Entering another NFL season we ask ourselves which head coaches are firmly planted in their positions and which ones are feeling hot.
By Guy Rose
The head coach is the most underrated position in football. In the NFL coaching is everything. It determines how the offense and defense will run in turn setting the team up for victory or disaster.
With the right coaching and the right scheme back ups like Matt Cassel can become top players at their position. If those players are in the wrong scheme they will stay as backups. Even some of the best of all time like Joe Montana could have been completely different players with a different coach.
Montana had one of the best offensive minds to ever live as a head coach, Bill Walsh. With his offensive playbook and coaching a 3rd round quarterback was turned into possibly the best of all time.
Organizations are always looking for their own Bill Walsh or Vince Lombardi to win them their next Super Bowl. It’s only natural that they find some duds along the way. The NFL is quick to replace their coaches so these five should watch their back for this upcoming season.
Here are the Top 5 coaches on the hotseat heading into the 2015 NFL season:
5. Tom Coughlin
It makes me really sad to put this coach on the list. Although New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin has won two Super Bowls, he hasn’t made it to the playoffs in three years. Three years is a long time especially when he isn’t getting any younger at the age of 68.
He should have high hopes this year though with quite a solid team. The Giants have a healthy Eli Manning who is coming off one of his best statistical years in his career.
They also have one of the best receiving corps in the league with the breakout sensation Odell Beckham Jr. who had 91 receptions and 1,305 yards in only 12 games, a healthy Victor Cruz, a hungry Rueben Randle, and a newly signed James Jones. They also helped strengthen their offensive line by signing Marshall Newhouse and CFL star Brett Jones.
With their offense looking almost dominant in their division this might be the best time in the past three years they have of making the playoffs. Coughlin must prove he can make it to the playoffs again this year and isn’t a coach just running out the clock to retire.
4. Marvin Lewis
The goal of the NFL is to win Super Bowls. Plain and Simple. Apparently the Cincinnati Bengals didn’t get the memo.
Marvin Lewis has been the coach of the Bengals since 2003. That is going to be 12 years this year and has not won one postseason game. Lewis should have been fired a while ago. I’m giving him one more year to step it up and at least make it to the AFC championship.
Although, it will be hard for the Bengals to even make it to the playoffs though with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens in their division. The Steelers have an explosive offense with Ben Roethlisberger who had a touchdown/ interception ratio of 32/9.They also have a crazy running back in Le’Veon Bell who was 2nd in the league in rushing yards with 1,361 and also had 2nd in receptions out of all the running backs. Finally, they have all pro wide receiver Antonio Brown who led the league in receiving yards with 1,698.
The Baltimore Ravens have a really good defense and a good offense coming into 2015. Their defense has Terrell Suggs and Elvis Dumervil who had a combined 29 sacks of the Ravens 49 sacks last season. On their offense they have breakout star Justin Forsett and long arm quarterback Joe Flacco who can make anything happen with just one throw. Marvin Lewis has to be on the hot seat this season, he should have been for years now.
3. Ron Rivera
There is no doubt that the Carolina Panthers had a more than a disappointing season last year finishing 7-8-1 even though they made it to the playoffs. That doesn’t say much considering they played in the lousy NFL South.
Ron Rivera has had only one winning season in his four years of being the Panthers head coach. Cam Newton has matured long enough to be their franchise guy but they haven’t built enough around him.
Besides the drafting of Kelvin Benjamin the Panthers haven’t done enough to show that they want a better offense. They seem content with their team by making no free agency moves this year. Their defense is alright with a fantastic Luke Kuechly at the helm. They were tied for second most forced fumbles in the league with 24. They also drafted impressive linebacker Shaq Thompson who had 146 solo tackles in his college career.
Ron Rivera needs to win with the team he has chosen in order to keep his job. Rivera has to not only make it to the playoffs but have to actually have a winning record in order to not be fired.
2. Joe Philbin
The Miami Dolphins went 8-8 for the second year in a row, showing that they are a mediocre team. Like I’ve said before the NFL is about Super Bowls and mediocre teams won’t cut it.
Philbin has had control over his team for three years now and has had a below par record of 23-25. They seem to have a franchise quarterback with Ryan Tannehill consistently improving in almost every category after each season. His completion percentage went up six percent last year as well as his touchdown/interception ratio has improved from 24/17 to 27/12 in just over a year.
They also now have a solid running back with Lamar Miller who had 1,099 yards last season. In the offseason they practically threw out their whole wide receiver corps with the exception of Jarvis Landry. They got younger with the addition of Kenny Stills and the drafting of Devante Parker possibly giving them an overall better wide receiver outlook. This offense is what Joe Philbin wanted mirroring his old Packers offense in a way. They also made a big push on defense signing the best defensive tackle in the league Ndamukong Suh making them a possible top 5 defense in the league.
My point is that Joe Philbin has the team he wants and must have at least a 10-6 record to keep his job. 10-6 should be a good enough record to make it to the playoffs but the AFC is strong with so many teams that could go 10-6 as well possibly kicking the Dolphins out of the playoffs.
1. Jeff Fisher
The St. Louis Rams were a bad team and it seems like they are getting worse. Jeff Fisher has a bad record of 20-27-1. He has had three years to make this team a good one and hasn’t made any substantial moves to make his team better.
The only real move he has made was trading Sam Bradford for Nick Foles which made the Rams even worse. The Rams are a sad team coming in 16th for their defense last season which isn’t terrible but it is certainly not great. They did not do anything to improve this mediocre defense.They were an even worse team on offense coming in 28th for total scoring.
With the drafting of college sensation Todd Gurley the Rams have gotten better in a dimension of the game that they were actually alright at with 1,635 yards instead of improving their terrible passing game that only had 3,400 yards. Jeff Fisher needs to show that he can still win games.
Three years is enough time to evaluate that he either needs to show that the Rams are finally moving in the right direction or that he should be fired.