There is no use kicking a dead horse, but that’s exactly the proposition some NFL teams are looking at right now with head coaches who are doing nothing to advance the franchise.
In cases like these, there is only one solution: It’s time for the coach to get fired.
Making such a move at this time is beneficial because it allows the decision-makers within the organizations time to formulate a sound, long-term plan. The Miami Dolphins already are rumored to be interested in Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley after dumping Joe Philbin.
It’s time to throw up the white flag and stop pretending for these upcoming NFL teams and their head coaches. The season is already lost, so let the rebuilding begin in earnest.
Chuck Pagano, Indianapolis Colts
Getting trashed at home by the New Orleans Saints on Sunday was an embarrassment. The final score read 27-21, but the Colts were never really in the game after the Saints went up 21-0 at the half.
There have been rumors about head coach Chuck Pagano’s demise for well over half a year now, and owner Jim Irsay is reportedly ready to go “big-game hunting” if the Colts don’t win a Super Bowl this season.
Given the disjointed product we’ve seen on the field through seven weeks of action, it seems clear that isn’t going to happen. Andrew Luck appears to be broken, the offensive line is as terrible as it ever was, the running game still has yet to get going and the defense isn’t good enough to make up for all the mistakes made by the offense.
Pep Hamilton could serve as interim head coach if Pagano was let go. He’s been mentioned by some NFL insiders as a hot name anyway for the 2016 season and beyond, and Pagano himself has endorsed the offensive coordinator as a terrific candidate. This would be a terrific opportunity to see what he can do with more than half a season remaining.
Jim Caldwell, Detroit Lions
Generally speaking, the Lions are soft.
Can’t run the ball. Can’t stop the run. Ok, so they finally won last weekend against the pathetic Chicago Bears. So what? At 1-6 and completely dead in the water after getting abused by the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, this franchise isn’t coming back out of this hole in 2015.
Caldwell isn’t the guy to fix this mess, either. The talent is available right now for Detroit to at the least be a .500 ball club, not one of the top contenders for the No. 1 overall draft pick next year. Keeping the failing head coach on for another year would be similar to how Atlanta kept Mike Smith a year too long, and that didn’t end well for the Falcons.
Gunther Cunningham as interim head coach makes sense here. Or, maybe Detroit likes the young offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and gives him half a season to see what he can do with this mess.
However it happens, the sooner the Lions move on from the Jim Caldwell era, the better off they’ll be.
Bill O’Brien, Houston Texans
This won’t likely happen, but the Texans should just blow it up already and admit things need to change in order for the franchise to be more than just fodder for the league’s better teams.
At 2-5 to start the season, there really isn’t any hope of postseason play. Last year’s 9-7 mark was a promising start to O’Brien’s tenure in Houston, but let us not forget at least a few games would have been lost if not for the superhuman efforts of J.J. Watt.
The Texans don’t have a quarterback, but they could have selected one in 2014. Rather than take a shot with Blake Bortles, O’Brien and the Texans selected Jadeveon Clowney. Now, Clowney is an exceptional athlete who has amazing potential, but he can’t distribute the ball, which is the paramount requisite in the NFL these days for teams to make it to the upper echelon.
Arian Foster is injured again, and this time he’s gone for the rest of the season with a torn Achilles tendon. After all the injuries he’s endured and the beatings his body has taken the past handful of years, one wonders if Foster will ever be the same again.
Owner Bob McNair should just let the whole thing burn to the ground this year so the Texans have a shot at landing one of the top quarterbacks in 2016. Jared Goff throwing to DeAndre Hopkins would be heavenly.
To keep things relatively stable, defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel would be an excellent interim head coach.