Week 1 is officially here in earnest, with a full slate of games on Sunday after we got our first taste of the 2025 regular season on both Thursday and Friday. Some teams, like the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Commanders, hit the ground running. Others, however, wasted no time turning all of that offseason optimism on its head.
Because really, that's how quickly things move in the NFL. You spend all summer and all of training camp telling yourself that this year will be different, that the pieces are finally in place, that you can't wait to unleash that breakout candidate on the rest of the league. And then, once toe meets leather for real, those hopes come face-to-face with reality.
Some teams are feeling that harder than others right now. And while there's still a lot of football left to play, it doesn't feel too early for some of them to start thinking about making a change at head coach.
4. Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns
It's hard to argue that this is Stefanski's fault, really. If you were to list out the reasons why the Cleveland Browns are where they are right now, 0-1 again after a 17-16 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday afternoon, he'd be pretty far down the list. He's been given an aging and increasingly ineffective roster to work with, plus a quarterback room consisting of 40-year-old Joe Flacco and precisely zero other proven quantities. It's hard to imagine too many coaches building a contender out of this.
That being said, it feels like Stefanski has been dangling by a thread for a little while now. Cleveland doesn't have to win the division in 2025, but they do have to show real progress, particularly on offense. Flacco was his usual sturdy-enough self on Sunday, but averaging 4.6 yards per play against a moribund Bengals defense breaking in a new coordinator won't inspire a ton of confidence. Right now, this team feels destined for another distant last-place finish, and I'm not sure Stefanski can survive that.
3. Raheem Morris, Atlanta Falcons
Morris is only in his second season at the helm in Atlanta, so perhaps this is premature. But it's now or never for the Falcons this season: This fan base is sick of seven-win seasons and falling short to the Tampa Bay Buccaneeres in the NFC South, and the 2025 draft probably represented GM Terry Fontenot's last chance to save his skin and build a playoff team. If not, wholesale changes are probably in order.
Given those stakes, another loss to Tampa, at home no less, on a final-minute touchdown drive feels like an ill omen. The Bucs hardly played their best football in game one without Liam Coen, and Bijan Robinson nearly blew the roof off with a 50-yard catch and run on the first drive of the game, and still Atlanta couldn't get the job done. That revamped pass rush put up exactly one sack all day, and while Michael Penix Jr. continues to look like a keeper, it won't matter if Morris continues to let games like this slip through his grasp.
2. Mike McDaniel, Miami Dolphins
There were several teams who laid eggs early in Week 1, but none were stinker than what the Miami Dolphins did in Indianapolis. Miami's back seven got sliced and diced by Shane Steichen and Daniel Jones, while Tua Tagovailoa looked so well and truly cooked that Tyreek Hill could hardly contain his frustration on the sideline.
This was going to be a make-or-break year for McDaniel regardless, just given the diminishing returns and lack of playoff success he's seen during his tenure. But the fact that the vibes are this rancid, and have been all offseason, doesn't seem to bode well for his future here. At least previous iterations used to put up huge numbers in September before wilting down the stretch; now, they're just speedrunning to the end, and it feels like the entire locker room has already quit. No one wants to be here, and McDaniel doesn't seem to have any answers.
1. Brian Daboll, New York Giants
Well, that preseason optimism was fun while it lasted. It turns out that a few nice weeks of meaningless exhibition football is not actually evidence that you've turned your entire franchise around: The New York Giants looked ... well, a whole lot like the New York Giants during a dispiriting 21-6 loss to the Washington Commanders on Sunday afternoon.
Bad offensive line? Check. Limp and far too conservative quarterback play? You bet. A defense that eventually wilts under the overwhelming pressure? Bingo. Everything that's plagued this franchise for years reared its head again on Sunday, as though nothing had changed after all. Unless Jaxson Dart can immediately be the savior, the Schoen/Daboll era seems like it's run out of rope.