NFL Coaches with Most on the Line in 2017

The start of the 2017 NFL regular season is still three months away, but coaches are already preparing vigorously for Week 1 and beyond. That's because there's little margin for error in such a competitive industry, and the folks that coaches answer to (general managers, owners and even fans) are increasingly impatient. 

Some coaches are doing that work despite the fact they're pretty damn safe. Then again, guys like Bill Belichick, Sean Payton and Pete Carroll have earned that comfort by refusing to stop putting in that work. 

Others appear to be fighting for their jobs and/or reputations. 

Here are 10 such coaches. 

Cincinnati Bengals Head Coach Marvin Lewis

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Why the Cincinnati Bengals continue to employ Marvin Lewis as head coach is one of the biggest mysteries in sports.

Despite almost always having a talented roster with a good quarterback, the Bengals have failed to win a single playoff game in Lewis' 14 seasons on the job. They've posted winning records in only seven of those seasons and have won the division in four of them. They're 0-7 in wild-card playoff games under Lewis, with four of those losses coming at home. Only two of those games were decided by one score, and they scored more than 17 points in zero of them.

And yet Lewis is the second-longest tenured head coach in the NFL. 

Six head coaches have been in charge of their respective teams for nine-plus years. Lewis is one of them, of course. The other five? Bill Belichick, Mike McCarthy, Sean Payton, Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh. They've all won a championship, while Lewis has yet to win a wild-card game. 

But even famously patient Cincinnati owner Mike Brown might be ready to give up on Lewis, who is entering the final year of his contract. That was supposed to be the case last season, but Brown allowed Lewis to avoid lame-duck status by giving him a one-year extension last offseason.

This year, though, Lewis told ESPN.com's Katherine Terrell that he doesn't "anticipate anything happening" on that front, which means he'll probably be coaching for his job in 2017. That's not ideal considering the Bengals are coming off a six-win season and a tough run in free agency in which they lost two key offensive linemen and didn't sign anybody of note.

Atlanta Falcons Head Coach Dan Quinn

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Yes, Dan Quinn just led the Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl. But his team also lost that game in historically sickening fashion.

Will the young Falcons be traumatized by their 25-point collapse against the New England Patriots? If so, it could be hard for Quinn and Co. to recover from that loss. Thus, this could be a make-or-break season for the Quinn era in Atlanta. 

Quinn is merely entering the third year of a five-year deal, and his Falcons certainly overachieved in 2016. It helped that his quarterback, Matt Ryan, had one of the best seasons in NFL history and was named MVP. 

Now, though, expectations are high as the defending NFC champions open a $1.6 billion stadium. And Quinn won't have either of his coordinators from last year's magical run.

The roster remains pretty much the same, so there's a good chance Atlanta again contends for the title. But if it doesn't—if a worse-than-usual Super Bowl hangover causes them to fall on their face—Quinn could at the very least wind up on the hot seat.

Cleveland Browns Head Coach Hue Jackson

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Not only is Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson tasked with having to revive a team that won just a single game last season, but as the team's offensive coordinator, he will also have a lot of the technical aspects of that revival on his shoulders. 

What is the team's biggest problem? It doesn't have a proven quarterback. But Jackson is a quarterback guru, and it's his responsibility to get something out of the returning Cody Kessler, veteran addition Brock Osweiler or second-round pick DeShone Kizer. 

If that doesn't happen, the Browns—who scored an AFC-low 16.5 points per game last year but have no excuses after bringing in two stud offensive linemen and 1,000-yard receiver Kenny Britt in free agency—won't likely show much improvement in the standings in 2017. 

In other words, if Jackson doesn't get a lot more out of the quarterback position and the offense in general in 2017, he might not be in Cleveland come 2018.

Green Bay Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy

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Mike McCarthy is entering his 12th season as head coach of the Green Bay Packers. And though the Packers have been to the playoffs in each of the last eight years, they haven't been to a Super Bowl since 2010. 

All but a handful of teams are mired in longer championship droughts, but expectations are particularly high in Green Bay. The Packers have the highest-rated passer in NFL history—in his prime—along with a talented offense overall, but the window is slowly closing for a team that just can't seem to get it completely together of late. 

Remember, a lot of folks thought McCarthy either was or should have been on the hot seat when the Green Bay offense stalled during a tumultuous 4-6 start to 2016. And then they recovered, winning eight straight contests en route to the NFC Championship Game. 

McCarthy, who signed a multiyear contract extension in 2014, will likely retain his job so long as the Packers make another deep playoff run in 2017. But if that doesn't happen, and Green Bay has another weird year like it did in 2016 but without that late-season recovery, McCarthy could fall. 

Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean McVay

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New Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay won't likely lose his job after just one year in L.A., but he still has a heck of a lot on the line considering he's young enough to have attended grade school with Taylor Swift.

McVay, 31, is the youngest head coach in NFL history. 

He took that distinction from Lane Kiffin, who won just five games in one-plus seasons with the Oakland Raiders at the age of 32 and 33 in 2007 and 2008. 

Dating to the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, three other head coaches have been hired prior to their 33rd birthday. David Shula went 19-52 in four-plus seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals starting in 1992, Raheem Morris went 17-31 in three seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting in 2009, and Josh McDaniels went 11-17 in fewer than two seasons with the Denver Broncos starting in '09. 

