Coaching in the NFL has been some of the worst it has been in recent memory this season as we approach the halfway point in the season. Coaches like Matt Eberflus are virtually locked in to get fired, and veteran coaches Bill Belichick and Ron Rivera have been struggling mightily. You could argue that half of the NFL coaches are on the hot seat at this point. This coaching struggle got me thinking about who the worst coaches of the past decade have been. After some research, here is my personal top ten ranking of the worst coaching performances of the 2010s.
10. Marc Trestman, Chicago (2013-2014)
Record: 13-19
After the departure of Lovie Smith, the Bears have not been able to have much success. The hiring of Marc Trestman kicked this decade-long slump off in 2013 when Trestman was hired from the CFL over very successful coach Bruce Arians. Trestman started his first season out 8-8 with a top five offense and got a career year out of Jay Cutler which led to him getting a lucrative seven year, $126.7M extension. However, they had a disappointing end to the season and one of the league’s worst defenses which put Trestman on the hot seat in year two. After Jay Cutler and the offense regressed along with there being no improvements on defense, the Bears finished 5-11 and Trestman was fired at the end of his second season.
9. Matt Patricia, Detroit (2018-2020)
Record: 13-29-1
In 2017, the Detroit Lions had just missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record and decided not to retain then head coach Jim Caldwell, a bold decision for an organization where Caldwell was their most successful coach in years. This gave Matt Patricia large shoes to fill in Detroit, and he fell very short of those expectations. Patricia never was able to find any success in Detroit, as he was never able to get out of last place in the NFC North and players hated his strict and hard nosed coaching style. He was fired midway through his third season after getting shut out for the first time since 2009 by the Panthers and losing at home to the Texans on Thanksgiving Day, two consecutive embarrassing moments for the franchise.
8. Chip Kelly, Philadelphia (2013-2015), San Francisco (2016)
Record: 26-21 (Philadelphia), 2-14 (San Francisco)
Chip Kelly stands out as the one coach on this list who had some success and had two consecutive tenures, but make no mistake, he was worse than you remember. His first two seasons on the Eagles were solid and he led them to a 10-6 record in consecutive years. The Eagles liked what they saw on the field with Kelly’s coaching at the time and decided to essentially give Chip Kelly a promotion by putting him in charge of player personnel. This ended up being a costly mistake for the Eagles. Chip Kelly became an egomaniac and made personnel decisions that had no logic and were just to show off his system. He traded reigning pro bowlers RB Lesean McCoy and QB Nick Foles away for QB Sam Bradford and LB Kiko Alonso, as well as signing RB Demarco Murray. These guys were a terrible fit for Chip Kelly’s system and the Eagles badly regressed, leading to Chip Kelly being fired before the final game of the season and finishing 6-9. Despite this, he was somehow hired for another job immediately after and San Francisco decided to give Kelly a shot. He had no control over the roster this time around and was unable to have any success with San Francisco, going on a 13 game losing streak and getting fired after one season.
7. Jim Tomsula, San Francisco (2015)
Record: 6-10
It is hard to believe that the 49ers were facing an organizational slump in this era looking at their success now, but before the hiring of GM John Lynch they were struggling to build a team. Jim Tomsula had been with the 49ers for seven years as an assistant coach (2007-2014), and after Jim Harbaugh was dismissed for falling out of favor with CEO Jed York, the 49ers decided Tomsula had paid his dues and gave him a shot to be the next head coach of the team. The result was not pretty. Tomsula was unable to come close to the previous standard Jim Harbaugh had set. He was considered to be way too light on the players and was reported to give them lots of days off and social media breaks every 30 minutes. The on the field results showed that his “players mentality” did not translate into winning games, and Tomsula was canned after one season in San Francisco.
6. Ken Whisenhunt, Tennessee (2014-2015)
Record: 3-20
With many of the coaches on this list being recent, Ken Whisenhunt’s stint as the head coach of Tennessee often gets overlooked on these lists but it absolutely deserves to be here. Whisenhunt was once a successful coach in Arizona and helped guide them to a Super Bowl appearance in 2009, but it was clear the game had passed him by when he was in charge of the Titans. Tennessee regressed from their previous record of 7-9 to 2-14 under Whisenhunt’s first season. After they started his second season 1-6 and Whisenhunt refused to make changes to the offense, he was fired midway through.
