The 2025 NFL regular season is coming to an end. For some teams, the end of the regular season means a ramp-up period to prepare for the playoffs. For others, it can mean that Black Monday, the first day after the season ends, during which teams often fire underperforming head coaches, is right around the corner.
The Tennessee Titans and New York Giants have already fired their respective head coaches, Brian Callahan and Brian Daboll. Though two new head coaching hires are guaranteed, it’s almost a certainty that more will come. It’s just a matter of which teams will part with their current coaches.
For the sake of the argument, along with the current two openings, we will include the five teams with the highest odds to fire their head coach at the end of the NFL regular season. They are as follows:
- Cleveland Browns: Kevin Stefanski
- New York Jets: Aaron Glenn
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Todd Bowles
- Arizona Cardinals: Jonathan Gannon
- Las Vegas Raiders: Pete Carroll
7) Arizona Cardinals
This may seem like a harsh ranking for the Arizona Cardinals, and there are valid reasons to be interested in this job. They went 8-9 just one season ago, so there’s an indication they have plenty of talent on the roster. They’re 2-8 in one-score games, so while they’re losing a lot of games, they have enough ability to keep games competitive amidst bad coaching.
That said, it could be a tough road towards making the Cardinals one of the top teams in the NFL. For starters, their quarterback situation is a mess. Kyler Murray figures to be on his way out this offseason, and with little to no cap relief from releasing him, Arizona has to hope a team is desperate enough to take on his bad contract.
6) Tennessee Titans
One can’t help but feel for Cam Ward this year. He hasn’t been perfect in his rookie year, but the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft is currently surrounded by an offense that has the third-worst PFSN Offense Impact score in the league. As a result, the Tennessee Titans sit with a 3-13 record and are in jeopardy of replicating their record from the 2024 season.
Despite their lackluster roster, Ward has thrown for six touchdowns with no interceptions and two games with passer ratings above 100 in his last three games. It feels like he’s finally starting to turn a corner. Tennessee has a few other talented youngsters like Peter Skoronski, J.C. Latham, Chimere Dike, Cedric Gray, and T’Vondre Sweat, too.
In terms of blue-chip talent, the Titans have Jeffery Simmons, and that’s about it. That means they don’t have much in the way of proven contributors to elevate them out of irrelevancy, nor do they have much in terms of trade bait. That said, they lead the NFL in 2026 cap space with over $105 million, so that could soon change.
5) New York Jets
Don’t expect the New York Jets to turn things around in the 2026 NFL season. It might not even come in 2027, either. They haven’t had a winning season since 2015, and their current roster is a long way away from competing. But if their head coaching job becomes open after Black Monday, there are some pieces worth piquing a potential candidate’s interest.
Particularly, the Jets have a massive influx of draft capital coming within the next two years. Within the 2026 and 2027 NFL Drafts, they have a combined five first-round picks and three second-round picks. That should provide plenty of chances to swing at blue-chip talent. They’ll also have a high first-round pick this year to draft a new quarterback, should they so choose.
The issue? New York is a roster devoid of immediate impact players. They traded their two best players at this year’s trade deadline. The 2026 draft class isn’t highly touted in terms of quarterback talent, either. Plus, if the Jets fire Aaron Glenn as their head coach after just one season, it sends the message that anybody’s leash is going to be short.
4) Tampa Bay Buccaneers
As far as immediate success goes, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would likely be at the top of this list. It’s no guarantee Todd Bowles gets the can on Black Monday, considering he’s led his team to an NFC South crown in each of his four seasons with the team, and they play for the chance at a fifth in Week 18. But they’ve fallen far short of expectations in 2025.
After a 6-2 start to the 2025 NFL season, the Buccaneers have since gone 1-7 in their remaining games. They had a steady lead in first place of the NFC South, which stakes a reasonable claim to being the weakest division in the NFL. However, their recent failures have them hanging on for dear life in a winner-takes-all game against the Carolina Panthers on Saturday.
Tampa Bay’s five consecutive playoff appearances show there’s plenty of talent on an experienced roster. They play in a weak division that they should easily win without a colossal breakdown like they experienced this season.
But Baker Mayfield ranks 27th in PFSN’s NFL QB Impact Metric this year, and with his deal expiring in 2027, the Buccaneers’ new head coach would have to determine whether to find his replacement or pay him again.
3) Cleveland Browns
Let’s get one thing straight: fixing the Cleveland Browns won’t be an easy task. It’s a goal many have tried and failed to achieve, and this go-around also figures to be difficult after their 4-12 record in the 2025 NFL season. That said, there’s reason to be optimistic for the future.
A lot of it comes down to the Browns’ dense draft capital and recent 2025 class. They have two first-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft thanks to their Draft Day trade-down last season. They also have plenty of existing young standouts, and many of them came from this past draft. Mason Graham, Quinshon Judkins, Carson Schwesinger, and Harold Fannin Jr. all look like potential building blocks.
The Browns not ranking any higher comes down mainly to two things: quarterback instability and cap inflexibility. Albeit on a limited sample size, Shedeur Sanders ranks 44th among 45 qualified NFL QBs in PFSN’s NFL QB Impact Metric. Cleveland is also over $11 million in the red in cap space this offseason, with Deshaun Watson’s awful contract giving them a whopping cap hit of over $80 million in 2026.
2) Las Vegas Raiders
By PFSN’s power rankings, the Las Vegas Raiders are the worst team in the NFL. They have bottom-ten units on both sides of the ball, they’re 2-14 with one game left in the season, and seven of their losses have come by 15 points or more. So why is their head-coaching job enticing?
A lot of it comes down to the Raiders having the inside track on the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. That pick figures to be Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who won the Heisman this year and has sent the Hoosiers into the College Football Playoff semifinals. Selecting him would gift Las Vegas a lengthy window with a rookie QB contract.
Additionally, the Raiders have two blue-chip young prospects in Ashton Jeanty and Brock Bowers. Running an offense with those two and Mendoza would be a great starting point for a rebuilding team. They also have over $100 million in cap space in the 2026 offseason, which gives them plenty of resources to improve their roster.
1) New York Giants
Heading into Black Monday, the New York Giants stand out as the best landing spot for an NFL head coaching candidate in the 2026 offseason. They might not have the best record this year out of the seven teams on this list, but there’s arguably the clearest path to success with this spot compared to all the others.
For one, the Giants already have plenty of young talent on their roster. Jaxson Dart has looked the part in his rookie campaign, giving their next head coach a promising young QB to work with. They feature plenty of other young studs like Malik Nabers, Andrew Thomas, Abdul Carter, and Cam Skattebo. Star veterans like Brian Burns and Dexter Lawrence provide additional value on defense, too.
The Giants are 1-7 in one-score games, and while that shows their roster still has work to do, it shows they’re able to play a lot of teams close, like what was previously mentioned with the Cardinals. They’re much better than their current 3-13 record indicates, but that poor record will also net them a high pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. There’s a lot to like in New York, and it should be a job in high demand.
