The day immediately following the conclusion of the NFL regular season is referred to as “Black Monday.” This day marks the period when teams are most likely to fire their head coaches. The Tennessee Titans and New York Giants have already fired their respective coaches, and the total is likely to rise after the season ends.
There’s been plenty of head coaching turnover in the NFL in recent years. In the previous three seasons, there were a combined 25 coaching jobs that changed hands, with some teams firing coaches multiple times.
In the latter half of the 2025 NFL season, a couple of head coaches have improved their standing. Mike McDaniel of the Miami Dolphins got off to a rough start, but heading into Week 18, they’re 5-2 in their last seven games. The Atlanta Falcons’ current three-game winning streak could be enough to save Raheem Morris’ job, as well.
The same might not be said for some of these coaches. Here are some of the NFL’s head coaches in the biggest danger of becoming victims of Black Monday.
Cardinals HC Jonathan Gannon
When Jonathan Gannon took the Arizona Cardinals’ head coaching job in 2023, practically everybody knew it wouldn’t be an overnight process to get them back to the playoffs. Coming off a 4-13 season the year before, they replicated the same record in Year 1 of Gannon’s tenure. Things improved in 2024, though, as they ended the year 8-9.
Heading into 2025, the expectations were higher for the Cardinals. Offseason additions like Walter Nolen, Will Johnson, Josh Sweat, Calais Campbell, and Dalvin Tomlinson were brought in to help boost the defense. Arizona has played a lot of teams close, but its 3-13 record is far short of what its goals were coming into the year.
Outside of a team’s record, a good indicator of a bad head coaching job is that team’s success on the side of the ball their coach specializes in. The Cardinals have the fifth-worst PFSN Defense Impact score in the NFL, which is a major indictment against Gannon.
Raiders HC Pete Carroll
It’s been a disaster of a year for the Las Vegas Raiders. Their trade for Geno Smith backfired tremendously, as he leads the NFL with 17 interceptions and has the lowest passer rating he’s had as a starter since his 2014 season with the New York Jets. They also have the second-lowest Offense Impact score and the sixth-lowest Defense Impact score.
Pete Carroll, the current oldest head coach in the NFL, hasn’t been the impactful hire the Raiders hoped for. As a former Super Bowl champion and two-time college football national champion, nobody’s denying his legacy. However, his 2-14 season with Las Vegas has his team looking uninspired and vanilla on both sides of the ball.
It looked unfortunately clear near the end of his stint with the Seattle Seahawks that Carroll was on the decline, and that was with much more talented rosters than what he has currently. The ensuing results with a lackluster roster have been disastrous. The Raiders have had a different head coach in each of the last three seasons, and it’s looking like they’re in line for that streak to continue in 2026 once Black Monday rolls around.
Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the NFC South in each of Todd Bowles’ first three seasons as the team’s head coach. They made the playoffs in two of his three seasons as their defensive coordinator, winning the Super Bowl in the 2020 season. They’re actually still not out of the running to win the division this year, pending their Week 18 game against the Carolina Panthers.
That said, if the Buccaneers end up losing to Carolina, it would be a severe knock against Bowles and Tampa Bay’s collapse in the second half of the season. After starting the year at 6-2, they’ve since lost seven of their last eight games and sit at 7-9. They’ll finish the 2025 NFL season with a sub-.500 record, and it’s a testament to the weakness of the NFC South that they haven’t been eliminated from playoff contention weeks ago.
It’s also worth noting that the Buccaneers are 1-3 in the postseason with Bowles at the helm. There seems to be a clear ceiling with him as their coach, and it might be a ceiling they feel they could eventually break through with somebody else calling the shots.
Browns HC Kevin Stefanski
It feels partially unfair to Kevin Stefanski to consider him a likely Black Monday casualty. He’s a two-time NFL Coach of the Year, and with two playoff appearances to his name, he has as many as the Cleveland Browns’ last ten head coaches combined. That’s a real stat, by the way.
Still, it appears as though a divorce would be beneficial for both sides. With one more game left in the 2025 season, the Browns have just seven games over the last two seasons under Stefanski. Likewise, Cleveland’s roster is still in a rebuilding phase and has a long way to go before it makes any noise in a loaded AFC.
Should Stefanski get the boot, there will surely be NFL teams willing to give him another head coaching gig. He’s only 43 years old and has had spurts of success with a team that’s had more No. 1 picks in the NFL Draft than playoff appearances since they were reinstated in 1999. That said, the fit with Cleveland isn’t working anymore.
