Being a head coach in the NFL is one of the most difficult jobs in professional sports. With 53 players on an active roster, exhausting might be the best word to describe what being a head coach is like. While many teams have top head coaches, others do not, and it's an unfortunate reality for those clubs.
Finding the right head coach may honestly be the toughest job an NFL franchise has outside of finding the franchise quarterback. There was also a ton of head coaching turnover this past offseason, only further proving this point.
Even though there are a lot of year one head coaches on new teams, and veteran head coaches whose seats could not be colder, we did find some head coaches that should be on the hot seat as the 2026 NFL Season approaches. Let's rank them here.
Power-ranking the top hot seat head coaches approaching the 2026 NFL Season
6. Dave Canales, Carolina Panthers
Yes, the Carolina Panthers won the NFC South last year, but this team did it with a losing record, and that simply cannot happen again in 2026. Not only is winning the division with a losing record highly unlikely, but another major step forward needs to happen.
Canales did see some growth from his team from 2024 into 2025, but another sizeable step has to happen. Carolina would likely need to hit 10-ish wins, in my opinion, for Canales to keep his job. There is surely some cautious optimism, though, as quarterback Bryce Young played the best football of his career in 2025, but again, another jump needs to happen.
If this team somehow falls apart by mid-season or just aren't really making the progress needed, I could see the team cutting ties with Canales.
5. Nick Siranni, Philadelphia Eagles
Despite finishing with a winning record all five years, which has also featured four-straight double-digit winning seasons, two Super Bowl appearances, and a Super Bowl title, the Philadelphia Eagles have somehow made that into a dysfunctional mess at times.
The Eagles have gone one-and-done in the playoffs in 2021, 2023, and 2025, and if it happens again in 2026, it would be the fourth time in six years the Eagles would deal with the same playoff fate. The team's offense has been a mess in those odd-numbered years, and that's really what it's come down to. If Philly again struggles on this side of the ball and does not emerge as a legitimate contender, it would be hard to see how Sirianni survives.
With how good the front office is and how easy Howie Roseman seems to build up these rosters, I can't imagine the patience is very high right now.
Add us as a preferred source on Google