Nick Sirianni and 4 Coaches Who Should Enter the 2024 NFL Season on the Hot Seat
Patience tends to run thin in the NFL. Fortunes can change at a moment's notice, as many coaches can attest.
Aside from the Pittsburgh Steelers' Mike Tomlin and Kansas City Chiefs' Andy Reid, no one is really safe after the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks cut ties with Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll, respectively. Reid is one game away from another Super Bowl appearance, while Tomlin could walk away unscathed after another disappointing season since he has the utmost loyalty from the Rooney family.
Otherwise, the NFL is a results-based, bottom-line business. Either a team lives up to expectations or it doesn't. If it doesn't, someone always takes the fall.
Some coaches get the opportunity to swap out their coordinators after a disappointing season before getting the axe. Others don't get that luxury. Circumstances vary from team to team.
But after disappointing ends to the 2023 season, the following five coaches should be feeling pressure ramp up on them heading into the offseason.
Nick Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles
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Maybe the Philadelphia Eagles' run to Super Bowl LVII last year should be renamed the "Shane Steichen Show." The biggest difference between that squad and this year's is how differently the offense operated.
Those Eagles really didn't take shape until the second half of the 2021 campaign. Nick Sirianni initially called plays upon being named Philadelphia's head coach. Sirianni then handed over the offense to Steichen and things started to click, particularly for quarterback Jalen Hurts.
When Steichen became the Indianapolis Colts' head coach this past offseason, Brian Johnson took over his duties in Philly. The promotion didn't work, since the Sirianni dismissed the 36-year-old coach on Tuesday.
"There's some weird vibes out of there," ESPN's Jeremy Fowler said during an interview on 97.5 The Fanatic. "I just don't know that everybody on the staff is happy about everything that's gone down—especially with Brian Johnson who was sort of caught in the middle."
The departure of previous defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who is now the Arizona Cardinals' head coach, also played a part. His replacement, Sean Desai, didn't even make it through a full season as play-caller. But the NFL is an offense-driven league, and the Eagles made their largest investment in the development of Hurts as a franchise quarterback.
As a result, Philadelphia lost six of their last seven games, including an embarrassing postseason loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Sirianni is looking to replace his coordinators for the second straight offseason.
Something is currently off within the Eagles organization. Sirianni's next hires are critical to his long-term future. If things don't go well in 2024, Philadelphia could be looking for a new on-field leader less than two years after appearing in a Super Bowl.
Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys
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Some may be stunned that Mike McCarthy remains the Dallas Cowboys' head coach after seeing the dumbfounded looks on team owner Jerry Jones' face during another disappointing playoff appearance.
Good regular-season showings aren't good enough anymore. McCarthy should know better than anyone how talented the Cowboys' roster currently is.
Dallas won 36 games over the last three seasons. It was a top-three seed in the playoffs in two of those three years. Its three playoff losses during that stretch have been by six, seven and 16 points.
The situation is getting progressively worse.
"This is one of my most surprises [sic] since I've been in sport period," Jones told reporters after the Cowboys bowed out to the Green Bay Packers during the Wildcard round. "To that degree, I know how disappointed everyone is."
Despite said disappointment, Jones chose not to make a change at head coach.
"I believe this team is very close and capable of achieving our ultimate goals and the best step forward for us will be with Mike McCarthy as our head coach," the owner said in a press release. "There is great benefit to continuing the team's progress under Mike's leadership as our head coach."
Actions speak louder than words, though. McCarthy will enter the 2024 campaign on the last year of his current deal, and the Cowboys have no intention of offering him a contract extension, per ESPN's Adam Schefter.
The Cowboys can be the NFL's best team during the 2024 regular season, but none of it will matter for McCarthy unless they make a legitimate run toward a Super Bowl. Otherwise, the organization will have wasted another year of a talented group.
It's now or never, and McCarthy and Co. will have to make do with a tight salary-cap situation and the possibilities of left tackle Tyron Smith, center Tyler Biadasz, running back Tony Pollard, corner Stephon Gilmore and safety Jayron Kearse not being on the roster in 2024.
Robert Saleh, New York Jets
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No one got to see who the New York Jets were really supposed to be this season. The same can't happen in 2024.
Aaron Rodgers suffering a torn Achilles tendon on the fourth play of the season-opener doomed the entire campaign. To head coach Robert Saleh's credit, his squad remained competitive with a 7-10 record despite missing the one piece whom the entire campaign had been built around.
