2023 has been unkind to NFL coaches.
A season litters with quarterback injuries and a downturn in scoring has raised temperatures on hot seats across the league. Three in-season firings have set the stage for an offseason loaded with coaching searches as bad teams scramble to find the right architects for their rebuild. More are coming as Black Monday — the first day after the end of the regular season — looms.
The Las Vegas Raiders, Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Chargers all hit the reset button before their regrettable seasons could end. Their deposed coaches head this list, but they’ll soon be joined by an array of fireable candidates that could make up 25 percent of the league’s coaching positions.
Here are the head coaches who’ve been relieved of their duties so far in 2023.
1
Arthur Smith, Atlanta Falcons
Seasons with the team: Three
Record: 21-30
Playoff wins: 0
The Falcons wasted no time offloading Smith, no doubt infuriating any bettors that had Ron Rivera as a heavy favorite in the “next coach fired” sweepstakes. It was barely Black Monday in the Eastern time zone when news broke that Smith wouldn’t get a fourth year to try and turn Atlanta’s fortunes around.
The #Falcons fired coach Arthur Smith, per sources. pic.twitter.com/6HYKkuXIPF
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 8, 2024
Smith was supposed to bring a creative counter-culture mindset to the Falcons’ offense after helping revive Ryan Tannehill’s career and building a run-heavy attack in a pass-first NFL as offensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans. Instead, his units remained stuck in neutral despite a growing cache of skill players who were selected with top 10 draft picks. This 2023 team had Kyle Pitts, Drake London and Bijan Robinson in the lineup, but since their quarterbacks were either Desmond Ridder or Taylor Heinicke, Atlanta only ranked 26th in points scored coming into Week 18.
Smith spent his final week as the team’s head coach getting whooped by the rival New Orleans Saints, then getting red-faced when Jameis Winston overrode his coach’s decision to kneel-out a win and handed the ball off for a touchdown out of the victory formation late in a 48-17 defeat.
Arthur Smith and Dennis Allen have a postgame chat 😳 pic.twitter.com/s469d2OcWq
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 7, 2024
This is, ultimately, Smith’s legacy. A bunch of bluster and expectations without follow through. He went 21-30 in three seasons with the Falcons, failing to a tidy 7-10 record each season despite a soft schedule and an entirely winnable NFC South the last two years. Whatever magic he’d conjured in Nashville failed him in Atlanta; now he’s the first victim of Black Friday 2024
What the new coach will inherit: Lots of good players! The veteran defense may lose steam, but was the best in the NFL against the run this season. Pitts, Robinson and London remain on rookie contracts. There’s a decent array of veteran quarterbacks who could step into a starting role and yet another top 10 draft pick could land a passer like Jayden Daniels or Michael Penix to throw to them. Plus, owner Arthur Blank has proven himself as a patient and receptive boss — you know, pretty much the opposite of David Tepper.
2
Brandon Staley, Los Angeles Chargers
Seasons with the team: Nearly three
Record: 24-24
Playoff wins: 0
Staley stood close enough to Sean McVay to be considered a hot young coaching talent. That led him to Los Angeles’ other locker room less than five years removed from calling defenses at Division III John Carroll University.
This meteoric rise unveiled a head coach who believed in analytics and then had no idea what plays to call when the numbers told him to go for it. Staley was bold in his approach but found ways to lose even when the odds were in his favor. He made fourth down decisions as though he had inside information on a horse race, then relayed plays to his offense like he’d forgotten who to bet on while walking to the counter.
More importantly, his defenses stunk. Los Angeles made splashy moves to improve against the run, in the pass rush and in the secondary. The only one that’s panned out is the trade for Khalil Mack, who is having the most productive season of his career for a team with no playoff aspirations whatsoever. He could have stayed in Chicago if he wanted to do that.
What the new coach will inherit: Justin Herbert, who is very good but no longer playing on an inexpensive rookie contract (his salary cap hit rises to $19.3 million in 2024, $37.3 million in 2025, $46.3 million in 2026 and gets more expensive from there). An aging group of skill players whose stars are either pending free agents (Austin Ekeler) or will be in 2025 (Keenan Allen, Mike Williams). Khalil Mack, who had the most sacks in his illustrious career but turns 33 in February, and his $38 million cap hit. The rest of the defense behind him ranks in the bottom five in both points and yards allowed.
3
Josh McDaniels, Las Vegas Raiders
Seasons with the team: Not even two
Record: 9-16
Playoff wins: 0
12 years, much of it spent with Tom Brady as the New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator, were enough to diffuse the lingering stink of McDaniels’ first head coaching stint with the Denver Broncos. Then he arrived in Las Vegas, alienated players and became yet another high profile that the Patriot Way ™ is intransitive. His Raiders stunk, but not in any way that suggested a plan for the future or a path back to prosperity. They were a rudderless ship drifting along a sea of below-averageness.
McDaniels brought in former New England players to varying degrees and few victories. He went 2-0 against Bill Belichick and 7-16 against everyone else which, honestly, is a pretty great heckle. He had enough notable, schadenfreude-inducing losses in barely 1.5 seasons in Las Vegas that we felt compelled to rank them.
What the new coach will inherit: The quarterback duo of Aidan O’Connell and Jimmy Garoppolo, the latter of which probably can’t be ushered off the roster until 2025 (barring a trade, which feels unlikely). An offense capable of putting up 63 points one week after being shut out — and one likely without Josh Jacobs, who will be a free agent. Maxx Crosby, who rules, and Amik Robertson, who has developed into a pretty useful slot cornerback. A team owner that will probably schedule entirely too many meetings at P.F. Chang’s.
4
Frank Reich, Carolina Panthers
Seasons with the team: Less than one
Record: 1-10
Playoff wins: 0
Reich was hired to oversee an overhaul. Team owner David Tepper’s first coaching hire was a respected offensive mind who’d turned Carson Wentz into an MVP candidate and called the plays that made Nick Foles a Super Bowl MVP. He had wisdom to impart to whatever young quarterback the Panthers selected in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Apparently some of that wisdom was to draft CJ Stroud, which Tepper allegedly overruled in favor of Bryce Young. OK, rough start. From there, Tepper and Reich reportedly clashed as differing sources within the organization got into the tempermental hedge fund manager’s ear. Reich wasn’t great and flip-flopped between calling plays and not calling them. Carolina crated to a league-worst record without the cold comfort of a high draft pick to follow and Tepper made his top job significantly less appealing by pulling the plug after 11 games.
What the new coach will inherit: A young franchise (?) quarterback in Bryce Young, despite all his 2023 struggles. The offensive line and receiving corps largely responsible for those struggles. A defense whose two most effective pass rushers, Brian Burns and Frankie Luvu, are both pending free agents. Roughly $30 million in effective salary cap space, a good chunk of which will probably go toward re-signing Burns and Luvu. A team owner who keeps a literal set of brass testicles on his desk and is, apparently, both strong-willed and wildly suggestable depending on the day of the week.
