8:38
We are counting down the days until football is back. Well, at least the fans are. Maybe if you're a head coach on the hot seat, you aren't counting down the days. But with each season, there's new pressure, new hot seat conversations for certain franchises and certain head coaches of those franchises. So, what coaches are on the hot seat as we head into the 2026 season? And to help us break it all down and hear his list of coaches one through five, we have Tyler Sullivan joining us. Tyler, we're going to start at five and then of course work our way backwards down to one. At number five, we're kicking things off with a coach of a team that is not that far removed from winning a Super Bowl.
Yeah, that's true. It's Nick Serriani in Philadelphia. And it is funny, right? Because we are talking about a coach that's well over 500, 59 and 26 as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. He's won multiple division titles, been to two Super Bowls, won one. So, why in the world is he number five on my hot seat? Well, one, it's the market that he's in. It feels like he's always kind of on the hot seat. Whoever is the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, the Philly fans will keep their head coach honest. But there also, as much as success as Sriani has enjoyed with the Philadelphia Eagles, there's also been kind of a little bit of stickiness along
the way as well. There's been a lot of offensive coordinator turnover. We all know about that. Of course, some of that has been to due to head coaches being hired for head coaching jobs, whether that's Shane Stiken or Kellen Ward, but there's also been the Brian Johnson's of the world, the Kevin Patulos of the world last season. And that's led to some locker room questions and obviously we're coming off an offseason now where AJ Brown was just traded to the New England Patriots and that was due to a lot of discontent potentially in that locker room. So, the Eagles, they're favored to win the NFC East again. If they do that, then Kevin Stfans is going to stay put. But that division is
getting better. And if all of a sudden they take a step back in the NFC East and a team like the Dallas Cowboys, the Commanders, or even the New York Giants leaprog them in some capacity, you best believe Philadelphia radio is going to be calling for Nick Serriani's head. And you know what? And Dallas Cowboy fans certainly think that again, this is their year to potentially leapfrog Philly. So, we'll see. Let's make our way down your list. Next up, we have Zack Taylor, which as time goes on and on, yes, he went to a Super Bowl back in what, the 2020 season, but the fan base is getting more and more antsy with the results when you look at the talent that they have at quarterback and the wide receiver duo.
Yeah, it's really interesting for Zack Taylor because on the one hand, yes, he hasn't really shown us that he can be that head coach that he once was when he took them to a Super Bowl. we've seen maybe he's not necessarily the guy that could take them over that hump back into a Super Bowl and ultimately hoisting a Lombardi trophy. The reason why he still has his job I believe is because this team has just been constantly inundated with injuries specifically to Joe Burrow. So even with all of the issues that this team has had he's kind of had some cover because his quarterback his franchise cornerstone hasn't been fully healthy for those seasons. So if your ownership or if you're the front office,
how can you fully make an evaluation on this head coach when he doesn't have that piece in place? So I can understand why he still has his job right now. But this is where I think Ruffer is going to meet the road for Zack Taylor because of course, yes, health permitting, you need Joe Burrow to be healthy, but this is a season where the Cincinnati Bengals I'm particularly bullish on. I think that they could win the AFC North, go deep into the playoffs and who knows, mess around, get to a Super Bowl. If it doesn't happen, they have one of the easiest schedules in the NFL this season. They've spent this off season completely revamping that defense, bringing in Dexter Lawrence, a bunch of other guys to really bring them from out
under the basement on the defensive side of the ball. And if they can't match that, you have Joe Burrow who's going to turn 30 years old this season, who, as I just referenced, has a lot of injury history on his resume. You need to start cashing in when you have this player in his prime. And if you do not feel like this is a coach who has missed the playoffs in each of the last three seasons, if he is not the guy, you have to look yourselves in the mirror and say, "What's best for us to cash in on this Joe Burrow era to get us a Super Bowl?" And it might not be Zack Taylor as head coach.
