With half of the NFL regular season essentially in the books, it would be prudent to step back and canvas the league at this current moment. There are teams clearly underachieving relative to talent and expectations. In fact, three teams in particular are playing at a level that could easily get their head coaches fired. At the same time, these coaches all have the feeling of being in ‘lame duck’ situations where a move is destined to be made.
Here are three NFL head coaches currently sitting on scalding-hot seats.
Mike McCarthy — Dallas Cowboys
Can we end this already? Dak Prescott going down with a season-ending injury can’t help McCarthy much when attempting to keep Dallas’ flickering playoff hopes aglow.
Everything with McCarthy needs to be contextualized. Being the biggest sports brand in the world, those who run and support the Cowboys expect a Super Bowl-level team despite the fact that Dallas hasn’t come close to achieving that status in roughly 30 years. McCarthy has — to his credit — led the Cowboys to three straight seasons with 12 wins. In five years, he has only one playoff win, though the team overall under his stewardship is 45-31. At this point, it probably would be best if the two parted ways. the Cowboys (3-6) seemingly needs a new voice in the locker room.
Matt Eberflus — Chicago Bears
Trainwreck. Car Crash. Utter disaster.
Whichever descriptor you’d like to use would be appropriate for this team under Eberflus’ leadership. Once the team acquired Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze, Keenan Allen, and D’Andre Swift, optimism was through the roof. This was FINALLY the year Chicago had a quarterback that could lead the team back to the playoffs. As it stands, Chicago is dead last in the NFC North (4-5). It’s not so much that Caleb Williams has been poor. He does have a 9:5 TD:INT ratio and has completed 60.5 percent of his passes.
Having said that, Eberflus is not putting Williams in a position to succeed. This is the single biggest issue with the Bears at the moment. Whether it’s strange playcalling or the continued inability to produce league-average offensive linemen, Williams is taking a beating. He’s already been sacked a whopping 38 times. We’ve seen time and time again how young quarterbacks can become fragile both physically and mentally when not protected. Chicago is really running the risk of ruining this promising talent unless some wholesale changes are made to better extract the ability and upside out of Williams.
Doug Pederson — Jacksonville Jaguars
One can make the case that Dougie P. is living off the Super Bowl ring he earned as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. That was a year in which he went 13-3 during the regular season. If you combine the other four years he was the head coach of the Eagles, the team went a combined 29-34.
In Jacksonville, he’s gone a combined 20-24 — including staring a 2-8 record in the face at this given moment. This team is lifeless, and Trevor Lawrence — the former No. 1 Overall pick who was supposed to be a generational talent — seems to be getting worse. The ownership group needs to take a hard look at making a chance. The Jaguars aren’t even competitive in what’s one of the worst divisions in all of football. There’s enough talent on this team, at the very least, to be hovering around the .500 mark.
