As we approach Labor Day weekend, the NFL takes the field for the first time in the 2025-26 regular season on Sept. 4, when the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles host the Dallas Cowboys on NBC.
The Eagles have the second-best Super Bowl odds at +750 (alongside the Buffalo Bills and behind the Baltimore Ravens, who are listed at +700) as folks in the Show Me State anticipate the launch of Missouri sports betting. But other franchises aren’t as fortunate, which got us at BetMissouri.com thinking about which offensive and defensive coordinators could find themselves out of a job before the season wraps up.
Coordinator | Job | Odds | Percent Chance |
Jim Bob Cooter | Indianapolis Colts OC | +650 | 13.3% |
Arthur Smith | Pittsburgh Steelers OC | +700 | 12.5% |
Frank Smith | Miami Dolphins OC | +700 | 12.5% |
Nick Rallis | Arizona Cardinals DC | +1100 | 8.3% |
Ejiro Evero | Carolina Panthers DC | +1100 | 8.3% |
Mike Kafka | New York Giants OC | +1400 | 6.7% |
Shane Bowen | New York Giants DC | +1400 | 6.7% |
Dennard Wilson | Tennessee Titans DC | +2000 | 4.8% |
Tommy Rees | Cleveland Browns OC | +2250 | 4.3% |
The Field | +350 | 22.2% | |
These odds are exclusive to Bet Missouri, where we’ll offer the best Missouri sports betting promo codes for those signing up with mobile sportsbook operators statewide. The deadline for the launch of sports betting in Missouri is Dec. 1.
Below, we look at our top candidates one by one:
Our preseason favorite to get axed first is the third-year offensive coordinator in Indianapolis, as Jim Bob Cooter (+650) tries to help snap the Colts’ postseason drought that dates to 2020. Cooter’s second season in Indy saw the club backslide in points – from 10th in the league 2023 to 17th last year – while their offensive yards per game dropped from 24th to 29th. So this could be a make-or-break season for Cooter with the Colts.
Looking forward, things might not get better soon for Cooter or the Colts. Indy enters the season with +230 odds of reaching the postseason on DraftKings Sportsbook, ranking 25th out of 32 teams in the NFL, as Indy looks to rebound from last year’s disappointing 8-9 campaign under the leadership of Cooter and head coach Shane Steichen.
With future Hall of Fame QB Aaron Rodgers descending upon the Steel City this fall, it might be now-or-never territory for second-year Steelers OC Arthur Smith. He was the Atlanta Falcons head coach from 2021 to 2023 and has had assistant coaching roles with Washington and Tennessee.
This year, Smith and the Steelers are looking to continue Pittsburgh’s growth in points and yards per game. The AFC North stalwarts went from 28th leaguewide in the former category in 2023 to 16th in 2024, while improving their ypg from 25th to 23rd last season.
Pittsburgh enters this season with +110 odds on DraftKings of making the playoffs for a third straight season, ranking near the middle of the pack in the NFL. Smith and the Steelers look to post another season with a record of 10-7 (or better) in 2025.
Should they fall short, though, expect the Steelers’ decision-makers to move quickly. Smith entering the season holding the second-best odds of being fired first at +700 on our board, speaking to the impetus to succeed in Western Pennsylvania this football season. Will the Steelers be in playoff position by the time Missouri sportsbook apps launch late this season?
The other Smith listed at +700 to be fired first is Frank, who has been the Miami Dolphins’ offensive coordinator since 2022. He was an assistant with the New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, Raiders (both Oakland and Las Vegas) and Los Angeles Chargers between 2010 and 2021.
Smith’s three-year stint as Miami’s OC has seen the team hit its share of highs and lows, ranking atop the NFL in yards per game during the team’s 11-6 run in 2023, then placing 18th in the same category last year as the Dolphins skidded to an 8-9 record.
This year, Smith and the ‘Fins enter the year with +225 odds of making the postseason at bet365 Sportsbook, while holding the third longest odds of capturing the AFC East for the first time since 2008. Their division odds are +700, behind the Buffalo Bills (-310) and New England Patriots (+500), as of Aug. 29.
The next man up on our inaugural NFL coordinator firing odds board is Nick Rallis, who has been the DC for the Arizona Cardinals since 2023, when Jonathan Gannon took over as head coach. Arizona’s 8-9 campaign in 2024 represented a four-win improvement year-over-year with sizable gains in terms of points allowed (going from 31st to 15th leaguewide) and yards allowed (going from 23rd to 11th), but it wasn’t enough to get the Cards into the postseason.
