The end of the regular season tends to be focused on the excitement of the playoffs and the offseason. Either teams are turning their attention to free agency and the draft, or trying to make the Super Bowl. 

The regular season ends with 14 games on Sunday in Week 18. The day after is referred to as “Black Monday.” This is not only when players on teams that didn’t make the playoffs clean out their lockers, but it is also when a number of head coaches are typically fired. 

Robert Saleh (Jets), Dennis Allen (Saints) and Matt Eberflus (Bears) were all fired in the middle of the season. Several other head coaches are on a hot seat and likely to be fired heading into the offseason. The day after the regular season isn’t the only time coaches can be fired, obviously, but it allows franchises the maximum amount of time to conduct a head coaching search. 

The Sporting News tracks the coach firings of the 2024-2025 NFL season and on Black Monday. 

MORE: Meet the NFL’s 8 hottest rising coaching candidates for 2025

NFL coaches fired in 2024-2025

Antonio Pierce

Date: Jan. 7

Pierce was able to conduct a press conference on Monday and it seemed like he was going to be retained. Las Vegas waited an extra day, but ultimately made the decision to let him go. Pierce was once a coach that the players liked, especially after he showed promise taking over for the fired Josh McDaniels in 2023. 

Pierce got one full season with the Raiders and leaves the organization with an overall 9-17 record. After going 5-4 in relief of McDaniels last year, he wasn’t able to build any momentum and finished 4-13 in 2024. 

All eyes now turn to a Raiders coaching search that could see some influence from new minority owner, Tom Brady. 

Doug Pederson

Date: Jan. 6

Jacksonville fired Pederson a day after the Jaguars concluded a 4-13 season. It wasn’t a surprising move, as Pederson had been on the hot seat since the beginning of the season, but the team finally pulled the trigger shortly after the regular season. 

Pederson showed he is not the coach that won the Super Bowl with the Eagles, seeing the Jaguars regress year after year since he arrived. His tenure in Jacksonville ends after three seasons and a 22-29 record, including 18 losses in the last 23 games.

Pederson got off to a great start in Jacksonville, helping starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence get in the right direction after the disastrous Urban Meyer season. However, the team never took the next step after Pederson’s first season, and the results from 2024 made it an easy decision to move on from him. 

MORE: 7 best Jaguars coaching candidates to replace Doug Pederson

Jerod Mayo

Date: Jan. 5

New England fired Mayo immediately after its Week 18 win vs. Buffalo. The Pats were destined for the No. 1 pick, but the win moved them to 4-13 and down to the No. 4 spot. 

Ultimately, owner Robert Kraft cited the team’s lack of improvement throughout the year as the reason for the firing, but it’s clear there were locker room issues at play, too. He said in a statement that this was one of the hardest decisions that he has had to make in his tenure as the owner. 

Mayo, 38, likely has a long coaching career still ahead of him despite one of the shortest head-coaching stints in NFL history. Prior to being the head coach for New England he had only served as a linebackers coach for one season. He obviously played in the Patriots organization, but he had one year post-playing career of coaching experience. Mayo was thrust into the fire too soon, and should land somewhere either in the NFL or in college as a defensive coordinator. 

MORE: 8 best Patriots candidates to replace Jerod Mayo

Matt Eberflus

Date: Nov. 29

The Bears fired Eberflus after a 4-8 start to the 2024 season. He lasted less than three years with the team, after failing to help the franchise turn around.

Eberflus was kept as Chicago pivoted away from Justin Fields and transitioned to Caleb Williams. The former Heisman winner showed flashes as a rookie, but they were few and far between with the way the offense was run. 

Eberflus seemed to always make the wrong choice when coaching. The Bears now have a chance to hire someone who can highlight Williams in the offense and try to get Chicago back to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

MORE: Why the Bears fired Matt Eberflus

Dennis Allen

Date: Nov. 4

Allen was the latest victim of the Carolina Reaper. This affectionate nickname has been given to Panthers quarterback Bryce Young. He hasn’t had much success early in his professional career, but Young leading improbable wins led to several coaches losing their jobs with Allen being the most recent. 

