Worst NFL Coaches 2025: Ranking the Worst Non-First-Year Head Coaches in the NFL

Yahoo

9 hours ago

Who is the worst coach in the NFL? The National Football League's coaching carousel typically cycles through more than half a dozen coaches every year. For those who survive the coaching hot seat, they head into the next season with their jobs on the line and worsening reputations. As we look around the league, several prominent names have seen their reputations take a hit in just the last two years.
Let's dive into our rankings of the 10 worst NFL coaches right now. For this exercise, we're excluding first-year head coaches who haven't had a chance to prove themselves yet.
23. Mike McDaniel, Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel rose to relative stardom quickly. Replacing Brian Flores ahead of the 2022 season, McDaniel helped revitalize quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's career. In 2022, Miami's offense ranked sixth in total yards per game (364.5), and the Dolphins ended a five-year playoff drought. The following season, Tagovailoa led the NFL in passing yards and earned his first Pro Bowl selection. Miami ranked second in scoring (29.2 points per game), and the franchise won 11 games for the first time since 2008.
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Last season took a bit of a toll on McDaniel's reputation. When Tagovailoa was sidelined from Weeks 3 to 7, the Dolphins' offense ranked dead last in EPA per play (-0.250), with a massive gap to the second-worst team. In that four-game span, Miami averaged just 10 points per game and had a 22 percent third-down conversion rate. Offensive-minded NFL coaches like Jim Harbaugh, Sean Payton, Andy Reid, Matt LaFleur, and Kyle Shanahan adapted when their starting quarterbacks got hurt; McDaniel's offense imploded. It's also worth noting the 7-12 record the Dolphins have in the McDaniel era in games played after November. There were also the offseason rumors about him losing some support in the locker room. He's still only 42 years old, so there is plenty of time for growth, but there are at least some signs that the early hype on McDaniel was off-base.
24. Mike MacDonald, Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks should feel good about their hiring of Mike Macdonald, as he enters his second season. He won 10 games as a rookie head coach, delivering a one-game improvement and a 45-point gain in point differential. Unsurprisingly, the real improvements came on defense.
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In 2023, Seattle's defense allowed the third-highest conversion rate on third downs (46.3 percent), and it ranked 30th in Defensive EPA per Play (0.066). In the final nine regular-season games last year, Seattle allowed just a 35.1 percent third-down conversion rate and ranked fifth in Defensive EPA per Play (-0.054). Macdonald's defensive mind is phenomenal, and he's proving himself as a great leader who can keep his team composed in big moments. Now, he just needs to prove he can find a good offensive play-caller after his first hire (Ryan Grubb) was fired after just one season.
25. Zac Taylor, Cincinnati Bengals
While we view Zac Taylor as one of the worst NFL coaches right now, there's no world in which we expect him to be fired anytime soon. After all, the Cincinnati Bengals kept Marvin Lewis around for 16 years despite him never winning a single playoff game in that span. So, the head coach who has taken this team to a Super Bowl and won five playoff games from 2021 to 2022 will certainly be kept around by ownership.
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With that said, a majority of the credit for this team's success rests on the shoulders of Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins. That's highlighted by the fact that Taylor has a .551 winning percentage when Burrow starts and just a .267 winning percentage when he doesn't. Taylor will get to stick around for as long as Burrow wants him, but the seventh-year head coach is clearly being carried by his star players.
26. Jonathan Gannon, Arizona Cardinals
There's a path for Jonathan Gannon to get off this list after the 2025 season. Many seem to forget that the Arizona Cardinals started last season 6-4, including victories over the Dolphins, the Los Angeles Chargers, and the Los Angeles Rams. During that 10-game stretch, Arizona also only lost by one score to the Buffalo Bills and the Detroit Lions. The team lost five of its final seven games, but Gannon still doubled his win total from 2023.
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What's pretty clear already is that Gannon has a good eye for coaching talent. Drew Petzing, who was a quarterbacks coach for the Cleveland Browns in 2022, is now an up-and-coming coaching candidate. Klayton Adams, now the Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator, served as Arizona's offensive line coach for the last two seasons. As for Gannon's true craft, he built a league-average defense without a ton of talent to work with in Arizona. Now that he has a core group including Will Johnson, Garrett Williams, Budda Baker, and Josh Sweat, Arizona could be a threat to win the NFC West in 2025.