This year, DraftKings gives Arizona +115 playoff odds, ranking 17th in the league, while FanDuel Sportsbook gives Arizona the third-best odds of winning the NFC West at +420.
Rallis is fourth on our board at +1100, speaking to the belief in Glendale that 2025 is a year of importance for the Grand Canyon State’s NFL franchise.
Ejiro Evero, the 44-year-old English-born defensive coordinator of the Panthers, enters his third season in this role at Carolina hoping to continue the improvement seen in the Queen City last season. That’s because the Panthers record improved from 2-15 in 2023 to 5-12 in 2024, though Carolina’s defense ranked dead-last in terms of points allowed and yards allowed per game.
This year, the Panthers look to make the postseason for the first time since 2017 by playing tighter on defense, allowing head coach Dave Canales to achieve greater success than the club has seen in recent years.
Still, we’re not entirely sold on Evero’s chances, with the former Denver Broncos DC holding +1100 odds of getting canned first in 2025.
The first of two New York Giants’ coordinators to grace our list is OC Mike Kafka, who is in his fourth year in this role. He was an assistant under Andy Reid with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2017 to 2021. Kafka and the Giants slid by three games, year-over-year, in 2024, going from 6-11 in 2023 to 3-14, setting a franchise record for losses. They also ranked 31st in points (down from 30th in 2023) and 30th in ypg (down from 29th in 2023).
As New York looks to get back to the postseason for the first time since 2023 and just the third time since winning the Super Bowl in 2011, a lot of that responsibility will fall on Kafka – we give him +1400 odds of being the coordinator canned first in 2025.
Sadly for Giants fans, New York enters the year with the third-longest playoff odds on FanDuel at +680, speaking to the dire straits that head coach Brian Daboll and his assistants find themselves in this fall.
The other Giants’ assistant to make our list is DC Shane Bowen, who also has +1400 odds of being the first coordinator to go in 2025. New York ranked No. 21 in points allowed and No. 24 in yards allowed per game in 2024, which were slight improvements over the previous season (26th and 27th, respectively).
Bowen previously worked as the DC for the Titans, with assistant roles with Tennessee and the Houston Texans from 2016 to 2020 before that. His first season in The Meadowlands did not deliver what Daboll and company hoped for.
DraftKings rates New York as a +1900 longshot to win the NFC East. The trio of Daboll, Kafka and Bowen all could find themselves out of work by the end of the year.
It has been a three-year NFL stretch to forget in the Music City, with the Titans going 16-35 with zero playoff appearances. Second-year defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson was brought in by head coach Brian Callahan to clean up that side of the ball, which produced a mixed bag of results last season. Tennessee’s ppg allowed went from 16th to 30th from 2023 to 2024, but their ypg allowed ranking improved dramatically, from 18th in 2023 to second last season.
Still, Wilson enters his second year with the Titans facing +2000 odds of getting fired first, speaking to the pressure that comes with being an assistant in today’s win-now NFL landscape. The Titans hold +410 odds of making the postseason at FanDuel Sportsbook, ranking 28th leaguewide.
Former Notre Dame QB Tommy Rees is in his first year as Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator, after serving as pass game specialist and tight ends coach with the franchise in 2024. He was the OC at his alma mater from 2020-22 and at Alabama in 2023 before jumping into the NFL ranks.
Even though he’s new to the job, Rees holds +2250 odds of being the first NFL coordinator fired in 2025. Cleveland had a miserable 3-14 campaign in 2024 and owns +750 playoff odds at BetMGM Sportsbook for this season.
Rees will look to build Cleveland’s offense from the ground up. Under OC Ken Dorsey in 2024-25, the Browns ranked last in ppg (15.2) and 28th in ypg (300.8) along the banks of Lake Erie.
For now, we’ll give Rees some grace when it comes to job security in his new role, though he could climb our board if Cleveland’s 2025 season looks like last year’s, when the Browns missed the postseason for the third time in head coach Kevin Stefanski’s five-year tenure.
We’ll have more Missouri NFL betting insight for you as the season goes on, getting fans in the state ready for when the state’s legal sports wagering era begins.
USA Today file photo
Author
Christopher Boan is a lead writer for BetMissouri.com, specializing in covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
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