Allen was fired after a 2-7 start to the season. New Orleans was in win-now mode, but largely because of its massive player contracts that will restrict financial flexibility. 

Allen had been the head coach for two years prior to his firing. He was hand-picked to take over by former head coach Sean Payton before he retired from New Orleans. This was the second time Allen was fired in his career, the last being in 2014 by the Raiders. Ironically, quarterback Derek Carr was a member of both teams. 

MORE: Why the Saints fired Dennis Allen

Robert Saleh

Date: Oct. 8

Saleh was the first head coach to be fired this season. The Jets quickly axed him after they began 2-3. The team needed to try something to create a spark, but it didn’t work out in their favor. New York went into Week 18 with a 4-12 record, going 2-9 after firing Saleh. The move also was the first in a series that made it seem like quarterback Aaron Rodgers was controlling the team and pointing the fault of the struggles to everyone other than himself. 

Saleh was never able to elevate his team, but it remains to be seen how much fault he deserves. He didn’t have a healthy franchise quarterback until this year and was only given five games with an over-the-hill Rodgers.

Saleh finished 20-36 during his New York tenure. 

MORE: Why the Jets fired Robert Saleh

NFL coaches on the hot seat

Mike McCarthy, Cowboys

McCarthy has the best track record of any of the coaches on a hot seat. He had three straight 12-5 seasons ahead of 2024, the biggest knock being that Dallas couldn’t build any momentum in the playoffs and kept losing early.

The Cowboys had high expectations for 2024 but had underwhelming early season results despite monster contract extensions to Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. 

McCarthy coached a little too well and Dallas was 7-9 heading into the final week of the season. The Cowboys didn’t tank for a good draft pick and ended up finishing the season in the middle of the pack. McCarthy’s contract is up at the end of the year, so it wouldn’t be an outright firing, but there is a chance team owner Jerry Jones doesn’t bring him back. 

Shane Steichen, Colts

Colts coach Shane Steichen was believed to be on the hot seat entering Week 18, but owner Jim Irsay announced after Indianapolis’ win that both Steichen and GM Chris Ballard would return in 2025.

pic.twitter.com/VXFKrz9hnl

— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) January 6, 2025

Steichen is only in his second year coaching the Colts. Indianapolis was a fringe playoff team, narrowly missing out on the postseason. We saw times when dual-threat quarterback Anthony Richardson was great and other times when he wasn’t.

There was one week where Richardson asked off the field and took himself out of the game for a breather, a decision that was seen as a reflection on both the player and the coaching staff. 

While Steichen made headlines for seemingly dismissing concerns about players being late to meetings as the end of the season neared, Irsay ultimately chose continuity over another coaching search.

Brian Callahan, Titans

While the Titans fired GM Ran Carthon after only two seasons, they announced that Callahan “will continue in his role as head coach.”

Callahan is only in his first year coaching, so a change wasn’t expected. Still, if the Titans want to draft a quarterback of the future with the No. 1 pick, it would make sense to pair him with a coach they feel can elevate their players. It was a small sample size but Callahan couldn’t get much out of Will Levis or Mason Rudolph. 

With a new general manager in the building and almost certainly a new quarterback as well, Callahan will likely enter 2025 on the hot seat after a 3-14 season.

Brian Daboll, Giants

Daboll looked like he was the answer for the Giants when he took them to a 9-7-1 season in his first year at the helm. New York made the playoffs but lost to the Eagles in the Divisional Round. 2023 was filled with injuries on offense to Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley, and the team finished 6-11.

After the franchise decided to let Barkley walk, the Giants had a horrid season, cutting Jones and ending the season at 3-14.  New York hopes for a quick rebuild, but the club doesn’t feel just a quarterback away from relevance. 

Regardless of what happens at quarterback, Giants owner John Mara released a statement on Monday stating that Daboll, as well as GM Joe Schoen, would remain in their roles for the organization. It keeps Daboll safe from being fired … for now.  

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