5 coaches on the hot seat after Week 13 performances
By John Buhler
Entering Week 13, there are two NFL teams in need of a new head coach. Mark Davis moved on from the terrible tandem of Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler running his Las Vegas Raiders into the ground. Not to be outdone, the new worst owner in the NFL right now, David Tepper, pulled the plug on the Frank Reich experiment in Charlotte in year one. The Carolina Panthers are festering garbage.
While the Raiders may have something interesting with Antonio Pierce as the interim, anything will be better than what Reich was in Carolina. On average, roughly a quarter of the league moves on from its head coach by the end of the season. Given that we only saw five jobs open up a year ago, we should be expecting a bit more than that come Black Monday. There are so many poorly-coached teams...
The early-window in very late fall often shows us the truth. These bad teams are playing in this window, well, because they are bad. Since you cannot fire an entire team's worth of players, the head coach is an easy target. I don't know if more jobs will open up before the end of the season, but I can assure you we are going to get at least four more jobs that will become available, if not a few more.
Here are five who are feeling the heat after how their Week 13 games went. Who is on the hot seat?
5 NFL head coaches firmly on the hot seat after their Week 13 results
5. Robert Saleh is running out of time to get it right with New York Jets
Because my Atlanta Falcons were playing in this one, I paid very close attention to the New York Jets all afternoon long. I get that they are without Aaron Rodgers and Zach Wilson ain't it. However, I think there is more to the Jets' continued underwhelming nature besides Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian splitting time under center for Gang Green. This was a very winnable game for Robert Saleh to have.
I think he has a good staff around him, as well as a fairly decent roster to work with. Although I do understand the challenges of playing in the AFC East historically, why are the Jets so hopelessly damn dysfunctional? Saleh is a defensive-minded head coach, but you can't really think that he will be safe if the 4-8 Jets were to finish the year with something on par with a 6-11 record? They are not good.
Yes, the hope that Rodgers returns may give Saleh another year. However, I feel like he has bungled the quarterback position every step of the way since taking over for Adam Gase a few years ago. He may actually like quarterbacks, but his Jets are kind of the worst version of the Rex Ryan Jets with Mark Sanchez as his franchise quarterback. Just end the season. These are the same, ole sorry Jets.
I would not fire Saleh this offseason, but he should definitely enter next season firmly on the hot seat.