5 head coaches on the hot seat ahead of the 2022 NFL trade deadline. The 2022 NFL season is a season of “parity.” Translation: most NFL teams stink this season. There are only six out of 16 AFC teams over .500 heading into Week 7 and just four out of 16 in the NFC. With all these lackluster records a third of the way through the season, it’s time to take a look at the NFL coach hot seat. With the trade deadline looming on November 1, several NFL coaches need to be worried about their jobs. Here are the five head coaches on the hottest NFL hot seat as that crucial deadline nears.

#5 Ron Rivera

The 2022 NFL season is a season of “parity.” Translation: most NFL teams stink this season. There are only six out of 16 AFC teams over .500 heading into Week 7 and just four out of 16 in the NFC. With all these lackluster records a third of the way through the season, it’s time to take a look at the NFL coach hot seat. With the trade deadline looming on November 1, several NFL coaches need to be worried about their jobs. Here are the five head coaches on the hottest NFL hot seat as that crucial deadline nears.

#4 Lovie Smith

When the Houston Texans hired Lovie Smith this offseason, it always felt like a temporary measure. The club was reportedly high on the inexperienced former NFL quarterback Josh McCown but turned to Smith after Brian Flores sued the NFL (h/t NBC Sports).

The Texans are 1-3-1 after failing to build on an optimistic tie vs. the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1. And, owner Cal McNair just fired Executive Vice President of Football operations Jack Easterby.

#3 Nathaniel Hackett

The Denver Broncos have to be the most surprisingly disappointing team in the NFL in 2022. The league’s national TV schedule confirms this. With new QB Russell Wilson and talent all around the field, the league, and its TV partners put the Broncos on in primetime in four of the first six weeks of the season.

As any NFL fan who watches games knows all too well, Nathaniel Hackett and the Broncos have gone 1-3 in those games, scoring just 52 points in those televised contests. The offense with Wilson is a complete mess, and Hackett, the former Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator, seems to have no answers as to how they can fix it.

#2 Kliff Kingsbury

The best thing you can say about Kliff Kingsbury and the Arizona Cardinals 2022 season is that at least they’re not following the same old pattern. In the past two seasons, the team has gotten off to fast starts before collapsing down the stretch.

This season, Kyler Murray and company definitely haven’t started fast.

The Cardinals have fallen behind in every game they’ve played this season and have scored just three first-quarter points in six games. Murray has led his team on some astonishing comebacks, but obviously, something isn’t working out in the desert.

#1 Kevin Stefanski

The goal for the Cleveland Browns this year was simply to keep the team’s playoff chances alive until Week 13 when Deshaun Watson comes back from his suspension to face his old team, the Houston Texans.

At 2-4 after six weeks, those playoff chances are likely gone. With the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coming up, chances are the team will be 4-7 at best when Watson returns, and the playoff hopes will be over.

Stefanski went 11-5 in his first season with the Browns but has been 10-13 since. With the Watson trade and contract, owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam have gone all-in on building a winner, no matter the (financial or moral) cost.

The team’s first-time NFL head coach simply isn’t getting it done. And that makes Kevin Stefanski a candidate for the NFL hot seat, and likely the most realistic candidate to lose his job by the trade deadline.

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