As we enter the final month of the 2016 NFL regular season, we have yet to see an in-season firing of a head coach for the first time in years with job security seemingly at a high for struggling head coaches. Owners and general managers have let cooler heads prevail this year – but with Black Monday near at the end of the season – there will be more than a handful of head coaches who will be on the chopping block after disastrous seasons.
With only a few games left, the fates of a few coaches will be decided with the results in December. Keeping that in mind, following is an overview of the head coaches who will be on the hot seat as the calendar turns from Thanksgiving to the Christmas season and the home stretch of the NFL’s regular season schedule.
Gus Bradley, Jacksonville Jaguars
Of the coaches who could be fired in January, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley is arguably the most deserved name of a bad bunch of head coaches. Bradley has struggled to turn the Jaguars rebuild into a success in four seasons with a team that has had several high draft picks and free agency splashes in an attempt to provide the head coach with a roster to turn into a contender in a winnable AFC South.
Instead, the Jaguars have reminded in the bottom of the division and have watched the Tennessee Titans surpass them along with the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts continued dominance over their team year after year. Former first-round draft pick Blake Bortles deserves his own blame for his failure to progress into a franchise quarterback like his fellow 2014 draft classmate in Derek Carr, but after a long run of losing seasons it will be time for Bradley to be fired in early 2017. With the Jaguars well out of the playoff race entering December, there is nothing Bradley can do to save his job and he will be justly fired unless owner Shahid Kahn makes a shock decision to keep one of the worst coaches in the league around after another awful year.
Jeff Fisher, Los Angeles
I broke down why Jeff Fisher should be fired by the Los Angeles Rams in a column on Sunday, but the concise version will do here. Fisher has been unable to deliver what the Rams expected out of the formerly successful head coach when he came to the franchise from the Tennessee Titans. No winning record and no playoff seasons despite a top defense is the case against Fisher and it is time for the Rams to move on from what has been a bad fit.
There is something to be said about Fisher’s well-documented respect around the league as one of the better coaching minds in the league, but the results need to come if a head coach wants to keep his jobs. The Rams have given Fisher years to build a contender and he has given them losing seasons and a team that needs yet another reload to climb up the NFC West standings. Fisher also handled first overall pick Jared Goff with kid gloves to start the season and the marriage between the Rams prospect and their franchise quarterback appears to be an equally poor fit. For those reasons, it is time for the Rams to let Fisher attempt to find a better fit to get his head coaching career back on track after things have failed to work out in Los Angeles.
John Fox, Chicago
John Fox came from the Denver Broncos to the Chicago Bears with the bar set high to be an upgrade over Marc Trestman, but the veteran coach hasn’t stopped the regression in the Windy City. In fact, the Bears are on pace to be worse under Fox than during Trestman’s two years with the team. A bad sign after the Bears hired Fox with the thought they hired a coach who guided his two former teams to Super Bowl appearances.
Luckily for Fox, that past success should save him his job come January despite the down year in Chicago caused by injuries and the Alshon Jeffery PED suspension. It would be too early for Fox to get the ax with few upgrades available on the coaching carousel, especially with the problems the Bears have had with an aging and oft-injured roster. The right move for the Bears would be to give Fox at least one more season, but the successful head coach will feel a little heat with the Bears settled on a season near the cellar of the NFL standings.
Safe, but Struggling Coaches:
* Rex Ryan (Has done just enough with the Bills to earn a Year 3 in Buffalo)
* Todd Bowles (The Jets are likely to hand a similar Year 3 chance to Bowles)
* Marvin Lewis (Too successful to fire for one down season after a period of regular season success)
