The NFL season is moving along, and for at least one coach, it has probably moved to a point of no return. Find out which coach exists in that situation, followed by three other coaches whose fates are less certain, and perhaps a lot more solid than many experts think.
Gus Bradley
This coach entered Thursday night against the Tennessee Titans on the hot seat. Then he watched his team fall behind the Titans by a score of 36-8. The Jacksonville Jaguars really do seem to have packed it in for their season. Sure, they grabbed a few garbage time touchdowns on Thursday Night Football, but that’s of very little consolation when a game is basically over after three quarters.
The Jaguars were supposed to make a genuine push for a .500 record (8-8), but instead, they have actually regressed relative to the 2015 season. The young talent on the roster simply isn’t meshing. The message isn’t getting through to a group which is believed to be very talented. Jacksonville management will realize that promising young players need the best coaching, and while the team might not select a coach many people agree with, it will make the decision to fire Bradley as early as Friday morning. It would be extremely surprising if the Jaguars do not have a new coach by Monday morning. This is a situation which has played itself out. The Jaguars have fired they’re offensive coordinator Greg Olson and now look like they’re getting ready for Doug Marrone to be the interim head coach unless the team turns it around.
Mike Mularkey
The Titans, by hammering the Jaguars on Thursday night, cooled things off for Mularkey. However, if the team still finishes the season 6-10 and shows few signs of seriously contending for the championship of a very weak division (in many minds, the weakest division in the NFL), there’s a chance Mularkey could still be gone. There’s a very real awareness that Marcus Mariota is a prime (top-two) draft pick, and that the coaching he receives has to be first class. If it’s felt that Tennessee is lagging behind and is not developing talent to the extent many team officials are expecting, Mularkey might not be safe. However, after Thursday’s win, it seems the Titans have a decent chance of going at least 7-9, which would keep Mularkey on for another year.
Jeff Fisher
The Jeff Fisher situation is irritating to a lot of Rams fans who see how ordinary this team is, but the likelihood is that Fisher isn’t going to get fired after this season. The first thing to keep in mind is that this is the Rams’ first season in Los Angeles. Firing the head coach after that first season in L.A. would be embarrassing. The second thing to realize is that the team is trying to cultivate No. 1 draft pick Jared Goff into a legitimate starting quarterback in the NFL. Goff, though, has not yet played this season. The quarterback spot is too much of a question mark for Fisher to get all the blame. Fisher will coach Goff in 2017 if Goff doesn’t play this season. Goff will get a chance before too long, and Fisher will be around to see it. Only if Fisher makes a huge mistake regarding the management of the quarterback situation will he encounter possible trouble in 2016. He’s relatively safe this year, but 2017 will be an important season for him.
Marvin Lewis
This is the other really hot hot seat. Marvin Lewis has coached the Cincinnati Bengals for more than a decade, and while he’s made several playoff games, he has never won one. The Bengals have never gotten past the wild card round of the playoffs. Lewis was kept on in the hope that he could finally break through and win a playoff game this year. It is true that the injury to Ben Roethlisberger has hurt the Pittsburgh Steelers, but winning the AFC North over the Steelers might not be enough for Lewis. He would probably need to win a playoff game. That would make his job safe. If he makes the playoffs and loses, it’s 50-50. If he falls short of the playoffs, though, he’s toast.
