but wins over the colts and Packers coming up could get the stage for this team for the remainder of the year. 

Arizona beat two bad teams and had close losses two good teams. The jury is still out on the Cardinals, and Gannon. 

9. John Harbaugh (Baltimore Ravens)

• 2025 record: 1-3
• Career record: 173-107 (.618 win percentage)
• Previous ranking: N/A

Let's call a spade a spade here. There is a 0.01% chance Harbaugh will be fired by the Ravens after the 2025 season, and the percentage is even lower if Lamar Jackson misses a significant amount of team. So why is Harbaugh here in the first place? 

The Ravens season is on the verge of disaster. The defense has been atrocious, not being able to stop any team with a competent quarterback. They are dropping star players on defense like flies, and Jackson's injury could be the final nail in the coffin. Baltimore needs Jackson if it wants to make a run at the playoffs, and can't wina  title without him.

The only way Harbaugh is out of Baltimore is if he retires. He's too good of a coach to not get another chance to get things right with the Ravens, despite his in-game decisions in 2025.