It’s not just the Thanksgiving turkey that may come face-to-face with their ultimate doom heading into Week 12 of the NFL season, there’s plenty of head coaches around the league that could be fried/baked/roasted — whatever you’re preference maybe if they come out on the losing end of their head-to-head.
So with that in mind, lets take a look at a crop of hot seat head coaches who may be cooked at the conclusion of Week 12.
Adam Gase – New York Jets
It’s really quite amazing Gase still even has a job in New York. Currently, the Jets are the lone remaining winless team in 2020 sitting at 0-9 while coming off their latest loss against another bad team in the San Diego Chargers.
This week, the Jets take on the Miami Dolphins who are coming off a bad loss themselves against the Broncos which resulted in Tua Tagovailoa not only suffering his first pro loss but his first pro benching. Nonetheless, Tua’s benching isn’t a permanent move and the rookie could find himself back in the starting role again this weekend where Miami enter as 7-point favorites, according to the odds.
Could a loss to a rookie QB coming off a bad week be the tipping point for Gase though?
It wouldn’t be surprising. Considering what Gase has survived so far this season whether it be alienating star players like Le’Veon Bell and Jamal Adams to inspiring nothing into Sam Darnold Gase’s ax could essentially come at any time.
Doug Marrone – Jacksonville Jaguars
There was so much promise at the beginning of Doug Marrone’s tenure in Jacksonville. In 2017 — Marrone’s first season with the team the Jaguars went to the AFC Championship Game against the Patriots where they were edged out by New England 24-20.
From there its been all downhill for for Marone and the Jaguars.
From the Blake Bortles extension that was met with condemnation from players and fans alike, to an exodus of higher-end talent has left the Jags completely devoid of what they once were when they had the Patriots on the ropes.
Despite everything that has gone wrong with Jacksonville since 2017 that wasn’t Marrone’s fault he’s isn’t immune from the problems that have left the Jaguars amongst one of the worst teams in the League. Owner Shad Khan has already given the green light to clean house of Tom Coughlin and disgruntled players so it seems just a matter of time before Marrone sees the same fate. However, unless the Jaguars see another embarrassing blowout loss in Week 12 this time against the Browns Marrone will probably be around to see Week 13.
Matt Patricia – Detroit Lions
The Lions enter Week 12 in quite a peculiar situation since not only is Matt Patricia on the hot seat but so is GM Bob Quinn. Likewise, if Patricia fails and is fired, Quinn probably won’t be far behind.
With all that said, it may be out of Quinn’s hands if they are met with yet another embarrassing failure in Week 12, especially against a 3-7 Texans team who already fired their head coach Bill O’Brien this season.
In any sense, Patricia keeps bailing himself out certain weeks before taking steps back in his quest to ultimately keep his job.
So again, the biggest question here is when does ownership step in and put an end to the lackluster Patricia regime? Because we know Quinn isn’t going to pull the trigger on his head coach.
Matt Nagy – Chicago Bears
Matt Nagy is probably the safest head coach on this list and barring something catastrophic happening coming off the bye against the Packers. However, what happens against Green Bay this week could certainly be the beginning of getting things back on track for Nagy’s crew or the beginning of the end.
Chicago was very promising to start the year going 5-1 before losing four straight to find themselves at .500.
Again, there’s still time to get things turned around but the clock is ticking and if the Bears are on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoffs, we could be looking at a full-scale rebuild in Chi-town starting with Nagy himself.
Vic Fangio – Denver Broncos
Things haven’t been completely awful for the Broncos this season despite the 4-6 record and Fangio coaching in his second year with the team. Notably, too Fangio seems to score wins that buy him new life such as what happened last weekend against the Dolphins. Still, though, Denver finished below .500 last season (7-9) and is on their way to once again failing to secure a winning record this season which typically doesn’t bode well for NFL head coaches considering their overall shelf life with the team. Not to mention, Fangio is responsible for plenty of questionable decisions late in games that have led to the Broncos surrendering a lead in the final 30 seconds of six total games in the Fangio era — four of which they ended up losing.
So, we’re seeing a coach with a losing record for the second time in as many seasons and four loses that can be directly attributed to him. That’s certainly not a recipe for a vote of confidence in any situation. Fangio more than likely makes it out of Week 12 with his job in hand but like Nagy the clock is ticking on his tenure in the Mile High City.