27. Todd Bowles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
First, Todd Bowles deserves credit for his recent track record in hiring offensive coordinators. He brought in Seahawks quarterbacks coach Dave Canales as the play-caller in 2023. A year later, Canales became the Carolina Panthers head coach. With Canales gone, Bowles hired Liam Coen as the play-caller, and Coen is now the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach. On top of his eye for coaching talent, Bowles also has strong support from his players.
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However, we can't ignore that the 61-year-old head coach still has a career .449 winning percentage (53-65) and his teams have finished more than two games above .500 only twice. Then, there are issues such as his history of poor clock management, the usage of timeouts, and his very conservative approach to going for it on fourth down (14 attempts, 31st in the NFL last season). Bowles benefits from having a great roster, but he doesn't seem like the caliber of coach who can give a team a high ceiling.
28. Dave Canales, Carolina Panthers
Inexperience is largely the reason why Dave Canales ranks this low among the worst NFL coaches right now. The Panthers only won five games last season, and their point differential actually worsened (from -180 to -193) from their two-win season. Granted, there are a lot of promising signs out of Carolina that suggest owner Dave Tepper's decision to let a search firm influence this coaching hire has paid off.
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From 2023 to 2024, the Panthers' yards-per-play average jumped from 4.1 to 5.1 in Canales's first season. More importantly, after benching Bryce Young early—who had a 49.5 QB rating and 56.5% completion rate in the first four games—he seemed to help the young quarterback turn his career around. If Canales can help Young build off his performance in the final 10 games (88.9 QB rating and a 61.8 percent completion rate) and the Panthers' young wideouts improve, Canales should have even more job security.
29. Raheem Morris, Atlanta Falcons
Raheem Morris seems to be one of the most beloved coaches in the NFL, both by his peers and players. It ensures he'll be coaching in some capacity for as long as he wants to at this level. However, the Atlanta Falcons head coach isn't exactly making the most of his second chance at a head-coaching gig. The hiring of Jimmy Lake as defensive coordinator last season was baffling at the time and predictably resulted in one of the league's worst defenses. Morris also handled the Kirk Cousins' situation poorly, keeping the veteran quarterback in as a starter ahead of Michael Penix Jr. for far too long. When you combine those factors into his 29-47 overall record, with just one winning season (10-6 in 2020), it's hard to consider him a good head coach.
30. Shane Steichen, Indianapolis Colts
A 17-17 record through two seasons isn't bad by any means, especially when your team won at least eight games both years. However, under Shane Steichen, the Indianapolis Colts have a 10-12 record and –20 point differential versus non-AFC South teams, along with a 6-11 record and –85 point differential against teams with winning records during that two-season span. Steichen also seemed to mismanage the development of Anthony Richardson. Right now, the overall résumé and the Colts' quarterback situation suggest that Steichen will probably be an assistant on another coaching staff a year from now.
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31. Brian Daboll, New York Giants
It's a mystery how Brian Daboll survived the NFL coaching carousel this past offseason. He entered 2024 coming off a six-win season, amid widespread rumors about a bitter feud with his defensive coordinator, which created toxicity on the Giants' coaching staff. He also doesn't exactly have the most favorable reputation among his peers, at least when it comes to qualities that make a good head coach. As the 2024 campaign got ugly, NFL execs and coaches even started taking shots at the Giants' organization itself.
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Yet, despite posting a 3-14 record—the franchise's worst in history—Daboll remains the Giants' head coach. He even got to help the organization hand-pick quarterback Jaxson Dart in Round 1 of the 2025 draft. You can overlook volatility and impatience in a head coach if they win a lot of games and engineer a great offense. Daboll hasn't done either for two years now, and there's no reason to think that will change in 2025.
32. Brian Callahan, Tennessee Titans
A majority of the first-year NFL head coaches last season showed something that would lead you to believe they can be the guy long-term. That never happened with Brian Callahan and the Tennessee Titans. While Cincinnati's offense improved without its former offensive coordinator, Callahan's offense in Tennessee ranked 30th in yards per drive (26.9) and EPA per Play (-0.104) and 29th in points per drive (1.60). It's just hard to see what the Titans do in Callahan.
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