Brian Callahan becomes first NFL head coach fired this season and others are on the hot seat

Brian Callahan is the first NFL head coach to be fired this season and chances are he’ll have some company in the unemployment line in the not-too-distant future.

Last year, three head coaches were fired midseason.

With the Dolphins off to a 1-5 start, Miami’s Mike McDaniel has been a central figure in coaching hot seat discussion this fall. The Dolphins find themselves answering questions again about their team culture following Tua Tagovailoa’s comments Sunday calling out unnamed teammates for being late to player-led meetings.

Aaron Glenn, the hottest candidate in the 2024-25 coaching carousel cycle, is making rookie mistakes like letting the clock run out at halftime rather than try a Hail Mary and having Justin Fields drop back on fourth down from the Denver 44 rather than attempting a long go-ahead field goal in the closing minutes of the Jets’ 13-11 loss to the Broncos in London on Sunday.

The Jets put up a franchise-worst minus-10 net yards passing as Fields completed just nine passes and got sacked nine times. The loss made Glenn the first Jets coach to begin his tenure with six losses.

The Baltimore Ravens, a popular pick to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, aren’t much better off at 1-5 with Lamar Jackson sidelined. Coach John Harbaugh, who’s won 187 NFL games, was catching flack from fans during the Ravens’ fourth consecutive loss Sunday, 17-3 to the Los Angeles Rams.

The three head coaches who didn’t make it through the 2024 season were Robert Saleh (Jets, Week 5), Dennis Allen (Saints, Week 9) and Matt Eberflus (Bears, Week 14).

Joining them in the unemployed ranks after the season in January were Jerod Mayo (Patriots), Antonio Pierce (Raiders), Doug Pederson (Jaguars) and Mike McCarthy (Cowboys).

How have the replacements fared?

Here’s the twist: the three head coaches who were fired midseason last year had a combined record of 8-18. Their interim replacements finished a combined 7-18 in 2024 and their full-time replacements so far this season are a cumulative 4-13.

In addition to Glenn (0-6), Kellen Moore is 1-5 in New Orleans. The only early success is from Ben Johnson (3-2) in Chicago, where the Bears have scored 20-plus points in their first five weeks for the first time since 1995.

The four teams that waited until after the season to fire their head coach have so far fared better that those teams that pulled a quick hook.

Mayo, Pierce, Pederson and McCarthy were a combined 19-49 last season. Their replacements are 12-11-1 with Mike Vrabel 4-2 in New England, Brian Schottenheimer 2-3-1 in Dallas, Pete Carroll 2-4 in Las Vegas and Liam Coen 4-2 in Jacksonville.

Vrabel has already matched Mayo’s four wins in 2024 and Coen has already equaled Pederson’s four victories from a year ago, too.

A 3-14 record in his first year after replacing Vrabel allowed Callahan to get the No. 1 overall draft pick in Cam Ward. But that certainly hasn’t been the recipe for job security.

Callahan’s firing with the Titans at 1-5 marks the fourth time in five years that a team that picked a quarterback with the No. 1 selection fired the coach during the season. The others were Eberflus in 2024, Frank Reich in Carolina in 2023 and Urban Meyer in Jacksonville in 2021.

Changes in the college ranks

Callahan joined seven FBS head coaches who have already been dismissed during the 2025 college football season.

Bad starts cost Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, Arkansas’ Sam Pittman, UCLA’s DeShaun Foster, Virginia Tech’s Brent Pry, Oregon State’s Trent Bray and UAB’s Trent Dilfer their jobs.

Penn State’s James Franklin, whose Nittany Lions were ranked No. 3 in the nation less than three weeks go, was fired over the weekend amidst a three-game skid, the latest FBS head coach to pay the price for a rocky start to the season.

Well, paying the price — and getting paid.

Franklin’s buyout is nearly $50 million, and if you add the buyouts the other six fired coaches are due, it’s nearly $100 million that universities owe their fired head coaches so far.

Callahan was fired just two dozen games into his five-year contract that paid him about $3 million a season, so the Titans are on the hook for a parachute of more than $10 million.

It’s an accepted part of the job. Coaches know the only way to avoid the pink slip is with a gold watch and most are relieved of their duties long before it’s time to retire.

Even Bill Belichick, winner of six Super Bowls with the Patriots, was fired last year by team owner Robert Kraft after nearly a quarter-century of excellence in New England. Belichick shocked many a football fan when he decided after a year’s sabbatical to take the head coaching job at North Carolina.

Yet, he spent his weekly news conference Monday talking not about the Tar Heels’ upcoming opponent in Cal but about his own job and defending the state of the program. He suggested reports of him looking for a buyout or trying to leave the program were “ categorically false.”

“There’s no truth to any of that,” Belichick said. “I’m glad I’m here.”

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With contributions from AP Pro Football Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville.

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