Why the NFL’s First Head Coach Firing of the Season Is Running Late

The NFL is overdue for its first head coach firing of the season.

But maybe don’t mention that to Dan Quinn, Shane Steichen, or a few other coaches who could be in jeopardy of being given that ignominious distinction.

Last season, the Titans made Brian Callahan the first head coach fired league-wide on Oct. 13. In 2024, the Jets struck first by dismissing Robert Saleh on Oct. 8. The Raiders moved first in 2023 by ousting Josh McDaniels on Nov. 1.

The last NFL season in which the first head coach firing came later than Nov. 1 was in 2021, when the Jaguars dismissed Urban Meyer on Dec. 16. But there already had been a head coaching change that season, with Jon Gruden’s resignation from the Raiders on Oct. 11. So the last time the NFL went beyond Nov. 1 without a head coaching switch in a season came in 2017, when the Giants’ firing of Ben McAdoo on Dec. 4 was the opening salvo.

This is therefore an unusual show of patience and restraint by NFL team owners, a group not exactly known for those traits when it comes to dealing with coaches.

“It’s coming,” one NFL agent who represents coaches told Front Office Sports. “It always does. Just wait for it.”

There were 10 new head coaches hired last offseason among the 32 teams, or 31% of the league. That tied the most ever in an offseason, last occurring in 2022. That volume of change may partially explain what’s happening—or not happening—now. It perhaps reduces the field of teams that would consider an in-season coaching change to 22, given that it’s impulsive even by NFL standards to fire a coach after less than one full season.

Burgeoning coaching salaries, with the league’s highest-paid head coaches now believed to be making around $20 million per season and even those in the middle and lower rungs moving higher as well, also could contribute. Owners may be reluctant in some cases to pay the remaining money due under a coach’s contract to someone who has been fired.

But the moves invariably get made at some point, sometimes to placate outraged fan bases and sometimes simply because of a feeling that it’s time to move on a business that’s all about change.

Who Blinks First?

There was intense speculation that the Commanders would fire Quinn in the aftermath of a tie with the Giants on Oct. 11 at Northwest Stadium that included a clock-management fiasco by Washington’s offense at the end of overtime, inexplicably allowing the clock to expire while in position for a winning field goal. The following morning, however, a source told FOS that such a move was not under immediate consideration.

“I want to apologize to my wife for this last week. … I wasn’t very nice. It was a bad week, a bad Sunday,” Commanders owner Josh Harris said during an Economic Club of D.C. panel discussion four days later at a downtown Washington hotel.

A lopsided loss by the Commanders in their following game Oct. 19 against the 49ers might have cost Quinn his job. Instead, he remained in place after his team rallied from a 20-point deficit and had chances to win in the game’s final minutes, only to suffer another defeat. The Commanders then had their bye week; they return from it to face the Eagles on Sunday night. They have a 1-4-1 record, and a loss Sunday night might prompt Harris to make the move with Quinn that he resisted following the Giants debacle.

The Colts have begun a retooling in Carlie Irsay-Gordon’s second season as their primary owner. She fired Chris Ballard as the team’s general manager on Oct. 19. Last week, the Colts commenced what could become a full-blown fire sale by the NFL’s Nov. 10 trade deadline by dealing guard Quenton Nelson to the Seahawks and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner to the 49ers for draft picks. They are 2-5 entering Sunday’s game at Jacksonville, and some within the league wonder how much longer Steichen might be given.

There are similar questions about Aaron Glenn, with the Jets at 2-5. Their owner, Woody Johnson, fired Saleh five games into the 2024 season with a record of 2-3. The Chargers hired Jim Harbaugh to much fanfare ahead of the 2024 season. He led the team to two straight 11-win seasons. But now the Chargers, at 0-6, are the NFL’s only winless team this season. Even so, the job of offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel might be in greater immediate jeopardy than Harbaugh’s.

The Eagles are on a five-game losing streak that has intensified the scrutiny on their coach, Nick Sirianni. Sirianni and the team have faced sharp questioning of the handling of the medical case of quarterback Jalen Hurts, who is expected to miss at least the rest of this season while being treated with blood thinners after blood clots were found in his lungs. The NFL and NFL Players Association have begun the process of jointly reviewing Hurts’s medical care under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman have not been reluctant to initiate an organizational reset in the past. Lurie parted with a former Super Bowl-winning coach, Doug Pederson, and the Eagles traded a would-be franchise quarterback, Carson Wentz, following the 2020 season. But Sirianni made five playoff appearances, reached two Super Bowls, and won one of them over his five seasons with the Eagles prior to this. Those accomplishments may buy him some time.

The Tomlin Factor

Later in the season, the potential availability of former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, now a broadcaster for NBC, perhaps could lead some teams to contemplate their coaching situations. Former Bills coach Sean McDermott is also out of the league this season and available as a candidate during the upcoming firing-and-hiring cycle for coaches.

But for now, it’s about which team will make the first move to kick off that cycle.