None of those young coaches made the playoffs. 

Even if McVay survives the 2017 season, a poor showing by Jared Goff and Co. will have plenty of folks questioning his credentials entering 2018.

Indianapolis Colts Head Coach Chuck Pagano

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Last offseason, with the Indianapolis Colts coming off a disappointing 8-8 campaign, there was speculation that Colts owner Jim Irsay would fire head coach Chuck Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson.

It didn't happen. 

One year later, the Colts are coming off a disappointing 8-8 season. Irsay has already fired Grigson. 

With Andrew Luck at quarterback and a revamped defense, there's little doubt Pagano won't keep his job if Indianapolis experiences another non-winning season in 2017. That's especially the case because new general manager Chris Ballard added Jabaal Sheard, Johnathan Hankins, John Simon, Margus Hunt, Barkevious Mingo, Sean Spence and Al Woods to the front seven in free agency.

Not only does Pagano likely have to get back to the playoffs in order to keep his job, but it's also important that the defensive guru gets more out of a unit that has ranked in the bottom 10 in the league each of the last two seasons. 

"He is our coach for 2017," Irsay said after he fired Grigson in January, per Stephen Holder of IndyStar.

But to retain that title for 2018 and beyond, Pagano has work to do.

Denver Broncos Offensive Coordinator Mike McCoy

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After a four-year stint as head coach of the San Diego Chargers, Mike McCoy has returned to the Denver Broncos with the same title he held from 2009 to 2012. But he could have his work cut out for him coordinating the Denver offense in 2017, because the Broncos remain in win-now mode but have major questions at the quarterback position. 

McCoy, of course, is a former quarterbacks coach, and the Broncos are certainly hoping he can get the most out of incumbent starter Trevor Siemian and/or 2016 first-round pick Paxton Lynch. Those two are competing for the starting job after general manager John Elway expressed confidence in them while deciding against signing a veteran option in free agency. 

But Siemian was a seventh-round pick two years ago, and he had a sub-60 completion percentage as well as the eighth-lowest passer rating in the NFL as Denver's regular starter last season. Lynch didn't do anything in limited action to indicate he's ready to take the reins, and now he's learning a new offense again. 

If McCoy can groom one of those guys into a franchise quarterback this season, the Broncos will be Super Bowl contenders. But if he can't, they might miss the playoffs again. And if that happens and that offense sputters, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Elway decided to can McCoy after only one season, draft a quarterback early and bring in a new coordinator to groom him from the get-go. 

Jacksonville Jaguars Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett

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Nathaniel Hackett survived the Jacksonville Jaguars' coaching staff shake-up last season. He was promoted from quarterbacks coach to interim offensive coordinator when Greg Olson was fired in October, and that interim label was removed in January. 

But Hackett might have only one year to right the ship on the offensive side of the ball in Jacksonville, especially since he has a background coaching quarterbacks and 2014 No. 3 overall pick Blake Bortles was one of the worst players in the league at that super-important position in 2016. 

Bortles is coming off a year in which he ranked in the bottom five among qualified quarterbacks in completion percentage (58.9), yards per attempt (6.2) and passer rating (78.8). Per Pro Football Focus, his passer rating on throws that traveled 20 or more yards was 17.5. A total of 30 other quarterbacks attempted at least 30 such throws, and none had a rating below 46.9. 

Think about that.

Unsurprisingly, the Jags offense ranked in the bottom 10 in scoring and yards. But that unit has too much talent to land that low, especially with No. 4 overall pick Leonard Fournette stepping in at running back. 

New Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone has an offensive background, so he could also be in for a one-and-done season if Jacksonville fails to improve in the win column in 2017. But coordinators often fall first, which leads us to...

Jacksonville Jaguars Defensive Coordinator Todd Wash

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Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator Todd Wash faces similar pressure to that of offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. The D also had plenty of talent last season, and yet it was one of eight units to surrender 25 or more points per game. And Wash was in charge throughout the year. 

General manager David Caldwell did Wash some favors in the offseason by bringing in high-priced free agents Calais Campbell and A.J. Bouye, and you'd think the Jaguars are in line to get more from youngsters Dante Fowler Jr., Myles Jack and Jalen Ramsey.

Takes those five and throw in Malik Jackson, Paul Posluszny, Tashaun Gipson and Barry Church, and you have what should be a good-if-not-great defense. But if the results don't bear that out, Wash will likely be looking for work in the new year.

New Orleans Saints Defensive Coordinator Dennis Allen

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Midway through the 2015 season, Dennis Allen took over what turned out to be the league's worst defense in terms of points allowed. He led that unit for all of 2016 and helped it become...drumroll...the second-worst defense in terms of points allowed. 

The New Orleans Saints will require a lot more from that group in 2017. 

In the last two years, the Saints have used two top-12 picks on defenders Sheldon Rankins and Marshon Lattimore. And they gave the defense a boost in free agency by adding potential front-seven starters A.J. Klein and Alex Okafor. 

That unit doesn't have to become unbeatable in 2017; with Drew Brees and Co. on the other side of the ball, New Orleans can compete with merely respectable results from Allen's D. 

If he can't deliver, the Saints won't likely be competitive, and Allen will probably be out of a job.