We’ve already seen two head coaches fired this season in the NFL, but the truth is there will be more, several more, by the end of the year.
The Houston Texans fired Bill O’Brien after the Texans started the season 0-4. O’Brien spent nearly seven seasons with Houston and got to the playoffs four times, but never made it to the AFC Championship.
The Atlanta Falcons fired Dan Quinn after failing to get a win in the first five games of this season. Quinn had been with Atlanta for nearly six seasons and even made a Super Bowl appearance back in 2016.
The reality of the situation is head coaches in the NFL don’t have much time to turn things around after getting hired. Some coaches last longer than others, but if the early results are mediocre at best, owners and general managers have proven to be quick to pull the trigger and move on from head coaches after only a year or two.
Let’s take a look at the current NFL head coaches that are on the hot seat right now.
Adam Gase
Gase was considered for a time arguably the best offensive mind in the NFL. While serving as offensive coordinator with the Denver Broncos and working with Peyton Manning for two seasons, Gase helped lead the Denver offense to have the greatest single offensive season in NFL history in 2013.
Gase would also help quarterbacks Jay Cutler and Ryan Tannehill have great seasons while calling their plays, but everything has gone downhill since. While being the head coach with the Dolphins Gase made one playoff appearance, but posted a 13-19 record the two years after.
With the Jets, Gase currently has a 7-15 overall record including an 0-6 start this season. New York also had a number of players opt of out the season due to COVID-19, including linebacker C.J. Mosley. Reports out of New York are not good, as it sounds like Gase has lost the locker room. Even defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has taken shots at Gase’s offense. New York is also on pace to have the worst point differential in NFL history.
Matt Patricia
The Lions head coach is in his third season and has totaled a 11-25-1 overall record with no playoff appearances. With the Lions starting the season with a 2-3 record, Patricia better find a way to get his team to the playoffs or else he’s likely gone. According to Ian Rapoport of The NFL Network, Lions’ ownership has made it clear Patricia is on the hot seat. While the being dubbed a defensive genius under Bill Belichick, Patricia’s defenses in Detroit have yet to rank in the top-15 of the NFL in points allowed. Patricia has even gone out and signed Jamie Collins, Danny Shelton, and Duron Harmon, who all played under him in New England, but nothing seems to be working in Detroit. Even with the Lions having Matthew Stafford as their starting quarterback, they have yet to have a top-10 offense under Patricia’s watch.
It’s safe to say, the Matt Patricia experiment is not working in Detroit.
Doug Marrone
In his 5th year with the Jaguars, Marrone has started off 2020 with 1-5 start through the first six games. Since leading the Jaguars to the AFC Championship in 2017, Marrone has guided Jacksonville has a 12-26 record. We have to give the Jaguars front office credit for giving Marrone this long of a stint with Jacksonville instead of moving on so quickly, but this will more than likely be his final season.
With Marrone as head coach, there were multiple personality conflicts with highly-touted players such as Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye.
Jacksonville also brought in Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles and went winless with him at quarterback before shipping him off to Chicago where he has a winning record. With the Jaguars potentially having a top-five draft pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, it would be smart for ownership to go into a full rebuild and potentially draft one of the top quarterbacks and start fresh.
Mike Zimmer
The Minnesota Vikings have been riding with Zimmer for seven season now, but it might be time to move on after failing to reach the Super Bowl. Zimmer’s Vikings have only made it to the NFC Championship Game once, despite having an immensely talented roster.
The Vikings have started the 2020 season with a 1-5 record and the chances of getting back to the playoffs are slim. When you look back on his career with Minnesota, Zimmer has only made the playoffs three times, but has had some really great defenses. Zimmer’s offenses, on the other hand, have not been great, posting just one top-10 scoring offense dating back to last season.
Looking back, ownership didn’t give Zimmer a multi-year contract extension until later in the summer. From the outside looking in, negotiations didn’t seem to be going well throughout the process, and reports are that Zimmer didn’t think he would get an extension done.
After signing Kirk Cousins to an extension and the Vikings struggling again this season even with Gary Kubiak as the offensive coordinator, it seems like it might be time to move on from Zimmer and just get a new regime in the building.
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