Week 10 "WHO'S COOKIN' ON THE HOTSEAT?/FIRE THIS COACH!" Watch
ALREADY FIRED BEFORE WEEK 8: Bill O'Brien (Texans) , Dan Quinn (Falcons)
10. Mike Zimmer, Vikings (LUKEWARM SEAT): The Vikings were supposedly "just a QB away" from winning a Super Bowl with the impeccable defense they had, and they spent BIG for Kirk Cousins. Then they traded away Stephon Diggs, and their defense officially "got a case of the olds" going into 2020. Minnesota is 3-5 after getting a crack at the Lions, who now are similarly 3-4 and tied for last place in the division. Knocking Kirk Cousins out of the game also greatly reduced the chance that this team could choke a late lead away, as they’ve become adept at doing. Zimmer now has a 2 game winning streak AND it’s against division rivals. And that will ALWAYS buy a coach time in Minnesota. He should send Dalvin Cook some flowers for going off for 4 TDs against the packers and then going out there and snagging 206 yards rushing yesterday. Glancing at the Vikings' second half schedule, they have a game against Detroit left, two against Chicago (who are trending the wrong direction right now), and they still play Dallas and Jacksonville. This doesn't look like a squad that's going to manage a playoff run this season, but with a light schedule, they bear a chance of getting back to .500 if things go right.
9. Joe Judge, Giants (LUKEWARM SEAT) The Giants are 2-7 after having the luck of playing the WFT, and also seeing Kyle Allen have a season ending broken ankle. That seems to be the latest in a “Theismann curse” that’s developing of Washington QB’s having devastating leg injuries. Speaking of, Allen was replaced by Franken-legs himself, Alex Smith. The historically mediocre Smith threw three INTs, and the former racial slur nicknamed squad only managed 37 yards rushing to the Giants’ 166. Daniel Jones is still trying to shake the "draft bust" label, and having a game where he just “didn’t f*** it up” and got a win that might help people forget the embarrassing clip of him tripping and falling flat on his face on the 11 yard line against the Eagles in Week 8 (NAH, that’s FOREVER HIS NFL MEMORY). Back to the rest of this squad... they're without Saquon Barkley for the rest of the year. The only upside is... they're still nowhere near eliminated in hunt in their division, because it's utter shite. Now they're in a tie for second place, but have a murderer’s row of opponents left on their schedule that aren’t division matchups.
Joe Judge is probably not a name you've heard, in general, as New York's coach. You will be for the rest of the year. He was formerly New England's assistant special teams coach. How he got elevated to his first HC gig... lord only knows. How the Giants have not paid attention to how everything on the Belichek coaching tree has died on the vine through the past 20 years... yeah... don't know. What we do know is, Joe Judge made his players run sprints when he wasn't happy with them prior to this season, and the only thing that will save his ass to get a second season will be if he blames Daniel Jones, GM Dave Gettleman, or injuries for his woes. But it's gonna be a long year for the G-Men.
8. Vic Fangio, Broncos : A reminder, Fangio declared that Covid-19 is showing "who the whiners are" around the NFL, which is one of the dumbest "fake tough guy" quotes I think I've seen in some time about a disease that's killed 220,000 people. This is in addition to his terrible opinions on police killings of African Americans in the off-season that were completely unnecessary for him to even opine about in the first place. If it were only "on the field" failings, I think Fangio would be in trouble, but that AND his mouth are making him a likely candidate for getting the boot at year's end.
On the field, though... Denver just moved to 3-5 after losing to an Atlanta squad that came in at 2-6 with a number of embarrassing blown leads and blowouts on their resume. The offensive line had Melvin Gordon and Phillip Lindsay average like 3 yards a carry, but rookie WR Jerry Jeudy had a hell of a game again catching passes from Drew Lock that almost dragged this squad to a win. Fangio could get to 6-8 wins by the end of the year... but this is not a franchise whose ownership or fanbase accept mediocrity. Unless they start to look like at least a playoff contender, we won't declare him safe out there. Fangio, supposedly a defensive mind, gave up 450+ yards of offense to a Chargers team led by a rookie QB two weeks ago and now gave up 34 points to an Atlanta team that was without Calvin Ridley. That's... not inspiring.
7. Ron Rivera, WFT: The WFT lost coming out of their BYE week to the Giants and dropped to 2-6, Kyle Allen was looking like he might emerge as the starter out of their fustercluck situation at QB and then broke his ankle, forcing them to put in Frankenleg, Alex Smith, instead. It did not go well as he threw three picks, and the Giants (without Saquon Barkley) ran the ball against what is supposed to be a solid front seven on the defensive side of the ball for Washington.
Again, why Rivera is even on this list... I want to be clear, here... I don't think Ron Rivera is a bad coach. I think this roster is hot garbage outside of an impressive defensive front, but Rivera didn't build it. Their QB and skill positions are woeful, and I wouldn't put it on him. It's bad practice for a franchise to fire coaches after only one year. Also, if this wasn't obvious... it would be really f***ed up if the team fired a guy who's trying to coach THROUGH CANCER TREATMENTS. So, based on everything I know about team owner Daniel Snyder being a colossal ***hole... he could absolutely still fire Ron Rivera and then try to spin it in the media that he was doing him a favor because of said cancer at the end of the year. I hope that isn't what happens, but if this team doesn't squeak out some more wins, it could happen. Luckily for Rivera, he's in the NFC (L)East and at 2-6, has this team in second place in the division. He can probably get some wins in divisional matchups but this squad will be lucky to get to six total by year's end.
6. Anthony Lynn, Chargers: Anthony Lynn's looking like he has something with rookie QB Justin Herbert who went off for 326 yards and 2 TDs against the raiders, but it was too no avail as his team dropped to 2-6. This is coming off the game where they blew a 24 point lead and gave up 28 points to a Broncos offense in a quarter and a half, 21 points in the fourth quarter. They held the Raiders to 160 yards passing… but gave up 160 on the ground. Lynn's in his fourth season as Chargers head coach, he just got his contract extended through 2021 in February... but after going 5-11 last year, if he doesn't improve on that, he might not get that fifth.