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The 2020 NFL regular season is nearing its end and to say it’s been a roller coaster is a major understatement. Given the complications stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a rash of serious injuries among the league’s top players, the NFL faces an unprecedented series of problems as it works feverishly to keep the train on its tracks. This created difficulties for many teams and, consequently, for their head coaches. But not all coaches can use the pandemic to excuse bad play, especially if they’ve entered the season already on the brink of disaster within their respective franchise – for example, Doug Marrone with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Adam Gase. with the New York Jets.
With Dan Quinn and Bill O’Brien already having been sacked by the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texans, respectively, weeks ago, followed by Matt Patricia who received the ax two days after an embarrassing loss to the Lions from Detroit, this marks three NFL head coaches who entered the season on our CBS Sports hot seat list and did not survive the 2020 season. There is still a list of questions regarding other people. who should be feeling anything but comfortable over the past five weeks, and there’s no doubt that for the five people listed below.
Each of them works on borrowed time.
1. Adam Gase, Jets
There is absolutely no reason to allow this circus to continue.
In 2019, all it took was one loss to the equally unimpressive 2019 New York Giants to secure the position of Gase, with team owner Christopher Johnson unequivocally stating that there would be no change to the position. head coach last season, despite the initial difficulties. Johnson was clear Gase would return for 2020, and he did. That’s not the odd part though, given that the team finished 6-2 in their last eight games with Sam Darnold returning from a bout with mononucleosis (OK, that last part was indeed strange, but stick with me on that). Things are really weird by the general manager Joe Douglas recently married in Gase for the long haul, and continue to absolve him of much of the blame for what is happening on the pitch.
But for a manager who is clearly struggling with top players, Douglas has to reconsider his decision.
For example, what was the relationship between running back Gase and All-Pro Le’Veon Bell? And is Darnold suddenly not good, or is it attributable to Gase? Bell has now been released, shortly after Jamal Adams was traded – both having had very public issues with Gase – pushing the Jets deeper into the talentless abyss. Currently sitting at 0-11 the year following a second loss to the Miami Dolphins, the Jets are now 7-20 in Gase’s first 27 games as a head coach, and a 31st ranked offense. the league in 2019 is now ranked. 32nd, averaging just 13.8 points and 267.8 yards per game.
Not that there was armor to start with, but if there was, it had been cracking for a while now and even more so with defensive coordinator Gregg Williams taking veiled shots this season in the face of offensive inability. to stay on the pitch and score points – hinting at it as one of the reasons his defense is seemingly gassed. Gase eventually gave up his game call duties in week 7 after passionately saying he would never do it, only to resume them in week 12, but then claimed he didn’t. hadn’t called at all, only to admit a day later that it was a “collaboration” in violation. At this point, to be frank, the Jets and Gase are giving the circus a bad name.
2. Doug Marrone, Jaguars
Enough half measures, Mr. Khan.
Seriously, any NFL fanbase deserves better than what the Jaguars have produced (or rather not produced) in recent seasons and for most of the club’s existence. The organization has been booming since appearing in the AFC championship game after a promising (and exciting) 10-6 season in 2017. There was a ton of promise for the future at that point, but it took a moment for things to implode, and dramatically. The decision to extend the quarterback Blake bortles has not been well received by some players, and the club have since been trapped in a toxicity that has led to the loss of several All-Pro and Pro Bowl talents, leaving the Jaguars a shell of what they once were in. 2020.
There was optimism from the Jags after upsetting the Colts in Week 1 and clinging to the Titans in a Week 2 loss, but it was a nasty home loss to the Dolphins in Week 1. 3 which indicated the direction this season was going to take. In total, the Jaguars are now 1-10 after losing nine straight games, and there is no indication they can escape any of their last five games to land at 1-15 this season. While all of this is blatantly obvious, owner Shad Khan chose to only fire general manager Dave Caldwell after the Week 12 loss to Cleveland Browns, and refused to send Marrone to pack his bags with him. Having already fired Tom Coughlin earlier this calendar year, followed by the expulsion of a huge amount of disgruntled talent, if Khan is truly to turn around, throwing Marrone overboard will also be the right thing to do.
3. Vic Fangio, Broncos
To be fair, I’m going to erase week 12 from Fangio’s record books.
