Eight NFL Teams Fired Their Coach - Justified or Boneheaded?
Chicago, Denver, Houston, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Miami, Minnesota and the New York Giants have all fired head coaches this year. Let's examine who made the right call and who didn't.
Chicago - KIND OF JUSTIFIED - Matt Nagy coached the Bears for four years. He had a winning record of 34-31 in the regular season and made the playoffs twice. He had to deal with quarterbacks Mitchell Trubisky, Andy Dalton and a young Justin Fields. Fields could turn out to be very good, but if you can coach Trubisky, Dalton and a few other ragtag quarterbacks to the playoffs twice, you have to be doing something right. However, the defense was more of the reason they made the playoffs, and Nagy is an offensive mind, not a defensive mind. He might have deserved one more year to see what Fields could turn into under him, but we will never know. At least the Bears got one thing right. They fired GM Ryan Pace. That was by far the best move they made recently.
Denver - BONEHEADED - Vic Fangio is a defensive coach, and the Broncos defense was very good. He did what he was supposed to do. However, the offense was terrible most of the time. The Broncos gave Fangio the powerful combination of Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Lock at QB. Bill Belichick wouldn't be able to get very many wins out of those guys! So, what was Fangio supposed to do? The Broncos just got tired of not scoring, so they fired their defensive minded coach. They will probably get an offensive minded coach next. If they do, they deserve it if their defense goes to pot.
Houston - BONEHEADED AND A**HOLES - The Texans hired David Culley at the start of this year to coach a mess of a situation. It was pretty well known that Deshaun Watson wouldn't play this year while the defense was a total mess going into the year. I predicted they would win two or three games. They won four. I don't know if David Culley is a great coach, but it was boneheaded stupid to get rid of him after winning about as many games as he possibly could have. To fire him after just one year? That drifts into the A-HOLE category!
Jacksonville - JUSTIFIED - Urban Meyer was a train wreck from the moment he took the job. Not only did he not win hardly any games, he embarrassed himself and the organization by lap dancing with a woman in a nightclub, and she wasn't his wife. On top of that, he screwed up Trevor Lawrence so badly that it might take two more years for Trevor to get over it. Why the Jaguars didn't fire Meyer before they did is beyond me.
Las Vegas - JUSTIFIED - Jon Gruden was not fired for lack of winning games, although he lost as many or more than he won while with the Raiders. Instead, he was fired for insensitive emails that got uncovered while the NFL was investigating the Washington Football Team for some pretty bad offenses. I'm sure there are a lot more NFL higher ups that think virtually the same way Gruden apparently does, but since Gruden was lamebrained enough to put it in writing, he deserved to be fired.
Miami - BONEHEADED - Brian Flores got results on the field. His defenses were excellent, and the Dolphins were on the borderline of being a playoff team. I don't think he got along with Tua Tagovailoa. From what I can tell, he wanted the Dolphins to draft Justin Herbert instead of Tua. But, they drafted Tua anyway. Herbert is obviously going to be a star. Flores tried to do the best he could with Tua, but Tua has proven to be limited in what he can do thus far in his career. So, the Dolphins fired Flores. They should have fired their GM, not Flores. Maybe they did Flores a favor. He can get along with trying to find a better opportunity. He will most certainly get another chance, probably sooner rather than later.
Minnesota - JUSTIFIED (BUT SAD) - The Vikings gave Mike Zimmer eight years to try to get their team to a Super Bowl. He came close a time or two. His downfall was not having a good enough quarterback to get it done. They tried different players, including Case Keenum and Kirk Cousins. Those are serviceable quarterbacks, but that's about it. Zimmer's defenses were usually pretty good, and that was his specialty. I think Zimmer is a very good coach, but when you have eight years and don't quite get it done, maybe it's time to try someone else, but it is kind of sad.
New York Giants - JUSTIFIED AND BONEHEADED - Joe Judge seemed to be a tough guy, and Giants fans like tough guys, but the more he talked the crazier he sounded. He called the Washington Football Team a clown show when a couple of their players tried to fight each other on the bench, but when you run two quarterback sneaks from your own five yard line on second and third down while facing a deficit to the same Washington team, then you are the real clown show. I can't begin to tell you all of the stuff Judge said, but a lot of it was laughable, especially this year. So, were the Giants justified to fire him? You bet! But, at the same time, they were boneheaded to have hired him in the first place.
May God always be your number 1 draft pick!
Draftman Rick