During Thursday’s episode of #PFTPM, someone asked for a list of the coaches on the hot seat.
I started to rattle off names before deciding to take the issue under advisement, Wapner-style, until Friday’s episode. And then I nearly forgot to do it.
During my extensive prep (i.e., none whatsoever) for Friday’s show, I came up with a list of five and counted them down. Or up. If I simply wanted to push you to the attached video, I’d say, “They’re in the attached video.” But that’s not my style. Especially when I need to type enough words to justify a full post.
So here they are, from No. 5 to No. 1. And this is my own assessment of the broader, 32-team situation. I’m not reporting anything. I’m identifying the guys whom I believe are under the biggest cloud of uncertainty as the season approaches.
5. Panthers coach Dave Canales.
There’s a glass-half-full vibe around the Panthers, given that they finished relatively strong in 2024 after a disastrous start. If that comes to fruition for the 2025 Panthers, all will be well.
If the wheels come off, it could spell doom for Canales, who enters his second season on the job.
The key becomes owner David Tepper. Will the hard-charging, results-demanding, drink-throwing (at least once) owner tolerate, say, a 4-13 finish?
It won’t be easy for Canales, if that happens. Mainly because of the guy who signs the checks, and who issues the pink slips.
[Editor’s note: In a prior version of this story, I said Canales is entering his third season. I had my head up my ass. Sorry. It’s year two. Which doesn’t matter for an owner who fired his last coach, Frank Reich, during year one.]
4. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer.
The key to knowing Schottenheimer’s job security is to know whether and to what extent he has guaranteed money beyond 2025.
Usually, head coaches enjoy at least three years of guarantees. But there’s nothing usual about the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer.
He was on exactly zero teams’ short lists during the latest hiring cycle. For the Cowboys, who wanted to have offensive continuity for quarterback Dak Prescott, it was either Schottenheimer or Eagles offensive coordinator (new Saints coach) Kellen Moore. Schottenheimer came cheaper.
How cheap? So cheap that there would be no buyout if he’s fired after one year?
If so, Schottenheimer could need to do enough in 2025 to earn his employment for 2026.
3. Colts coach Shane Steichen.
Through two seasons, Steichen is 17-17 with no playoff appearances. His non-interim predecessor, Frank Reich, went 40-33-1 with a pair of playoff berths and was abruptly fired.
The swing and miss (so far) on quarterback Anthony Richardson is on Steichen’s record. The failure to develop Richardson is on Steichen’s resume.
As the 2024 season ended, there was a haze of confusion as to whether big changes would be made in Indianapolis. Now that an ownership change has happened following the passing of Jim Irsay, it remains to be seen how Carlie Irsay-Gordon will run the team.
And, most importantly, whether she’ll want to hire a coach of her own after her first season in charge.
How the team performs in 2025 becomes a massive factor in resolving what currently is a major unknown. Which puts pressure on Steichen to win enough games to make the answer an obvious “yes.”
2. Giants coach Brian Daboll.
On one day, Giants co-owner John Mara said he’d be sticking with G.M. Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll. Then, Mara said he’s running out of patience.
It’s a mixed message to Daboll as to the potential impact of the upcoming season, and it necessarily puts him on the hot seat.
It shouldn’t. The Giants are in a difficult division. They need plenty of help from a talent standpoint. Mara should give his current regime more time.
And not just a commitment that ultimately feels temporary. That’s precisely how it feels in New York.
1. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel.
Even at a time when everyone is 0-0 and all teams have plausible hope, it feels like the window has closed for a Dolphins team that could end up flying straight into the glass in 2025.
There’s dysfunction. There’s turmoil. There’s an unsettled situation with a star player who received a market-level contract in September 2024, and another star player who has said he wants out and who may feel the same way all over again if the 2025 season starts poorly.
It all comes back to Tua Tagovailoa. Can he play well? Can he stay healthy enough to play well?
Can the Dolphins win enough games to make it to the playoffs?
Along the way, can they shed the narrative (as confirmed by linebacker Jordyn Brooks) that they go soft as the weather turns cold?
Ultimately, it comes down to whether Stephen Ross will demand a major change if 2025 ends up being another disappointing season.
Thirty years ago, the late Jets owner Leon Hess fired Pete Carroll after one season by saying this, “I’m 80 years old. I want results now.”
Stephen Ross is five years older than Hess was when he said that.
