On Sunday night, having lost their seventh consecutive game, this time to the lowly Carolina Panthers, the New Orleans Saints were seemingly feeling mutinous and had their cellphones handy. Defensive end Cam Jordan posted about the futility of it all and how he’d had higher expectations, only for a Panthers player to comment mockingly.
Defensive tackle Khalen Saunders joked about tanking and the team’s entertainment product.
But those comments were relatively tame compared to the posts made during the game by former Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas, who ripped off a thread of tweets in which he criticized quarterback Derek Carr and the organization. Thomas went after Carr for the types of passes he was throwing to star receiver Chris Olave in a game that Olave left with a concussion—and generally called Carr “ass.” Carr then had to spend part of his postgame press conference denying that he actively tried to give his teammate a head injury. That was about the time it was crystal clear that the entire Saints season was off the rails.
On a perhaps related note, on Monday morning Saints owner Gayle Benson fired head coach Dennis Allen. It’s notable that this move came in early November; this is clearly shaping up to be a disappointing season in New Orleans and Allen probably didn’t have great job security to begin with, but the Saints’ general MO has been the opposite of reactionary. Neither Gayle Benson nor her late husband, Tom, had ever fired a coach midseason since he bought the team in 1985.
But apparently, growing discontent with Allen in the locker room got to Benson, and that was enough. The Saints appointed special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi as their interim head coach.
Perhaps the team will benefit in the short term if Rizzi’s voice carries more weight in the locker room than Allen’s, but it seems more likely that this is finally the beginning of a hard reset in New Orleans than that it’s the type of move that’s designed to salvage this season. With all the injuries the Saints have sustained in the first half of this season, especially along the offensive line, a turnaround seems unlikely. The Saints become the second team to fire a head coach this season, following the Jets, and they probably won’t be the last.
It’s been a weird year in coaching. The season began with multiple coaches on teams who have known recent success—like Mike McCarthy in Dallas or Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia—who were widely considered to be on the hot seat. Both of those men are still in their jobs, but their situations seem tenuous. But they aren’t alone, and the way I see it, the coaches currently on the hot seat fall into the following three categories:
A Matter of Time: Antonio Pierce, Las Vegas Raiders; Doug Pederson, Jacksonville Jaguars
The Raiders are lucky that New Orleans decided to make the big move and steal the headlines this week. Without that, more attention might get focused on what is going on in Las Vegas. The Raiders lost to the Bengals on Sunday, giving up 41 points in the process, and fell into a seven-way tie for the league’s worst record at 2-7. On Sunday night, they let go three core offensive coaches who’d been hired to join Pierce’s staff just nine months ago: offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, offensive line coach James Cregg, and quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello.
Don’t get me wrong, very few people in Las Vegas are acquitting themselves splendidly this season, but it is difficult to believe that Pierce has already done a complete 180 on coaches he so recently handpicked. This is either a panic move or something Pierce is agreeing to in order to keep his own job. Either way, it seems unlikely to work out in the long term for Pierce.
And don’t forget, the Raiders absolutely love to fire coaches. Pierce is their 12th coach this century—and that includes Jon Gruden, twice. One of those previous coaches was Dennis Allen! Until they fired him!
Similarly, the writing seems to be on the wall in Jacksonville. It has been three and a half seasons since Trevor Lawrence came in as the no. 1 pick and supposed franchise savior. Pederson wasn’t in control that whole time (remember the Urban Meyer era?), but those are supposed to be the seasons in which a team goes all in to try to win with a franchise QB on a rookie contract. But Lawrence has now gotten his big second contract, the Jaguars have just a single playoff win since Pederson arrived in 2022, and this season is going nowhere at 2-7. Pederson hasn’t been able to give this team an identity, and they’re a disaster when it comes to situational football, struggling in the red zone and on third downs on both sides of the ball.
It’s hard to see Pierce or Pederson coaching in Las Vegas or Jacksonville next season. The only question is whether there’ll be a screwup spectacular enough between now and January to merit an in-season firing. Pederson’s decision to call a wheel route to third-string running back D’Ernest Johnson in the red zone when his team was down by five points with 1:42 left against the Eagles might have been close. Lawrence threw a game-ending interception on that play.
Has Been on the Hot Seat So Long, He’s Fused to It: Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys
Are we spending enough time considering that maybe keeping McCarthy employed, only to remind McCarthy on a weekly basis of his control over him, is Jerry Jones’s weird kink?
McCarthy’s seat is simultaneously the hottest in the game and has been hot for so long that I have to imagine he’s fried off any sensory ability and feels absolutely nothing from it. Also, his contract is up at the end of the season, so unless it happens before Week 18, he technically can’t be fired at all and simply might not be renewed.
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The Cowboys have already lost as many games this season as they did in any of the past three full seasons. That has more to do with them bricking the entire offseason than it does with McCarthy’s coaching job specifically, though it’s not a great testament to his leadership that Ezekiel Elliott is no longer showing up to work. But since reckoning with that would probably require some inward reflection from Jones, this is probably the type of disappointing season that finally makes him end things with McCarthy one way or another.
Standing Quietly in the Corner Hoping No One Notices Them: Brian Daboll, New York Giants; Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland Browns; Nick Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles; Matt Eberflus, Chicago Bears
There are quite a few coaches who have to be a little bit grateful that organizational meltdowns in New York and New Orleans have provided cover for their own messes.
In Chicago, Eberflus’s chair has vacillated between warm, cool, and warmer again, particularly on the heels of back-to-back disasters that have led to the Bears giving up touchdowns in gross fashion at the end of halves in recent games. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams may ultimately swoop in to save the day, but Eberflus’s team is not one that looks situationally prepared on a regular basis.
Sirianni is in an interesting spot. He started this season firmly on the hot seat, but now that his Eagles seem to be righting themselves, it’s less clear than ever what his actual role is within the team. Vic Fangio’s defense hasn’t given up 20 points in over a month and is becoming a team strength, while the offense, coordinated by Kellen Moore, seems to be finding its footing only after the team’s veteran offensive linemen lobbied for a more run-based approach during the bye week. Still, Sirianni was asked to be a CEO type this year, and if the team succeeds with him in that role, he’ll probably be safe.
With Stefanski, the question is mostly just whether he’ll end up a casualty of the all-around failure of the Deshaun Watson era in Cleveland.
Daboll kept his job despite a disappointing 2023 season and a conflict with former defensive coordinator Wink Martindale. In some ways, he’s doing a decent job attempting to put together an offense in which Daniel Jones does not ever need to throw the ball. But the Giants look like a contender for the first pick in next year’s draft, and I’m not sure there’s enough evidence that Daboll (and perhaps general manager Joe Shoen) will be around to make that pick.
All of these candidates could coach themselves into or out of a job over the next two months, but for now, they should be reasonably content to fly under the radar.