5. Josh McDaniels, Las Vegas (2022-2023)
Record: 9-16
It is puzzling to me that Josh McDaniels was highly coveted as a coach after his failed first coaching stint way back in 2009-2010, but other organizations did not see it the same way as McDaniels was considered a head coaching candidate during hiring cycles for almost a decade. The Raiders decided that enough time had passed in 2022 and offered McDaniels the head coaching gig. He had not learned anything from his previous tenure and very quickly lost the locker room of the Raiders. He controversially decided to bench Derek Carr and use him as the scapegoat for the teams failures in year one, and after no improvement in year two and a vicious players meeting going wrong for McDaniels, he was fired midway through his second season.
4. Matt Eberflus, Chicago (2022-present)
Record: 6-22
Matt Eberflus is the only coach on this list who is still employed, and anyone who watches a Bears game can tell you it is a head scratcher as to why. Eberflus was brought in by the Bears due to his previous success with numerous top 10 defenses as the Colts defensive coordinator and to install a culture into the Bears locker room, something that had been lacking for years in the Bears organization. The culture he has brought has been nothing short of dysfunctional. Eberflus’ first year left a lot to be desired and ended on an 11 game losing streak. His second year has somehow been even worse by adding organizational dysfunction on top of it. Two positional coaches were fired for undisclosed HR violations, and Chase Claypool was dismissed from team activities and traded for scraps after not showing effort during games and badmouthing the coaching during an interview, a terrible look after the Bears gave up an early 2nd round pick for him. Eberflus has often denied accountability in post game interviews and is clearly over his head in this job. His coaching decisions usually make no sense and he has blown two leads in the last minutes of the 4th quarter this season. The sooner he is gone the better.
3. Nathaniel Hackett, Denver (2022)
Record: 4-11
After the Broncos made a blockbuster trade for Russell Wilson and extended him to a five year, $245M contract, they were expected to be a Super Bowl contender and give the Chiefs a run for their money in the AFC West. Instead the Broncos were a train wreck and a nightmare to see on primetime every week. As early as week one it was apparent that a head coaching job was over Nathaniel Hackett’s head, and that Aaron Rodgers was masking his playcalling deficiencies. He lost his first two Broncos games due to awful clock management decisions such as running the clock out to attempt a game winning field goal and missing, along with many delay of game and false start penalties. Russell Wilson also badly and unexpectedly regressing was the early storyline of the season, and with the huge contract he signed there was a lot of pressure on Hackett to turn it around. These struggles did not improve as time went on, as locker room dysfunction and Russell Wilson’s struggles plagued the team and kept them from having success. Hackett was let go after getting blown out 51-14 on Christmas Day and did not even finish his first season, becoming only the fifth coach in history to be fired before the end of year one.
2. Hue Jackson, Cleveland (2016-2018)
Record: 3–36-1
It is still fascinating to this day how Hue Jackson managed to last two and half seasons with how awful his teams were under his tenure. Hue Jackson was hired to bring a spark to Cleveland and turn around the franchise after being let down by numerous draft busts at quarterback including Brandon Weeden and the infamous Johnny Manziel. The results were just the opposite. The Browns were dysfunctional under Hue Jackson and won a total of one game in his first two seasons with a 1-31 record, the worst 32 game stretch in NFL history. The Browns gave him a chance to coach their freshly drafted rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield and there was still little improvement with the offense. Owner Jimmy Haslam had enough of the losses at this point and the Browns finally fired him eight weeks into his third season after another bad divisional loss.
1. Urban Meyer, Jacksonville (2021)
Record: 2-11
Between the locker room dysfunction and abysmal on field performance, Urban Meyer takes the cake quite easily for me as the worst head coach of the past decade and possibly of all time. After being the most hyped up head coaching candidate of the 2021 offseason, Urban Meyer’s brief tenure turned out to be disastrous, finding himself involved in numerous scandals including hiring a racist strength coach in Jack Doyle, traveling away from the team to publicly cheat on his wife on video after a bad loss, and worst of all he faced allegations of physical abuse from kicker Josh Lambo. The physical abuse allegation forced the Jaguars ownership into saying “enough is enough” and they fired him midseason in his first and only season on the Jaguars. The 2021 season is one both the Jaguars and the NFL just want fans to forget.
What do you think about this list? What coaches would you add or remove? Let me know in the comments.
Hard to argue with Urban Meyer being the worst. That guy was a clown.