That said, his presence on this list has nothing to do with the Kendall Hinton fiasco, and everything to do with what happened before they took the field to take on the New Orleans Saints with a large training squad taking snaps under center – thanks to all of their COVID / Reserve List QBs. The bottom line is that, notwithstanding, it’s been a rise and fall between Fangio and the Broncos, with a lot more lows than highs so far. The team enjoyed a recovery in late 2019 after a very poor start to the season, and that coincided with the return of then second-round pick Drew Lock from the injured reserve – recording a record of 4 -1 in his prime. five games as the team’s starting quarterback. That was then and is now, however, and Lock regressed under Fangio in Year 2, leading the latter to publicly admit as Week 11 approaches that he is “very concerned” about the arc of his young QB, after seeing him throw four interceptions in a recent loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Broncos are now 4-7 on the season and 11-16 since Fangio took the reigns in 2019, which is hardly what GM John Elway had in mind during another change. coach – their second in three seasons after Gary Kubiak decided to step down due to health concerns. Fangio didn’t improve the squad much (if at all) in the days of Vance Joseph, who was sacked after two seasons and an 11-21 overall record.
Tip, wink, wink.
Lock’s presence and potential is an intriguing consideration going forward regarding Fangio, who has already seen his appeal to the game questioned, and he also made several unfortunate decisions at the end of games that led the Broncos to give in. the lead in the last 30 seconds of six games under Fangio. They went on to lose four of those six competitions, drop three of their last four before narrowly edging the Miami Dolphins in Week 11, and have a brutal schedule that could see them claim just one more win in the five. last matches.
Elway isn’t known to be a patient man, and Fangio is really testing this virtue in Denver.
4. Matt Nagy, bear
I don’t see this change happening in 2020, but I can’t rule it out either, not after the humiliation suffered by the Green Bay Packers on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”.
Nagy is a talented head coach and it’s not easy to dispute, but he has some explaining to do when you consider that the Bears have gone from a 5-1 start to the season 5-6 after losing five games. consecutive, and deteriorating fashion. They had two weeks to prepare for the Packers but played as if they didn’t care at all about being on the pitch, which led to Nagy’s mind-blowing comments after the game about the effort before moving on. to put the blame on himself. Normally it’s the Bears’ defense that keeps things close enough for the struggling attacker to try to figure things out, but the Packers have taken this unit to task.
The quarterback’s plan might have been settled sooner – that is, the decision to bench Mitchell Trubisky initially – if Nagy hadn’t chosen to hold him so tightly, and this long Embrace fueled a disappointing 8-8 in 2019 after Nagy’s Bears essentially crippled the league en route to a 12-4 record in his first year as the team’s head coach. They now face another potential step in 2020, helped by Trubisky’s performance against the Packers in place of Nick Foles, again placing Nagy’s arc on a downtrend.
A good end to the season will almost remove Nagy from this list, but that will almost involve running the table to get in a position to fight for a wild card spot. The strength of the schedule is quite flexible, considering they face the Lions, Texans and Jaguars in their home stretch, so if Nagy can’t mount the troops to – at a minimum – defeat these three teams to secure eight wins. season, it might be time to change the Windy City.
His seat isn’t as hot as the coaches named above, but he needs to come back to victory, and pronto.
5. Anthony Lynn, loaders
There’s a reason Lynn isn’t in the least, but enough to be included, as Chargers fans can attest.
The reality is that Los Angeles has been ravaged by injuries and the loss of Derwin James, Mike Pouncey, Austin Ekeler and others is not easy to overcome, and this is a key factor behind the inability to do so. work this year for Lynn. But as has often been said, great head coaches find ways to win games regardless, as evidenced by what is happening no later with the San Francisco 49ers. Plus, it’s not just that Chargers lose, it’s how they lose. Lynn has generally not been able to close games, and with the team at 3-8 on the year, they have now lost two games in overtime and have averaged a point differential of just minus- 4.5 when they lose. So yeah, maddeningly Lynn is making the Chargers hyper competitive, but not for entire games.
It also doesn’t help that the Chargers have given up four of their last five games.
Lynn’s saving grace could be the development of Justin Herbert, sixth overall pick, whose initial progress has been as rapid as it is impressive. If the Chargers front office believes Lynn is the right person to help Herbert get on, and attaches that belief to the fact that 2021 will see the return of the main injured reserve players, then Lynn has a chance to return for what would be the last year of his current coaching contract. No team should quickly dismiss a head coach who has established instant chemistry with a top 10 quarterback, but when that head coach is 29-30 with your organization, the idea can’t either. be easily rejected.
If Lynn doesn’t know how to finish the games, he might be done with them himself.
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