WHAT WE LEARNED: NFL WEEK 18 – Head Coach Wanted

BY ADAM GREENE

As I was preparing to write about all the head coaching vacancies after the NFL’s “Black Monday” (that actually begins on Sunday), another head fell from the chopping block. So, let me preface this by saying, as of this writing, we have seven head coaching openings in the NFL.

But that could change by the time it runs.

JOE JUDGE FIRED TUESDAY

After a day full of incredulous Tweets that Brian Flores, who led the Miami Dolphins to consecutive winning seasons and Joe Judge, who ha recently been prone to what some would call “crackhead rantings” (some, being me) about his prowess as a head coach, was summarily dismissed from the Giants in what had to be one of the most deserved cannings in recent memory.

Judge’s two years at the helm of the Giants will measure up with some of the worst coaching runs in history. His 10-23 record is good for a .303 winning percentage, which would put him No. 11 worst all time right between former Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles head coach Marion Campbell (1974-1976, 1983-1985, 1987-1989) and Detroit Lions all-time disaster head coach Darryl Rogers (1985-1988).

To put that into perspective, Mike Nolan from 2005-2008 had a .327 winning percentage with the San Francisco 49ers and he’s considered one of the worst coaching hires in the history of a franchise that boasted both Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly has head men.

Jim Schwartz, who was a complete abomination coaching the aforementioned Lions from 2009-2013 had a .363 winning percentage. Romeo Crennel has a .337.

Adam Gase is .400. Mike Mularkey, of all people, has a .404.

Joe Judge was a sack of steaming garbage is what I’m saying and there should be no universe where someone that bad at a job should get to keep it.

If you’re a Giants fan, you got even better news over the weekend when future Pro Football Hall of Flopper general manager Dan Gettleman announced his retirement.

That means an entirely new front office and head coaching staff for the Giants. A hard reset, if you will, for a storied franchise that needed to do this exact thing.

THE FIRED COACHES CLUB

Here are the guys currently unemployed as the better teams in the league begin their postseason runs.

Joe Judge — New York Giants

Mike Zimmer — Minnesota Vikings

Brian Flores — Miami Dolphins

Matt Nagy — Chicago Bears

Vic Fangio — Denver Broncos

Urban Meyer — Jacksonville Jaguars

Jon Gruden — Las Vegas Raiders

Zimmer was my pick in the preseason for the first head coach to be fired, but Jon Gruden screwed that all up when his racist, homophobic emails were leaked and Mark Davis was publicly forced to jettison him from the cockpit.

There are some decisions that need to be made in Minnesota and one of them is what to do with quarterback Kirk Cousins. Cousins is a legit NFL starter, but he’s a baseline guy. Your bottom dwelling QB like a Baker Mayfield or Jared Goff. He’s not the arm that can get you over the hump.

Flores firing was rightly criticized and, unless the Dolphins have a beeline on Jim Harbaugh (and they say they don’t), then this is even crazier than it looked Monday morning. Flores dragged Miami to a 10-6 record a year ago, barely missing the playoffs. This year, with all their QB issues, they went 9-8 and barely missed the playoffs again. They seemed on the cusp of breaking through and now they’re starting all over again.

Nagy has been a dead man walking for months. What’s really going to make him look bad is the Bears are a good team with a decent roster. They’re primed for a Los Angeles Rams-type 2017 jump if they hire the right guy. Frankly, Doug Pederson should already be signing a contract today.

Fangio probably had an argument to stay, but you can’t blame your quarterback issues when you’ve obviously not been seriously trying to improve that spot. They weren’t especially active in the free agent market, made no serious trade offers and let guys like Mitchell Trubisky, Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston all sign other places when they’d be obvious upgrades over what they had on the roster.

The Jaguars have already screwed up their head coaching search by keeping general manager Trent Baalke. That, in itself, has immediately removed any serious up and coming talent from contention in Jacksonville.

If they do get a new guy, it’ll be someone like a Kellen Moore who’s seen the bloom fall off his rose over the last month or so in Dallas. More than likely it’ll be a retread of a guy that was rightfully fired before like Jim Caldwell or Bill O’Brien. Out of those three, Caldwell would probably do the least damage to the team and might actually help develop Trevor Lawrence while the team swirls down the toilet for the 2-3 seasons it would take to fire him and start over again.

The Raiders have made the playoffs the hard way with interim head coach Rich Bisaccia and I’m thinking, even if they make a quick exit, they might stick with him. This was a team falling to pieces, not just from the Gruden fiasco, but with multiple issues off the field involving former first round picks that got both guys cut and one of them heading to prison.

If there is a change that should be warranted it’s firing the guy that picked those people (and traded for Antonio Brown), but there doesn’t seem to be any rumblings about pushing GM Mike Mayock out the airlock. It would be the first thing I would do if I was Davis right after I tossed my Flowbee into the trash and got a professional haircut.

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan.

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