You know what? I just keep getting flashbacks to like the Marvin Lewis era in Cincinnati where he was there for like 15 years and they didn't even really come close to a Super Bowl. So that's always in the back of my mind with Zack Taylor. I'm like, is he going to be there another 10, 15 years? but hopefully a different situation if the outcome is the same as the Marvin Lewis era. So, we got three more coaches to discuss. We're talking about the AFC South here, Tyler. So, what AFC South coach is on the hot seat in your eyes? It's Shane Stiken of the Indianapolis Colts. And one of the stories last year at the first half was that the Colts were arguably one of the best teams in
the NFL. They're 8-2, rivaling for the number one seed in the AFC at the time. And you had Daniel Jones completely resurrecting his career. And you look at Shane Styen, an offensiveminded head coach, you're like, "This is a coach of the year candidate. He's pulling off a masterclass in revitalizing an organization." But you can see it on the other side here. 0 and7 a complete freef fall for the Indianapolis Colts in the second half of the season. 32 points per game down to 20.7. And a lot of people will just say, "Well, of course it went down. Daniel Jones tore his Achilles. He missed the second half of the season. That's why that happened." That's true, but it doesn't tell the entire story because
this team was one and4 in the final five games of J Daniel Jones before he suffered that injury. So, this decline started to happen even when they did have Daniel Jones at quarterback. They brought him back to a two-year $88 million contract extension. You bring in Alex Pierce, who you retained before entering free agency. They've spent money to bring back the cast of characters that had success in the first half of the season, and they have a mandate from this new ownership to contend in the AFC South next season, get back into the postseason. If they don't, it could be an entire rebuild from the Maststead from GM on down.
All right, we have two more coaches to go. Tyler, next up, we're talking about Todd Bulls. So, what kind of a season does Tampa Bay need to have to cool off his seat a bit? Well, they need to win the division and not let a team like the Carolina Panthers who were under 500 effectively back into a division title. They need to get back to being the team to beat in the NFC South. And they did have success with Todd BS. I mean, they've won the division in the first three years of his tenure prior to last season. But when you start to have the fourths fall out from under you in a very winnable division and you come off a season where Todd BS, yes, is back, but basically fired his entire staff as
offensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, quarterback's coach, defensive line coach, all were sent out the door after this season. That tells you that there is a real fire under Todd BS. And when you see moves like that, the next logical step, if there are no changes, is to make a change at head coach. And you know, I referenced the Indianapolis Colts in their decline in the second half of the season. The Buccaneers had a very similar downward trajectory, 2-7 over their final nine games and their points per game total flipped, all of that went down. If that continues, if that bleeds into 2026, and you do see a team like the Panthers continue to leap forward, if the Saints, if the Falcons,
if they all start to make moves in a positive way, they might need to re-evaluate. And that includes Todd Bulls being removed. Okay, so Todd Bull's coming in at number two. Finally, we are at number one on your list. So, Tyler, who is coming in at the top, a list that you don't necessarily want to be on for your head coach hot seat rankings. No, you don't want to land on this list, but it's not surprising, right? It's Aaron Glenn of the New York Jets. I feel like everybody thinks that he probably has the hottest seat entering the 2026 season because they're coming off of a 2025 campaign where that playoff drought continues 15 straight years without getting into the postseason. They're coming off a year where they had 14 plus
losses. That's just the third time in franchise history that's happened. So even for Jets standards, this is bad. In those final five games, they were uh totally abysmal. They lost it by at least 23 points in each of those final five games. So, they were getting blown out. And you can see it here, like last in point differential, yards per game differential, turnover differential. Aaron Glenn is a defensive-minded head coach. They had zero interceptions last year. So, whenever you see such a glaring deficiency on the side of the ball where the head coach is supposed to specialize, that's just even more
damning. And so, the New York Jets, they've spent this off season, I think it's around $104 million in fully guaranteed money. So, real dollars they gave out this off seasonason, sixth most in the NFL. They're investing heavily to try to turn this around and they want to see returns on that investment. If they do not, Aaron Glenn's probably going to be done after this season. Maybe if not earlier. And you know what? He was hired in January of 2025. And here we are talking about him already being on the hot seat. But hey, the NFL moves quick. You know that firsthand. Tyler. Tyler, we appreciate it going through your head coach hot seat rankings for us here as we're patiently awaiting for the NFL
season to come back. You see it there. Nick Serriani at number five, Zack Taylor, Shane Syen, Todd BS, and Aaron Glenn coming in at number one.
