The point at which it is reasonable to fire a head coach during the season appears to be increasing. One was fired after five games this season, and it appears more could happen before Thanksgiving. Maybe Halloween.
The NFL is growing more impatient, whether it’s developing draft picks, quarterbacks or coaches. Robert Saleh was fired by the New York Jets after a 2-3 start. Maybe that will encourage other teams to take a step in the first half of the season.
Here are the coaches in the hottest seats as we head into Week 7:
The hottest chair
Doug Pederson, Jacksonville Jaguars
You have to wonder if Pederson would have been fired if the Jaguars hadn’t been to London for the second straight time this week.
Jacksonville is 1-5. The Jaguars pulled off one unimpressive last-minute victory over the Indianapolis Colts before being eliminated 35-16 by the Chicago Bears in London. The Jaguars lost five of their last six last season, with the lone win coming against the 2-15 Carolina Panthers, which puts them at 2-10 since early December.
Pederson fired his defensive coordinator after last season, has been defiant about the idea of him taking over play-calling duties from offensive coordinator Press Taylor and his young quarterback Trevor Lawrence is showing no signs of progress. Basically, Pederson checks every box for a coach in trouble.
If the Jaguars lose to a bad New England Patriots team in London on Sunday morning, it’s hard to imagine Pederson surviving.
Very, very hot
Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys
The only reason McCarthy might not actually be on this list is because Jerry Jones doesn’t fire head coaches that easily. Many still hold him to that reputation for some reason, but Jones pushing Jimmy Johnson out happened thirty years ago. If anything, he has been too patient with his coaches.
This must reach a tipping point. The Cowboys are 3-3 with a home record of 0-3, and they have been embarrassed in all three losses. In total they were at least 20 points behind. The offense is stuck, the defense has fallen apart and if the Cowboys don’t become more competitive, Jones might be persuaded to consider a change. Everyone else is waiting for it.
Nick Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles
Sirianni will likely be on this list after what happened last season. He oversaw a massive collapse, barely kept his job, but the owner decided to keep him with reduced power. That made everyone wonder how long he has left.
The Eagles haven’t been bad this season, but they haven’t been great either. Sirianni was criticized for chirping at fans late in Sunday’s unimpressive win over the Cleveland Browns, though he apologized and there may have been an innocent reason for the antics. Anyway, it wasn’t a great sight.
The Eagles have an easy upcoming schedule (at Giants, at Bengals, vs. Jaguars), which should be good news, but it could also make Sirianni’s seat a lot warmer if the Eagles lose some of those games.
Dennis Allen, Saints of New Orleans
The Saints started 2-0 and were everyone’s surprise team, it seems like ages ago. The Saints have lost all four games since, and Sunday was a new low. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated them 51-27. The Buccaneers had 594 yards. That’s a terrible look for Allen, who comes from a defensive background.
This is a bad week for Allen to face Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos, all while rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler starts another game on Thursday night. If Payton, a Saints legend, comes to New Orleans and beats Allen for the Saints’ fifth straight loss, no one in New Orleans will be happy. A loss to Payton at home could be enough to make the owner consider a move.
Brian Daboll, New York Giants
Daboll is 17-22-1 as Giants head coach, but he is heading in the wrong direction. The Giants had a fortunate playoff appearance in Daboll’s first season and not much has gone right since. They are 2-4 this season, and whether Daboll survives the year if the team continues to lose likely has to do with how ownership feels about the roster. It’s also reasonable that the team could hold Daboll responsible for the fact that quarterback Daniel Jones is still stuck in the middle of the road.
Daboll seemed like a good choice when the first coach was fired this season. The Giants haven’t been terrible, though. We’ll see how fed up Giants ownership is if the team goes on a losing streak.
Who knows what could happen
Antonio Pierce, Las Vegas Raiders
Pierce was an asset that made sense at the time but came with skepticism. The Raiders weren’t wrong when they looked to see if the momentum they had last season could carry over. It was also worth asking whether Pierce was already qualified to become a full-time coach.
This season hasn’t been great. They followed up a shocking win over the Baltimore Ravens with an inexcusable home loss to a terrible Carolina Panthers team. There hasn’t been much accountability from Pierce, either because his team wasn’t prepared, bad decisions in the game or something else. The Davante Adams situation quickly evolved, leading to a trade, and that doesn’t reflect much on Pierce either. It seems unlikely that Pierce will be fired during the season, but things could change if the Raiders’ season gets out of hand.
Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns
Stefanski is a two-time NFL coach of the year and the Browns won’t be better without him. But the Deshaun Watson situation is weird.
Even though Watson may be the worst starting quarterback in the NFL, not counting injury replacements, Stefanski has refused to even consider benching him. If that’s because of ownership, would Stefanski at some point push back and make him a target? If Stefanski remains loyal to Watson, that will be a strange sight. And it’s not like team owner Jimmy Haslam is known for his patient, rational decisions.
Stefanski probably isn’t going anywhere, especially if moving on from Watson is an ownership decision and he continues to play good soldier, but there are strange feelings among the Browns.
Dave Canales, Carolina Panthers
There’s one reason Canales is here, and that’s David Tepper, who likes to fire coaches, and his new NFL head coach is 1-5. If Canales’ Panthers hadn’t defeated the Raiders for his lone win, the coach might be higher on the list. We know Tepper is impatient.
It’s not Canales’ fault that Bryce Young is benched, but it’s not good for him either. It looks like the Panthers will be one of the worst teams in the NFL again. For example, if the Panthers are 1-10 in December, will Tepper last with his new coach? He should, but that doesn’t mean he will. With Tepper’s involvement, anything is possible.