The video mentions a few others who didn’t make the top five. I’ll defer to it for those. Mainly because I got to 800 words without having to do that.
Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard hails from Edmonton, Alberta. And he’s already thinking about wearing a flag with a maple leaf in the middle during the 2028 Olympics.
David Newton of ESPN.com recently asked Hubbard whether he wants to represent Canada in the flag-football tournament.
“Hell yeah!’’ Hubbard said. “I don’t know the process or anything, but I plan to still be in this league and thrive in 2028. So, if they want me to become a part of it, it would be an honor.’'
The desire flows from Hubbard’s boyhood goal to become an Olympic sprinter. Football changes his priorities.
Could a team of Canadian NFL players compete with an American team?
“You’re asking the wrong guy,’' Hubbard said, smiling. “I’m going to say we’re going to win no matter what.’'
However the Canadian team fares, coach Chad Palmer has already made clear his belief that NFL players will outshine career flag-football players. So if Hubbard wants in, he’ll likely have a spot.
As long as no one else from the Panthers has dibs on the one Olympic assignment per NFL team.
Hunter Renfrow sat out last season in part because of a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis, which left him with weight loss to 150 pounds, fatigue and high fever. The wide receiver spent a year consulting with doctors and getting the condition under control.
He signed with the Panthers in the offseason and is ready for a return to being the receiver he was in his only Pro Bowl season.
“Honestly, this is the best I’ve felt since probably 2021, by far,” Renfrow said, via Darin Gantt of the team website. “Really, the last three years, I struggled my last two with the Raiders, and last year just struggled with fatigue, but this is by far the best I’ve felt since 2021. It’s like anything: Rome wasn’t built in a day. Just taking it day by day, stacking good days and telling yourself, even though you don’t feel great, that it will get better. Just keep pushing through, putting one step in front of the other kind of mentality. And I feel like I’ve done that and every day I’ve felt better and better and better and better. I’m still not exactly 100 percent where I want to be, but I feel a lot better.”
Renfrow has changed his diet, eating more rice, chicken and steamed vegetables while cutting out processed foods, fried foods and sugar.
“My last two years in Vegas, I feel like one day a month I felt decent, while the other 29 I felt bad,” Renfrow said. “Now I feel like there’s one day a month I don’t feel good and the other 29 feel good. So it’s kind of flipped the script. It all stems from what I put in my body, how I feel it, and I’ve just been excited about how I felt.”
In five seasons, Renfrow has 269 receptions for 2,884 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Could veteran safety Justin Simmons end up on another NFC South club in 2025?
According to Joe Person of TheAthletic.com, the Panthers have been in touch with Simmons’ representation about potentially joining the team. But no signing is imminent at this time.
That makes sense, as Carolina wrapped up its minicamp last week and training camp isn’t set to begin until late July.
Simmons has familiarity with Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, who served in the same role with the Broncos in 2022. Simmons led the NFL with six interceptions that season.
A third-round pick in 2016, Simmons spent his first eight seasons with the Broncos before he was released. He then signed a one-year deal with the Falcons for 2024, starting 16 games with the club. Simmons finished the year with 62 total tackles, seven passes defensed, and two interceptions.
Simmons has 71 career passes defensed and 32 interceptions in 134 games with 124 starts.
Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard has played his entire four-year career in Carolina, and he has yet to play on a winning team. As he heads into Year Five, he’s eager to change that.
Hubbard told Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer that the Panthers have assembled a team that can realistically think about a championship.
“If the goal isn’t to make the playoffs and win a Super Bowl,” Hubbard said, “you’re selling yourself short. So that’s always been the goal. That’s the goal this year. And I think we’re the closest we’ve ever been.”
Teammate Adam Thielen said the Panthers know it’s past time to turn things around.
“I think guys are finally sick of being the same ol’, same ol’ Carolina Panthers,” Thielen said. “I think we want to get back to what they did here in the past, in 2015 [when the Panthers went to the Super Bowl] and some of those other years when they had deep playoff runs and had the crowd involved and the city hyped up. We haven’t had that.”
They’re long shots this year, but after an ugly start to last season, the Panthers turned things around down the stretch, going a respectable 4-5 in their last nine games and playing well in some of their losses, including going down to the wire against both of last year’s Super Bowl teams, the Chiefs and Eagles. Hubbard thinks that for the first time, he’s on a team that might be close to something special.
