Ron Rivera Firing Could Lead To Avalanche of NFL Unemployment

BY ADAM GREENE

First off, let me get this out of the way up front. The Carolina Panthers made a big mistake in firing Ron Rivera Tuesday. Rivera was, unquestionably, the best head coach in the history of the Carolina franchise and will one day be enshrined in its ring of honor. In his eight full seasons as the head man, Rivera led the team to the postseason four times and even made it to a Super Bowl, losing SB 50 to the Denver Broncos.

It was dumb. It was impulsive and unless the Panthers absolutely “Sean McVay” the next hiring, it’ll cost the team for good.

If you’ll recall all of a year ago, the Baltimore Ravens almost made the same stupid move after three down seasons with John Harbaugh. Harbaugh, like Rivera, was the best head coach the team had ever had. But injuries, bad luck and players ageing out of huge contracts caused a three-year slide.

It happens. The Panthers should have ridden it out. They would have benefited as Baltimore has. Instead, they cut Rivera loose and now somebody’s getting fired that probably wouldn’t have been otherwise.

You see, a good coach like Rivera hitting the open market is a rare thing and those guys never sit for long. When you’re garbage like Mike McCarthy or Marvin Lewis, you’ve got to wait a while until someone gets desperate and talks themselves into ignoring how badly you messed up the last time and give you another chance.

When you were a good coordinator, but garbage head coach, you fall right back into one of those jobs.

But a guy like Rivera, he won’t be out of work a day more than he wants to. He’ll be hired immediately and he’ll pretty much have his choice of jobs. This is Andy Reid getting shoved out the airlock in Philadelphia and turning the Kansas City Chiefs into one of the best teams in the NFL.

The guy that replaced him? Chip Kelly? He lasted two years in Philly before getting canned. One year in San Francisco and is now back coaching college ball at UCLA. As of this writing, he’s 7-17 there since they hired him in 2018.

When I put my Bad Head Coach Power Rankings together earlier this week, Rivera wasn’t in there and didn’t deserve to be. His franchise quarterback is lost for the season. He replaced him with a second-year guy out of Houston, Kyle Allen, that went undrafted and won five games in a row. There was real thought they’d found Newton’s replacement.

We all know better now.

Sure, you could argue that if Rivera was smarter in the preseason Newton wouldn’t have been lost for the year anyway. I’m with you. Rivera was guilty of old-school thinking, but here’s the thing about him. He’ll never do it again. Rivera is a unicorn when it comes to NFL head coaches. He actually learns and adapts from his mistakes.

Rivera entered the league looking like another wasted coaching hire. He wasn’t good, but something flipped in 2013. He became “Riverboat Ron.” Started taking chances. Trusting his instincts. Understanding the players he had on the field. Usually, a coach is the same guy his first year as he is his fifth year. If he sucks that opening season, he sucks every single year until he gets fired (see Jim Tamsulo, Jay Gruden, Hue Jackson, Gus Bradley). If he’s mediocre (McCarthy, Jason Garrett, Jeff Fisher, John Fox), he stays that way too. A good coach (McVay, Bill Belichick, Andy Reid, John Harbaugh) starts strong and stays strong. They deserved the job in the first place.

Rivera started bad. He got good. It just doesn’t happen.

I put the chances of each guy getting fired in Bad Coach Power Rankings and a few of those guys, Pat Shurmur, Anthony Lynn and Freddie Kitchens had a 50 percent chance or lower. Now all those numbers mean nothing because if you’re the Cleveland Browns and you have the chance to bring in Ron Rivera, you load Kitchens into the rocket launcher today.

Jerry Jones might already be on the phone with Rivera. He should be. Dallas would be the perfect spot for him.

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