When I start seeing Halloween decorations alongside sparkling Christmas ornaments in places where such things are sold, I have two questions:
– Why?
– When is an NFL head coach going to be fired?
As the weather gets colder outside for most of us who don’t have the privilege of sunshine glory year-round, the temperature of the figurative seats underneath head coaches gets warmer.
Annually it’s observed that while many head coaches of struggling teams have their shortcomings, they often don’t control their employment fate. There’s only so much they can do with the roster set before them.
And annually it’s also observed how little that matters. Ultimately head coaches are judged by results, and in a league run by rich owners who became rich for a reason (those business smarts) disgruntled customers need to have a target for their anger.
That’s the main reason why a head coach gets fired in the middle of a season instead of directly after on Black Monday. A team’s spiral has reached such a point of disaster that change needs to happen immediately. Even though it’s just for optics, and even though a new direction won’t really form until the offseason.
The current state of affairs around three teams and head coaches fits that description.
1. Rex Ryan
A more polite way to say “fired” in the workplace is “relieved of his/her duties”. And the most literal interpretation would be true here, as it feels like New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan would indeed be relieved to take his elite defensive football mind absolutely anywhere else.
No team wins without quarterback play that at least approaches what could be deemed average, or pretty alright. In his latest (and possibly last) Jets debacle as a starting quarterback Geno Smith needed only eight pass attempts to throw three interceptions. He had more picks than completions in Week 8, and his interception total this season climbed to 15.
Worse, he’s thrown 31 interceptions over only 24 career starts. That’s the sort of woefully inept play that gets a coach fired, which is exactly the outcome that will greet Ryan soon enough.
It will be a pity firing, and general manager John Idzik should go with him.
Defense is Ryan’s specialty, but even he can’t coax much out of the cornerbacks offered by Idzik. Dee Milliner was heading toward bust status before tearing his ACL, and despite a girth of salary cap space last offseason Idzik missed out on every available top-end cornerback. He wasn’t even able to settle for the consolation prize of Antonio Cromartie, who fled to Arizona.
Let Rex live, guys. Fire him now.
2. Mike Smith
Most of us can identify with working under a boss who’s hard to read. You hand in a super awesome report for whatever it is that you do, and he/she smiles and nods. Meanwhile, you head back to your desk and silently drink something out of a coffee mug that reads “KEEP CALM AND NO STOP MAKING THESE.”
But there was no confusion or ambiguity around the words of Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank following a heart-stomping loss to the Detroit Lions last Sunday in London.
“You’re up 21-0,” he said after the worst blown halftime lead in franchise history. “There’s no way you lose that game. Just no way.”
The Falcons did lose that game, their fifth straight loss. Sure, Tony Gonzalez retired, but between Matt Ryan, Roddy White and a now healthy Julio Jones this is a team well stocked with offensive firepower. But anything they do offensively is undermined by a defense that’s giving up the second most yards per game at 408.8, which isn’t a good look for a defensive-minded head coach tasked with bringing along two young cornerbacks (Robert Alford and Desmond Trufant).
But the toxic fire that is the NFC South may save Smith’s job until at least January. Even at 2-6 the Falcons are still only two games behind the division-leading Saints with half a season remaining. Yikes.
3. Jeff Fisher
It would be easy to blame injuries here, but the stink attached to St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher goes far deeper than that.
The Rams lost quarterback Sam Bradford to an ACL tear in August. Normally losing your starting quarterback in the preseason would start an avalanche of suck, but Bradford is a replacement-level pivot to begin with. The true hurt has been/will be losing left tackle Jake Long and ascending young wide receiver Brian Quick.
But Fisher’s team has still been in position to win multiple games despite fielding an undrafted third-string quarterback all season (Austin Davis). In Week 3 they led the Dallas Cowboys 21-0 midway through the second quarter, and in Week 6 they had a 14-0 lead over the San Francisco 49ers during the first quarter.
Both games were losses, the kind where the head coach struggled to make the necessary in-game adjustments.
