The NFL trade deadline has passed. Teams are set and these coaches have been on the losing end of the 2026 NFL season. Most of these coaches are on teams that were selling during the trade deadline, which means the pressure on them is at an all-time high to turn things around. These coaches need to prove in Week 10 they’re the right ones moving forward, even if the 2026 season didn’t do the way they expected.
Here are the coaches with the most to prove and could be unemployed at the end of the season.Â
Shane Steichen, Indianapolis Colts
Shane Steichen got a pass after last season because Daniel Jones tore his Achilles tendon after a busy trade deadline, giving him an excuse for a season that pulled Phillip Rivers out of retirement. He won’t get that same pass this season. This year’s Colts were so bad, instead of going all in, they started selling off assets at the trade deadline. Steichen has to be feeling uneasy, especially if the Colts suffer a sixth-straight loss. He avoided getting fired the last two seasons, but this year has been disappointing. He won’t avoid it for a third-straight season if Indianapolis continues to challenge Tennessee for the worst team in the AFC South.Â
The Colts overpaid both Jones and Alec Pierce this offseason and it’s backfiring. While that falls more on Chris Ballard — the former Colts general manager who was fired earlier this season — usually the GM and coach are tied together. That means if Steichen can’t turn things around, Carlie Irsay-Gordon is going to clean house and bring in a new front office that can produce results.
Jim Harbaugh, Los Angeles Chargers
This goes without saying. The Los Angeles Chargers’ season is in shambles and Jim Harbaugh is prime suspect No. 1. This team is better than being winless through the first half of the season. Sure, they lost their defensive coordinator to the Baltimore Ravens (Jesse Minter) and sure, Mike McDaniel hasn’t been anything close to the offensive savant that got him his first head coaching job in Miami. But Harbaugh is ultimately responsible for the state of this team. This is his first bad season since his return to the NFL after winning a national championship at Michigan.Â
He might have earned a bit of a grace period because of that. That doesn’t mean his job shouldn’t be on the line. This is a performance-based league and the Chargers aren’t performing at all. This team isn’t looking better as the season progresses and that falls on the coach. If the Chargers weren’t winless, he wouldn’t be on this list. But the fact that they’re on pace to be the NFL’s first 0-17 team since the schedule extended a week puts him in the crosshairs of being out of job on Black Monday.
Robert Saleh, Tennessee Titans
I hate to get on first-year coaches, but it’s hard to ignore that Robert Saleh is once again coming up short of his expectations. He already failed once as a head coach and now he’s struggling once again with Tennessee. As much as I want to put it all on him, I blame him for his coordinator choices rather than the fact that Tennessee hasn’t gotten any better since he took over. Brian Daboll hasn’t elevated this offense either and because he was Saleh’s choice, that makes him responsible.Â
Maybe things can turn around, maybe the Titans can find some semblance of success to end the season, but Saleh didn’t have a winning season in any of the three full seasons he spent with the New York Jets — he was fired after Week 5 in his fourth season — and lost at least 10 games in each of his first three seasons. The Titans are on pace for yet another double-digit loss season. As Raheem Morris once put it, not all good coordinators make good head coaches (I’m paraphrasing). That seems to be true for Saleh.
Aaron Glenn, New York Jets
The New York Jets are once again, on pace for a losing season. Aaron Glenn has had enough time to convince the Jets front office and the fan base that he’s the right person to turn this organization around, but the results haven’t followed. How much more time does he need? This is his second season, so it’s fair to think we should be patient. But the Jets have been bad for some time; patience isn’t going to solve their problems. Glenn’s first order of business was signing Justin Fields and that backfired.Â
His first season in New York wasn’t about getting to the playoffs; it was about proving he’s the right person for the job. Now he needs to prove he can win. He’s not doing that and if the Jets get their eighth loss of the season, it will inch them closer to another losing season and put them in position to be looking at yet another coaching change.
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