Ranking NFL coaches by hotness of their seat
Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
NFL head coaches are fighting for their jobs all across the league. Which coaches have the hottest seat, and which jobs are safest?
There are only 32 people in the world that can call themselves NFL head coaches at any time. It is one of the most coveted positions in sports. Every year, coaches get fired, and more jobs are open. Five jobs opened in 2023, and even more could open up in 2024. There are plenty of coaches who are on flimsy ground. As the kids say, their seats are getting toasty.
Not everyone is in that position. Some coaches will get leeway, while others have built enough equity to afford one bad year. Then, there are many, many coaches who are one bad year away from the unemployment line.
We learned last season that even the safest coaches aren’t actually “safe.” The Denver Broncos fired a head coach one year into his stint. The Arizona Cardinals fired someone after signing him to an extension. Still, let’s try this exercise and try to foresee which coaches are dealing with the hottest seat in 2023.
Ranking the NFL coaches by how hot their seat is:
32. Sean Payton – Denver Broncos
First-year coaches usually aren’t as safe as one would hope. Just look at the Denver Broncos as a perfect example. Nathaniel Hackett was fired in the same year he was hired. Things went horribly wrong in Denver in 2022, and a change was necessary.
Sean Payton was an interesting coaching candidate since teams had to send the New Orleans Saints compensation to gain his services. Surprisingly, the Broncos were the team to make the trade. They were already low on picks after trading for Russell Wilson, but they still sent a 2023 first-rounder and 2024 second-rounder to the Saints in exchange for Payton and their 2024 third-rounder.
The Broncos could go 0-17 and they wouldn’t fire Payton. They gave up too much and are still paying another coach to quit this quickly. That’s why there is no coach safer than Payton. The Broncos’ new ownership spent too much capital just to gain his services.
