Three coaches have been fired so far this season, but they won’t be the only head coaches to lose their jobs this season. There are still a few zombies in the ranks of the NFL, and these are their tales and what went wrong.
Jim Caldwell
Caldwell never had a chance going into the season. He was heavily criticized last season for a couple of clock management decisions, most notably in the Colts’ playoff loss to the New York Jets. The loss of Peyton Manning took a team that would have likely hovered around 10 wins to a team that is praying for some luck. It almost seems likely that they’ll finish 0-16, unless they can get a win in Jacksonville in week 17. Heads must roll, and firing defensive coordinator Larry Coyer simply won’t appease the fans of Indianapolis. While it’s not all Caldwell’s fault that the Colts are the NFL’s worst team, he hasn’t helped much either. He has to go.
Steve Spagnuolo
This season has been nothing but a disappointment for the Rams. Last season, they were one week 17 win over the Seahawks away from hosting a playoff game. This season, their offense has fell to the worst scoring offense in the league. At 2-11, they’ve often looked like a team fortunate to win anything, and it suddenly appears as if Sam Bradford might not be the answer in St. Louis, although I believe that would be fixed by giving him someone to throw to. Regardless, the Rams have taken one giant leap backwards. Spagnuolo has to take responsibility for that, and that requires him to be dismissed.
Raheem Morris
Last Monday, ESPN’s John Clayton reported that Morris was going to be fired following the Buccaneers embarrassing 41-14 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, but Buccaneers management didn’t believe the coaching staff was big enough to function without him. First of all, I want to say that the Buccaneers should have a larger coaching staff. Why are they currently operating with a staff that is apparently as small as possible? That’s a recipe for disaster.
Getting back to the topic at hand, Raheem Morris has led a once 4-2 team to 8 straight losses, nowhere near playoff contention. While it seems likely that he’ll remain the Bucs’ head coach for the rest of the season, due to the reasons above, he stands nearly no chance of retaining his position moving forward. The Buccaneers were likely trying to find their own version of Mike Tomlin with a young fiery coach, but it simply hasn’t worked out.
There it is; three guys will be fired at or before the conclusion of the 2011 NFL regular season. It’s likely that they’ll find themselves coaching somewhere else as coordinators or position coaches, but they won’t be picked up as a head coach as John Fox was last season. They had their shot at being an NFL head coach, and it just didn’t work. Morris stands alone as the lame duck coach that could rebound from his utter failure in Tampa Bay, but don’t expect that to happen any time soon. So, as the season winds down, we bid farewell to these blemishes in their franchises’ histories.
