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The timing of when it is reasonable to fire a head coach during the season appears to keep moving forward. We got one fired after five games this season, and it looks like another one could happen before Thanksgiving. Maybe Halloween.
The NFL is becoming more impatient, whether it’s with developing draft picks, quarterbacks or coaches. Robert Saleh was fired by the New York Jets after a 2-3 start. Maybe that will encourage other teams to make a move in the first half of the season.
Here are the coaches in the hottest seat as we head into Week 7:
The hottest seat
Doug Pederson, Jacksonville Jaguars
One has to wonder if Pederson would have been fired had the Jaguars not been in London for the second straight game this week.
Jacksonville is 1-5. The Jaguars have a mediocre last-minute win over the Indianapolis Colts, and then were defeated 35-16 by the Chicago Bears in London. The Jaguars lost five of their last six last season, with the only win coming over the Carolina Panthers (2-15), leaving them 2-10 since the beginning of last December.
Pederson fired his defensive coordinator after last season, has been defiant about having him take over play-calling responsibilities from offensive coordinator Press Taylor and his young quarterback Trevor Lawrence shows no signs of progress. Basically, Pederson checks every possible box for a struggling coach.
If the Jaguars lose to a bad New England Patriots team in London on Sunday morning, it’s hard to imagine Pederson would survive.
very very hot
Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys
The only reason McCarthy might not actually be on this list is because Jerry Jones doesn’t fire head coaches that easily. Many, for some reason, still attribute that reputation to him, but Jones ousting Jimmy Johnson happened three decades ago. If anything, he has been too patient with his coaches.
That has to reach a tipping point. The Cowboys are 3-3 with an 0-3 home record and have been embarrassed in all three losses. They were behind by at least 20 points in all of them. The offense is stagnant, the defense has fallen apart and if the Cowboys don’t become more competitive then perhaps Jones would be persuaded to consider a trade. Everyone else is waiting for him.
Nick Syrianni, Philadelphia Eagles
Syrianni will likely reside on this roster after what happened last season. He oversaw a massive collapse, barely keeping his job but the owners decided to retain him with diminished power. That made everyone wonder how much time he has left.
The Eagles haven’t been bad this season, but they haven’t been very good either. Sirianni received criticism for screeching at fans at the end of Sunday’s lackluster victory over the Cleveland Browns, although he apologized for it and perhaps there was an innocuous reason for the antics. Either way, it wasn’t a great look.
The Eagles have an easy schedule (against the Giants, Bengals and Jaguars), which should be good news, but could also make Sirianni’s seat a lot hotter if the Eagles lose some of those games.
Dennis Allen, New Orleans Saints
That the Saints started 2-0 and were everyone’s surprise team seems like eons ago. The Saints have lost all four games since then, and Sunday was a new low. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat them 51-27. The Buccaneers had 594 yards. That’s a terrible look for Allen, who has defensive experience.
This is a bad week for Allen to face Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos, and he will do so with rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler starting another game Thursday night. If Payton, a Saints legend, comes to New Orleans and beats Allen for the Saints’ fifth straight loss, no one in New Orleans will be happy. A loss to Payton at home could be enough for the owners to think about moving.
Brian Daboll, New York Giants
Daboll is 17-22-1 as the Giants’ head coach, but he’s headed in the wrong direction. The Giants had a lucky playoff appearance in Daboll’s first season and not much has gone right since. They are 2-4 this season, and whether Daboll survives the year if the team continues to lose probably has to do with how the roster owners feel. It’s also reasonable that the team could hold Daboll responsible for the fact that quarterback Daniel Jones is still stuck in the middle of the road.
Daboll seemed like a decent choice when he was the first coach fired this season. The Giants haven’t been terrible, though. We’ll see how fed up Giants ownership is if the team goes on a losing streak.
Who knows what could happen?
Antonio Pierce, Las Vegas Raiders
Pierce was a timely hire, but it came with skepticism. The Raiders weren’t wrong to see if the momentum they had last season could be sustained. It was also worth asking if Pierce was cut out for being a full-time coach.
This season hasn’t been great. They followed a shocking win over the Baltimore Ravens with an inexcusable loss at home to a terrible Carolina Panthers team. Pierce hasn’t had much responsibility for not having his team prepared, for bad decisions in the game or for anything else. The Davante Adams situation evolved quickly, leading to a trade, and that doesn’t reflect very well on Pierce either. It seems unlikely that Pierce will be fired during the season, but things could change if the Raiders’ season gets out of control.
Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns
Stefanski is a two-time NFL Coach of the Year and the Browns won’t be better off without him. But Deshaun Watson’s situation is strange.
Although Watson might be the worst starting quarterback in the NFL, not counting injury replacements, Stefanski has refused to even consider benching him. If that’s ownership, would Stefanski at some point back off and make him a target? If sticking with Watson is up to Stefanski, then he’s looking strange. And it’s not like team owner Jimmy Haslam is known for his patient, rational decisions.
Stefanski probably isn’t going anywhere, especially if continuing to start Watson is an ownership decision and he continues to play the good soldier, but there are strange vibes with the Browns.
Dave Canales, Carolina Panthers
There’s a reason Canales is here, and it’s David Tepper, who seems to love firing coaches, and his new NFL head coach is 1-5. If Canales’ Panthers hadn’t beaten the Raiders in their only victory, perhaps the coach would be higher on the list. We know Tepper is impatient.
The fact that Bryce Young was benched isn’t Canales’ fault, but it doesn’t reflect well on him either. It looks like the Panthers will once again be one of the worst teams in the NFL. If the Panthers are, say, 1-10 heading into December, will Tepper hold up under his new coach? It should, but that doesn’t mean it will. Anything is possible with Tepper involved.
