{"id":7890,"date":"2019-12-05T16:17:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T16:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=7890"},"modified":"2019-12-05T16:17:47","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T16:17:47","slug":"ron-rivera-firing-could-lead-to-avalanche-of-nfl-unemployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/ron-rivera-firing-could-lead-to-avalanche-of-nfl-unemployment\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Rivera Firing Could Lead To Avalanche of NFL Unemployment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY ADAM GREENE<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

First\noff, let me get this out of the way up front. The Carolina Panthers\nmade a big mistake in firing Ron Rivera Tuesday. Rivera was,\nunquestionably, the best head coach in the history of the Carolina\nfranchise and will one day be enshrined in its ring of honor. In his\neight full seasons as the head man, Rivera led the team to the\npostseason four times and even made it to a Super Bowl, losing SB 50\nto the Denver Broncos. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas dumb. It was impulsive and unless the Panthers absolutely \u201cSean\nMcVay\u201d the next hiring, it\u2019ll cost the team for good. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou\u2019ll recall all of a year ago, the Baltimore Ravens almost made\nthe same stupid move after three down seasons with John Harbaugh.\nHarbaugh, like Rivera, was the best head coach the team had ever had.\nBut injuries, bad luck and players ageing out of huge contracts\ncaused a three-year slide. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nhappens. The Panthers should have ridden it out. They would have\nbenefited as Baltimore has. Instead, they cut Rivera loose and now\nsomebody\u2019s getting fired that probably wouldn\u2019t have been\notherwise. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\nsee, a good coach like Rivera hitting the open market is a rare thing\nand those guys never sit for long. When you\u2019re garbage like Mike\nMcCarthy or Marvin Lewis, you\u2019ve got to wait a while until someone\ngets desperate and talks themselves into ignoring how badly you\nmessed up the last time and give you another chance. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nyou were a good coordinator, but garbage head coach, you fall right\nback into one of those jobs. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\na guy like Rivera, he won\u2019t be out of work a day more than he wants\nto. He\u2019ll be hired immediately and he\u2019ll pretty much have his\nchoice of jobs. This is Andy Reid getting shoved out the airlock in\nPhiladelphia and turning the Kansas City Chiefs into one of the best\nteams in the NFL. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nguy that replaced him? Chip Kelly? He lasted two years in Philly\nbefore getting canned. One year in San Francisco and is now back\ncoaching college ball at UCLA. As of this writing, he\u2019s 7-17 there\nsince they hired him in 2018. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nI put my Bad\nHead Coach Power Rankings<\/a> together earlier this week,\nRivera wasn\u2019t in there and didn\u2019t deserve to be. His franchise\nquarterback is lost for the season. He replaced him with a\nsecond-year guy out of Houston, Kyle Allen, that went undrafted and\nwon five games in a row. There was real thought they\u2019d found\nNewton\u2019s replacement. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nall know better now. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure,\nyou could argue that if Rivera was smarter in the preseason Newton\nwouldn\u2019t have been lost for the year anyway. I\u2019m with you. Rivera\nwas guilty of old-school thinking, but here\u2019s the thing about him.\nHe\u2019ll never do it again. Rivera is a unicorn when it comes to NFL\nhead coaches. He actually learns and adapts from his mistakes. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rivera\nentered the league looking like another wasted coaching hire. He\nwasn\u2019t good, but something flipped in 2013. He became \u201cRiverboat\nRon.\u201d Started taking chances. Trusting his instincts. Understanding\nthe players he had on the field. Usually, a coach is the same guy his\nfirst year as he is his fifth year. If he sucks that opening season,\nhe sucks every single year until he gets fired (see Jim Tamsulo, Jay\nGruden, Hue Jackson, Gus Bradley). If he\u2019s mediocre (McCarthy,\nJason Garrett, Jeff Fisher, John Fox), he stays that way too. A good\ncoach (McVay, Bill Belichick, Andy Reid, John Harbaugh) starts strong\nand stays strong. They deserved the job in the first place. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rivera\nstarted bad. He got good. It just doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019re the Cleveland Browns and you have the chance to bring in Ron Rivera, you load Kitchens into the rocket launcher today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry\nJones might already be on the phone with Rivera. He should be. Dallas\nwould be the perfect spot for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get the latest NFL football odds and information–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BetOnline.ag on Instagram<\/a>–Follow for the latest odds, stats and information!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ADAM GREENE First off, let me get this out of the way up front. The Carolina Panthers made a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":7891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t