NFL Trade Rumors
Two head coaches have already been chopped this season, with the Titans and Giants electing to move on from the guys they supposedly trusted enough to lead the ship back in August. More firings are coming, either sometime this month or on the infamous “Black Monday” the day after the end of the regular season in Week 18.
The only question is how many. Change is the biggest constant in the NFL. On average, the 32 owners who run the different clubs tend to err on the side of impatience rather than restraint. Over the past 15 years, there have been an average of seven new head coaching hires per year. In that span, the fewest in any year was five new hires in 2020. Before that, the low-water mark was three in 2010.
History says there should be another five or six firings. However, if you look around the league right now, it’s not necessarily easy to pinpoint another five or six coaches who feel like reliable bets to get canned. There are some mitigating factors to consider that could make this a slower-than-average hiring cycle. Certain owners have been vocal about trying to reduce the amount of cash teams pay in buyouts to fired coaches. It’s also not a banner year for candidates, with no clear frontrunners that teams will be jockeying for like Mike Vrabel or Ben Johnson.
Still, there’s enough losing and dysfunction around the NFL that we probably won’t have just three firings like in 2010. Five feels like a pretty safe bet. Here’s a look around the league at the hot seat situations to watch this month.
It’s hard to overstate how miserable this year has been for the Raiders. Las Vegas is just 2-10 on the season, earning a Week 1 fakeout win over the Patriots and the second victory over the equally miserable Titans. Outside of some individual brilliance from a couple of players like TE Brock Bowers and DE Maxx Crosby, there’s very little the Raiders do well. They’re 30th in total offense and 31st in scoring, while ranking No. 26 in scoring defense. They do a decent job stopping the run but they’re below average in most other defensive metrics.
The big anchor is the offense, particularly the offensive line which has developed into an insurmountable obstacle for success. The Raiders were struggling to block things up even before losing their two best starters in LT Kolton Miller and OL Jackson Powers-Johnson to injury. They rank last in the NFL in yards per carry despite using the No. 6 overall pick on RB Ashton Jeanty. They’re also second-to-last in both sacks and sack rate. Raiders QB Geno Smith has been under pressure more often than any other quarterback not named Justin Herbert, but PFF has him ranked just eighth out of 41 qualifying players in QB responsibility for pressure.
Smith hasn’t been great either, with his worst pressure-to-sack rate since he became a full-time starter...