The hope is that Rodgers is healthy enough and ready to play one more season before turning 41 in December. The Jets don't have a better available option.
The Jets went all-in this offseason to built around Rodgers, allowed him some say in roster matters and expected him to provide good enough play to complement an excellent defense. Instead, they were stuck with Zach Wilson as their starter, and the 2021 No. 2 overall pick showed minimal (if any) improvement.
Heading into his fourth year as the leader of Gang Green, Saleh will now be dealing with an aging franchise savior coming off the worst injury of his career, an offensive line that needs to be reworked again and back-to-back 7-10 campaigns.
Saleh caught some strays this season, particularly from veteran running back Dalvin Cook, who originally signed as a free agent with the Jets before being released midseason. Cook joined the Baltimore Ravens for their playoff run.
"Just to be around [Ravens head coach John] Harbaugh, when you've got a head coach like that, it's easy to go out and give 100 percent effort," Cook told reporters.
The Jets don't have a long timeline with Rodgers as their centerpiece. If they don't finally get to the postseason under Saleh, change will be forthcoming.
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Sean McDermott, Buffalo Bills
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A popular analogy has been making the rounds on social media, and it's quite appropriate regarding Sean McDermott.
The Buffalo Bills' head coach is the NFL's version of Jerry Sloan, and his quarterback, Josh Allen, is the equivalent of Karl Malone.
For those who aren't longtime basketball fans, Sloan led the Utah Jazz for decades yet never won a championship, mainly because his best squads faced Michael Jordan during the Chicago Bulls' dynasty.
Allen has been an absolute superstar and one of the NFL's top two or three players in recent years, but he's not Patrick Mahomes. As a result, the Kansas City Chiefs are going to their sixth straight AFC Championship Game, while the Bills came up short against Mahomes and Co. for the third time in their last four postseasons.
Even as good as Allen is, the Bills are butting up against a glass ceiling, with McDermott possibly being the primary culprit.
Sportskeeda's Tony Pauline reported that McDermott's standing in Buffalo seems solid despite the latest loss, though the situation is one "to keep an eye on based on the rumblings over the past month and after [Sunday's] disappointing defeat."
These types of reports are often tremors before a slow-emerging earthquake.
The Bills fought through adversity this past season, with a six-game winning streak at the end of the year to claim a fourth straight division title. Yet something is missing every time Buffalo battles Kansas City.
McDermott is a defensive-minded head coach. Some will use that as an argument for a different offensive approach, though the Bills haven't been stereotypically conservative. However, the head coach should have significant influence over slowing Mahomes. Yet postseason-Mahomes holds a 75.2 completion percentage and an 8-to-0 touchdown-to-interception ratio against McDermott's Bills.
Another season where the Bills don't reach a Super Bowl will require a different approach.
Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns
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Kevin Stefanski is the best head coach the Cleveland Browns hired since the franchise's return to the NFL in 1999. General manager Andrew Berry told reporters that Stefanski isn't "close to his ceiling" and that he hopes his coach stays in Cleveland for the long term.
However, Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, have 230 million fully guaranteed reasons why Cleveland needs to win big sooner than later.
The Browns let go of offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, running backs coach Stump Mitchell and tight ends coach T.J. McCartney after losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Houston Texans. All three assistants had been with Stefanski since he filled out his initial Browns staff, which suggests the Browns are changing course in an attempt to maximize an offense featuring Deshaun Watson.
"I think they only make the moves for one thing—to get better, to bring a winner," Mitchell said in an interview with News 5 Cleveland's Camryn Justice after being dismissed. "I mean, we won, but to bring a championship here to Cleveland, that's what they make the moves for, in my opinion."
Watson is the key for Cleveland. At least, that's the hope.
Stefanski is now tasked with rebuilding his offensive staff to capitalize on the final three years on Watson's contract. Good hires will definitely go a long way, as they did with Jim Schwartz and Bubba Ventrone coming in as defensive and special teams coordinators last year.
Yet Watson hasn't been a viable starter since he led the NFL in passing yardage in 2020. Since then, the Houston Texans benched him for an entire season amid more than two dozen sexual assault and misconduct allegations, traded him to the Browns, where he was subsequently suspended for 11 games, and he suffered a season-ending shoulder surgery this past year.
The Browns have no idea what type of quarterback Watson is at this point. The Haslams have too much invested in him not to do everything in their power to make it work, though.
If Cleveland falls short of expectations with Watson in the lineup, there's only one place left to point since Stefanski has been the offensive play-caller and fired each of his top three coordinators in the span of a year.
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