8 coaches who could quickly be on hot seat
NFL head coaches are shifting gears toward serious prep work for opening day. Of course, that’s also when scrutiny will intensify on a profession that typically turns over at least a half-dozen of its ranks on an annual basis (there are seven new sideline bosses in 2018).
The hot seat is an occupational hazard, and it will inevitably heat up in several cities before the calendar
reaches October. Here are eight coaches who seem likeliest to find themselves in jeopardy this season.
1. Dirk Koetter, Buccaneers: Tampa Bay’s first three games are against teams (Saints, Eagles, Steelers) that collectively finished 37-11. He’ll be further hamstrung during that stretch while his starting quarterback, Jameis Winston, is exiled by a personal conduct suspension. As if the deck wasn’t
already stacked against a guy who’s gone 14-18 without a postseason trip in two seasons and in a division that sent its other three clubs to the playoffs last season.
2. Vance Joseph, Broncos: He was born in 1972 ... meaning, during Joseph’s lifetime, Denver has not had consecutive losing seasons. So the standard should be obvious for a coach who went
5-11 in his rookie season, a year when the Broncos all too often weren’t even competitive. No more mulligans, Vance.
3. Hue Jackson, Browns: Welp, notch a victory, and he can officially claim a turnaround. But in reality, ex- pectations are far weightier for an organization that’s gone 1-31 under Jackson. Playoffs-or-bust might be too high a bar, but a team with this much talent should at least remain relevant through Thanksgiving. The only analytics that matter now are in the win column.
4. John Harbaugh, Ravens: Since winning Super Bowl XLVII following the
2012 season, Baltimore has reached the playoffs once. The Ravens only needed to beat a middling-at-best Bengals team at home in Week 17 last year to punch a ticket to the playoffs but couldn’t prevent Andy Dalton from gifting Buffalo into the postseason. Owner Steve Bisciotti admitted in February that he considered firing Harbaugh, not necessarily the vote of confidence one would want for a franchise poised to make changes at general manager and quarterback.
5. Jay Gruden, Redskins: He probably deserves a reprieve after surviving the Kirk Cousins soap opera while rebooting at quarterback with Alex Smith. But the first coach to attain a fifth season under Washington owner Dan Snyder has reached the playoffs once, so hard to see him reaching season No. 6 if the ’Skins aren’t playing in January.
6. Adam Gase, Dolphins: One prominent betting site posted odds showing Gase as the second-likeliest coach (after Jackson) to get the boot in 2018. Seems a little extreme considering Gase took Miami to the playoffs in 2016 and didn’t have quarterback Ryan Tannehill in
2017. But Gase will have to prove that allowing quality talent — even chatty talent — such as Jay Ajayi, Jarvis Landry and Ndamukong Suh out of the building adds up to a winning formula.
7. Jason Garrett, Cowboys: It helps being more pliable than, say, Bill Parcells, and it seems Garrett could serve in perpetuity given his cozy relationship with owner Jerry Jones. But if Garrett’s playoff record remains 1-2 at the end of his eighth full season, will Jones’ patience continue to hold given the “embarrassing” check he’s willing to write — to another coach, perhaps? — in order to win his first Super Bowl title in more than two decades?
8. Marvin Lewis, Bengals: His contract expired after last season, his second in a row with nine losses. A virtual shoo-in for replacement, right? Instead, owner Mike Brown extended Lewis — his 15 years in Cincinnati have yet to coincide with a playoff win — through
2019. Maybe time to concede Lewis’ seat warmer just doesn’t work.