Our picks and predictions for the 2026 NFL season
Joe Rivera, Chris Bumbaca and Adam Kaufman break down their predictions for the 2026 NFL season on the latest episode of the Sports Seriously NFL Vodcast.
Not that anyone in their right mind would even think of it, but Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay isn’t going anywhere. It’s just common sense.
General manager Les Snead reaffirmed that position in an interview on “60 Minutes” with Jon Wertheim that’s set to air in its entirety on Sunday, Sept. 13. Snead was asked how much McVay, now entering his tenth year as head coach in LA with a .617 career winning percentage, was worth to him, to which he simply replied, “There’s no trade chart for Sean McVay.”
“Not on the table,” Snead told Wertheim. “Still not pulling the trigger. Not for three (first round picks), not for four, not for five.”
McVay ranks seventh among active head coaches with 92 career wins and has led the Rams to two Super Bowl appearances and a win in the second one. He won Coach of the Year honors in his first season at the helm as the youngest head coach in NFL history, and has produced a vast coaching tree that includes Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and Kevin O’Connell of the Minnesota Vikings in what’s become known as the “Sean McVay effect.”
How many times has an NFL head coach been traded?
While much more of a rarity than players being traded, it’s happened a couple more times in the NFL’s history than you might think: eight head coaches have been traded since the league’s merger with the AFL.
Don Shula was the first in 1970, though it wasn’t originally supposed to work out that way. Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie and Shula had already been negotiating before the NFL and AFL merged on June 8 of that year, though they didn’t agree to a deal until after the merger had been completed. The NFL then ruled that the Dolphins had violated the league’s anti-tampering rules and were forced to send a first-round pick to Baltimore as compensation. Safe to say Miami got the better end of that one.
Most recently, the Denver Broncos acquired Sean Payton and a 2024 third-round pick from the New Orleans Saints (despite being retired at the time, Payton still had two years left on his contract) for a 2023 first-round pick (No. 30 overall) and a 2024 second-round pick.
Here’s the list of eight most notable head coaches who have been traded:
- 1970: Don Shula, Baltimore Colts to Miami Dolphins
- 1999: Bill Parcells, New England Patriots to New York Jets
- 2000: Mike Holmgren, Green Bay Packers to Seattle Seahawks
- 2002: Jon Gruden, Oakland Raiders to Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- 2006: Herm Edwards, New York Jets to Kansas City Chiefs
- 2019: Bruce Arians, Arizona Cardinals to Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- 2023: Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints to Denver Broncos