We are only six weeks through the 2009 NFL season and already coaches are on the hot seat. With five great available coaches on the market, no current NFL coach should feel too secure about their job. Five coaches who have coached in a Super Bowl, four of which won, are without jobs and expecting their phones to be ringing off the hook soon enough.
John Gruden, Mike Holmgren, Tony Dungy, Bill Cowher and Mike Shanahan are five guys you may see roaming an NFL sideline in the near future.
Shanahan, who was fired by the Denver Broncos after last season, won two Super Bowls as a head coach and another as an offensive coordinator. Shanahan compiled a 146-98 record in 16 seasons as a head coach and made seven postseason appearances. He was 8-5 in the playoffs, but only had one win after the retirement of John Elway, and didn’t make a postseason appearance in the last three years of his Denver tenure. Shanahan, the running back mastermind, would be a perfect fit in Washington’s system which has had just three rushers over 80 yards in their past 14 games. In those 14 games the Skins are just 4-10, 2-1 in the games with a 80+ yard rusher, which has led to Jim Zorn’s seat getting much hotter with each day. The Skins started off 6-2 last season but finished just 8-8 and missed the playoffs after a 2-6 second half of the season. They have started this season 2-4 but lost to the Lions, who was on a 19 game losing streak (second longest in NFL history), the Panthers who were 0-3 at the time, and now the Chiefs who were 0-5 coming into the contest. Zorn has been scrutinized since he got the job and every one of the plays he calls is constantly questioned. It won’t be long before Zorn will be looking for a new job.
Reports have recently come out that Washington is interested in John Gruden. Gruden was fired after last season by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after a 9-7 finish. Tampa was 9-3 before losing their last four to miss the playoffs, leading to the firing of Gruden. The coach has a career 95-81 record, 5-4 in the playoffs, in 11 years as a head coach. He coached the Bucs to a Super Bowl win in 2002, but only made the playoffs twice in the next six seasons, losing both games. Gruden is working as a color commentator this year for Monday Night Football, but it makes you wonder how much longer we will actually see him in the booth and not on the sideline.
Mike Holmgren retired after last season with the Seattle Seahawks but has said to be interested in coaching again, as nearly as next season. The Seahawks finished just 4-12 in Holmgren’s last season, but he did have a 161-111 career coaching record in 17 years. Holmgren made it to three Super Bowls, both with the Packers and Seahawks, but had just a 13-11 postseason record in 12 appearances. His only Super Bowl win came with Brett Favre and the Packers in 1996.
Tony Dungy retired from the Indianapolis Colts after a 12-4 finish last season and a first round playoff elimination. Dungy had an incredible 139-69 record in 13 seasons as a coach, making the playoffs in all but two. Dungy coached the Colts to a Super Bowl win in 2006, but was just 9-10 in the playoffs. Dungy compiled a 76% winning percentage in his seven seasons as the Colts head coach and has said, publicly, that he is interested in coaching again.
Bill Cowher, retired after missing the playoffs following a 8-8 finish in 2006. Although Cowher has since turned down a couple of job opportunities, I still wouldn’t put a coaching comeback past him. Cowher was 149-90 and his 15 years as a head coach, all with the Steelers, and was 12-9 in his 10 playoff appearances, winning the 2005 Super Bowl. Cowher coached the Steelers to the playoffs in each of his first six seasons as an NFL head coach. He has been working as a studio analyst since his retirement in 2006, but how much longer will he stay with that job before returning to the sidelines.
Other coaches on the hot seat include the Cowboys Wade Phillips, the Panthers John Fox, the Bills Dick Jauron, the Raiders Tom Cable and the Browns Eric Mangini. Phillips is 3-2 so far this year, after coming off a 9-7 finish last season. He has an all-time 73-51 record but is 0-4 in the playoffs. A lot has been made of his play calling with the Cowboys and the recent lack of their offense. Rumor has it that if the Cowboys do not make this year’s postseason, Phillips will no longer be with “America’s team.” He has been given a vote of confidence by Jerry Jones, who said he’ll be the coach for the rest of the year. Phillips has coached for five teams in his 10 years and may add a sixth team to that list before an 11th year.
The Panthers have started 2-3 this season and have struggled tremendously offensively and taking care of the ball. They have won two games in a row, but only by a combined 10 points against the Redskins and Buccaneers who have a combined 2-9 record. Fox is 64-52 in his eight year coaching career, all with the Panthers. He coached the Panthers to a three point lost in the 2003 Super Bowl, his second season as coach, against the Patriots. However, he has only made the playoffs twice since then and has an overall 5-3 postseason record.
Dick Jauron was lucky to keep his job before this season, but after spending big money to bring in Terrell Owens and starting 1-4, he may not be roaming the Buffalo sidelines much longer. Jauron is just 58-80 overall and has made the playoffs just once, losing in the first round in 2001. Jauron has coached for three different teams in 10 years, but has only finished over .500 in one of those 10 seasons. In his three full seasons with the Bills, they have finished just 7-9 in each, even after a 5-1 start last season. It’s a wonder how he has even got these coaching opportunities and has lasted 10 years as a head coach in the NFL.
Tom Cable coached his way last year to a job this season. The Raiders have started just 1-4 this year and average less than 10 points a game. The offensive and even the team have become a laughing stock in the league. This is Cable’s first head coaching gig after being the Raiders offensive line coach the previous two seasons. Cable led the Raiders to a 4-8 finish last year and has a 5-12 overall record. The biggest news he’s made as a head coach was when he supposedly punched one of his assistant coaches and broke his jaw in a preseason scuffle. Cable is being investigated, as the details still haven’t been worked out. Barring a great turn-around in Oakland, you’ll most likely see someone else roaming the Raiders sidelines next season.
Some may feel that Eric Mangini is already on the hot seat in Cleveland after a 1-5 start. Mangini, in his first season as the Brown’s coach, has made big news by not telling anyone who he was going to start as his quarterback until the start of the first game. He then followed that up by fining one of his players $1,701 for not paying for a three dollar water bottle the player drank in a hotel on one of the team’s road trips. Mangini’s off field decisions and how he handles his team have been scrutinized since he got a head coaching job in the NFL and may cost him another coaching gig. Mangini has a 24-29 record in four seasons so far and hasn’t made the playoffs since his first year with the Jets when they lost in the first round. He was also scrutinized for the “spygate” situation in 2007 and how he handled the whole Brett Favre situation last year in New York and was blamed most for the Jets failure last season to make the playoffs after a 8-3 start (the best in the NFL).
It seems inevitable that at least one team will make a coaching change before the end of this season and the chances that it involves one of the coaches mentioned above are very high. However, as we know, anything can happen in the NFL and only time will tell what actually does occur for the coaches whose seats are just about on fire these days.
