{"id":24451,"date":"2023-11-09T12:03:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T17:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=24451"},"modified":"2023-11-09T12:03:49","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T17:03:49","slug":"what-we-learned-nfl-week-9-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/what-we-learned-nfl-week-9-2\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT WE LEARNED: NFL WEEK 9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY ADAM GREENE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a wild week. Here\u2019s what we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JOSH MCDANIELS WAS HISTORICALLY AWFUL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stop me if you\u2019ve heard this story before. Josh McDaniels gets hired by a team fresh off a successful run as the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. Once added by that new team, he immediately ostracizes its current quarterback, a franchise guy, and runs him out of town and replaces him with an inferior, but handpicked dude that he likes. McDaniels then turns in a terrible coaching performance and is fired halfway through his second season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know you\u2019ve heard it before. Because it\u2019s now happened twice. The first time was a year and a half stint with the Denver Broncos from 2009-2010 and the second just ended a week ago when the Las Vegas Raiders shoved McDaniels into the airlock and fired him into the vacuum of space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDaniels was, unquestionably, the worst head coach in the NFL and has owned that monicker since last season when he ran a Raiders team that went 10-7, made the playoffs and was a play away from knocking the eventual AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals out of the playoffs with interim head coach Rich Bisaccia, right into the turf. McDaniels took that same team, added one of the best wide receivers on the planet to it in Devante Adams, and finished 6-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There should be, at this point, no danger of anyone ever tossing McDaniels the keys to their franchise again. Hired as an offensive coordinator? Sure. But, honestly, I\u2019d be wary of even that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, a story popped up last week after McDaniels was loaded up into the nearest trebuchet and fired over the castle wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ian Rapoport<\/a> of the NFL Network, the Raiders\u2019 players called a players and coaches meeting where they basically went full Festivus<\/a> on McDaniels, apparently even beating him with the aluminum pole. It was an airing of grievances that would have made Frank Costanza weep tears of yuletide pride before he unleashes multiple feats of strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that meeting, the players let McDaniels know that he sucked at pretty much every aspect of his job, as if Vegas\u2019 win-loss record wasn\u2019t proof enough of that. They attacked his coaching style, how he overcorrected problems on the field and blamed the players for issues he was having calling plays. Also, he apparently ran unnecessarily long meetings, which I\u2019m guessing this wasn\u2019t one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jay Glazer of Fox Sports chimed in with another delectable nugget. Antonio Pierce, who took over after the team hit the ejector seat on McDaniels as interim coach, shared his own anecdote in the above-mentioned meeting, about how the team he played linebacker for and won a Super Bowl with, the New York Giants, came together and knocked off an undefeated Patriots squad in 2007. Pierce, in an attempt to defend McDaniels, said, according to Glazer, that \u201cthe Giants had a plan and truly believed they could win no matter who they played.\u201d Pierce felt that the Raiders needed that same attitude and to build their own culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDaniels, who was OC on that Pats team, took offense and told Pierce to \u201cnever speak about the Patriots like that again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a laughable response and one worthy of Josh McDaniels, completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a statement that Chris Long, a guy who won<\/a> a Super Bowl with the Patriots, called \u201cthe lamest s\u2014t in the world. And that\u2019s why people don\u2019t like certain New England people. It\u2019s because it\u2019s like it\u2019s untouchable. What is the \u2018Patriot way?\u2019 I don\u2019t know what it is, because it\u2019s not working in New England and you certainly can\u2019t walk into a new building and be like, \u2018This is about the Patriots,\u2019 when you haven\u2019t done s\u2014t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which isn\u2019t fair. McDaniels did do s\u2014t. Literally, the most s—t job he could have possibly done And he did it twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDaniels\u2019 wraps his NFL head coaching career for good with a record of 20-32, which gives him a career winning percentage of .377, the 29th<\/sup> worst of all time out of 198 total NFL coaches in the league\u2019s history. The only other current head coach with a worse winning percentage is the New Orleans Saints Dennis Allen with a .323 and most of those losses also, coincidentally, happened with the Raiders. Allen, to be fair, went 7-10 with the Saints last season and is currently 5-4 in this one. And he\u2019s playing the quarterback McDaniels tossed into the dustbin, Derek Carr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s next for McDaniels? Well, the Raiders still have to pay him the rest of his contract, but don\u2019t be shocked if he doesn\u2019t land in New England as an offensive consultant. If Bill Belichick does decide that Bill O\u2019Brien, his current offensive coordinator, can\u2019t do the job to his liking, he\u2019ll have no issue showing him to the nearest trap door and plopping McDaniels into the only job he\u2019s ever been good at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SO, WHICH HEAD COACH IS NEXT TO GET THE AX?