One of the toughest positions to fill in all of sports is the head coach in the NFL. Without a top-end coach, no team is going to sustain success for any period of time, and there are simply not enough qualified people to fill the 32 roles in the league.
Each year, there seem to be around five openings, so the turnover is rather high, and some teams just continue to make the wrong choices. A good head coach can also come in many different forms, so there isn't a clear-cut formula to find the right guy for the job.
And to add another layer to this, teams that fire their head coaches in-season end up having a bit of a leg-up in their search for the next coach. Let's dive into three teams very likely to fire their head coach following Week 18.
These NFL teams are surely going to fire their head coach following Week 18
Pete Carroll, Las Vegas Raiders
It's hard to envision how Pete Carroll, who is 74 years old, returns to the Las Vegas Raiders' sideline in 2026. This team has taken a massive step back this year but could end up with the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. That pick could be used to take Fernando Mendoza, the likely top QB prospect this year. Carroll's Raiders have consistently looked overwhelmed and unprepared each week. This has been one of the worst coaching tenures in recent NFL memory.
Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns
Kevin Stefanski is a good coach and would be able to snag another head coaching job within the next two years if he is let go by the Cleveland Browns. However, he's overstayed his welcome with the team and probably needs to be put in a situation where the QB position is already solved. Stefanski isn't in over his head or anything, but it's probably time for he and the Browns' franchise to go in a new direction in 2026 and beyond.
Jonathan Gannon, Arizona Cardinals
In the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Jonathan Gannon and the Arizona Cardinals made strides and went from four wins to eight wins, so there was reason to believe that 2025 could see another win improvement, but the Cardinals have gone backwards after a semi-encouraging 2-0 start. Gannon might be best-suited as a defensive coordoinator, as the Cardinals are a total mess but have much more roster talent than the record might indicate.