With Owner Mode now gone in Madden 26, one of the casualties is the ability to freely hire or fire coaches. That means if you want to see a real-life coach like Andy Reid on another sideline, you won’t find a built-in menu to make it happen.
But, thanks to the ever-reliable Operation Sports forum community, there’s a workaround that lets you “trade” existing head coaches between teams. It just takes a little patience. Here’s the full step-by-step process. Also, shoutout to OS user Jada855 for laying this out.
Also, as you can imagine, this only works currently for offline Franchise mode saves. There is no workaround for online Franchises.
Moving An Existing Coach To Another Team In Madden 26 Franchise Mode
The first step is to choose the team your desired coach is already on. For example, if you want Nick Sirianni to coach the Los Angeles Rams, start by selecting the Philadelphia Eagles as your team in your Franchise set-up.
When you’re prompted to select your coach, don’t select the real one! Instead, choose a coach type to create a generic custom coach. The placeholder will take over the existing head coach’s spot (in this case, Nick Sirianni). From the main Franchise screen, scroll to Options, then User Teams, and create a new coach for the team you want to receive the real coach. In our example, that means selecting the Rams and creating another coach to temporarily replace Sean McVay.
Once you’ve done that, head back to Options, go to User Teams, and look for your two created coaches (Eagles and Rams). One will be marked as Commissioner. Select the Rams’ created coach, switch to that profile, go to User Settings, and select Retire. This will remove the placeholder coach you just made for the Rams.
Now, create a new character again, select the Rams, and this time choose a real head coach. Because Nick Sirianni is no longer coaching the Eagles in your save, he’ll appear in the available coach list, allowing you to assign him directly to the Rams.
Now, if you wanted to “swap” the two coaches, you would have to repeat the process in reverse:
- Select the Eagles profile
- Retire the placeholder coach
- Create a new character
- Choose the real head coach (McVay)
Yeah, if you’re reading this, you’re probably frustrated that you have to go through this much trouble to “fire” a coach and place them elsewhere. Unfortunately, this is the closest thing we have to a coaching carousel in Madden 26 right now.
If changing coaches around is a big thing for you in Madden 26 Franchise mode, then this is how to do it. If you’re looking for a team to rebuild in Madden 26 Franchise mode, check out our piece on that here!