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current odds<\/a> for the next NFL head coach to be fired are very interesting. Here\u2019s what we\u2019re looking at;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Eberflus +225<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frank Reich +250<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ron Rivera +500<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill Belichick +700<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Vrabel +1000<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandon Staley +1200<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd Bowles +1200<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Lafleur +1800<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin O\u2019Connell +4000<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dennis Allen +4000<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin Stefanski +4000<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, let\u2019s knock some names off that list right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no universe where Matt Lafleur, Kevin O\u2019Connell, Mike Vrabel and Kevin Stefanski get fired this season. Now, there\u2019s always a chance there\u2019s a personality conflict like Doug Pederson had in Philadelphia that cost him a job there, but I don\u2019t see that. The Green Bay Packers are bad this year and that\u2019s OK. Lafleur deserves the chance to rebuild the post Aaron Rodgers team and this year is his mulligan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin O\u2019Connell just pulled off one of the best coaching feats of the season, helping his team, the Minnesota Vikings, with Joshua Dobbs, knock off the Atlanta Falcons to stay firmly in the NFC Wild Card race in spite of losing Kirk Cousins for the season. Vrabel is the only thing keeping the Tennessee Titans competitive and he\u2019s apparently picked the right quarterback for his team, Will Levis. He\u2019ll be fine. Kevin Stefanski has won games with his backup quarterback, huge games, and is doing a hell of a job. Yes, the Cleveland Browns are owned by an idiot, Jimmy Haslam, but Stefanski is safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name that should be on this list, but isn\u2019t, is Arthur Smith of the Atlanta Falcons. He was my favorite to be the first head coach fired and after finally pulling the plug on Desmond Ridder, he\u2019s absolutely on the hot seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the rest of the guys on this list? Let\u2019s take a look at their chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt Eberflus is a dead man walking. The Bears, even if they don\u2019t land the No. 1 overall pick (and they have two chances at it since they own the Carolina Panthers\u2019 selection) are absolutely chucking Eberflus over the bow this offseason. They\u2019ll hire an offensive head coach, probably trade Justin Fields, and draft Caleb Williams first overall. Hell, Lincoln Riley is apparently ready to jump to the NFL finally and this looks like the perfect spot for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frank Reich? Not a chance they fire him, unless, again, he has some issue with ownership and the Panthers are owned, like the Browns, by a moron \u2014 David Tepper. Reich will get at least one more season, and the chance to spend a ton of free agent mone, to right the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ron Rivera isn\u2019t a dead man walking. He\u2019s a full out zombie. I like Rivera and think he\u2019s been a great coach in the league, but he\u2019s phoning this season in harder than ET with a new Verizon Friends & Family plan. Rivera is completely checked out and the Washington Commanders already have their next head coach in the building \u2014 Eric Bieniemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would the Patriots really fire Bill Belichick? I find it hard to believe. Yes, he\u2019s not the same head coach without Tom Brady, the best quarterback in NFL history by a wide margin, under center, but the man still has six Super Bowl Championships and nine Super Bowl appearances. He\u2019s way more likely to just retire than get fired, though Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has floated the possibility of Belichick being \u201ctraded\u201d away in the offseason. I\u2019ll believe it when I see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandon Staley is an interesting case because he\u2019s been the source of so many of his own problems, mainly coaching decisions that have cost his team, or nearly cost his team, games. If the Los Angeles Chargers don\u2019t make the playoffs, he might get fired. If they make it, he\u2019ll survive another season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd Bowles and Dennis Allen are in a similar boat as Staley. It\u2019s all about the postseason and both guys coach in a crappy NFC South division. The only team making the postseason out of that crew is the squad that wins the division outright. Both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints have a legitimate shot at it. I\u2019d argue they\u2019re the only teams that do, so whoever does don the NFC South Champ cap and t-shirt come January is the guy remaining employed. Everyone else outside of Reich, probably, will be hitting the bread line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter <\/em><\/a>@TheFirstMan<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connect with us our socials on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a> for the latest sports news, viral moments, betting odds and the occasional memes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ADAM GREENE It\u2019s been a wild week. Here\u2019s what we\u2019re talking about. JOSH MCDANIELS WAS HISTORICALLY AWFUL Stop me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":24452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-24451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24453,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24451\/revisions\/24453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}