Welcome to Belly Up’s Over-Reactionary Coach’s Hot Seat Scale for NFL Week 7! (Or BUORCHSS for short.) We’re nearing the halfway point of the 2020 season and it’s been a roller coaster ride of a season. Between #CoronaSZN, a pile of injuries, and coaching casualties. As always, there’s lots of movement on the NFL hot seat scale, so let’s take a gander.
Coach-for-Life
Kevin Stefanski, Mike Tomlin, Sean Payton, Sean McDermott, Matt LaFleur, Bruce Arians, Andy Reid, Kyle Shanahan, Anthony Lynn, Kliff Kingsbury, Sean McVey.
Several coaches made their way back into the scale after either dominant or hard-fought victories. But only one man can claim that his team is more perfect than others. That man is Mike Tomlin: his Pittsburgh Steelers jumped out to a 27-7 lead in Tennessee. The Steelers nearly blew that lead, but they held on for the win. We welcome back Stefanski, McDermott, LaFleur, Reid, Shanahan, Lynn, and McVey into this scale after their respective teams won.
Tepid
Doug Pedersen, Matt Patricia, Raheem Morris, Mike Vrabel, Matt Rhule, Ron Rivera, Romeo Crennel, Jon Gruden, Vic Fangio, Pete Carroll, Matt Nagy.
Several NFL coaches made their way into the Tepid hot seat scale in Week 7. Pedersen’s Eagles came back to beat the Giants on Monday night. Patricia’s Lions scored a touchdown in the waning seconds to beat Morris’ Falcons. The Lions have won their last two in a row. Rivera’s Football Team (I really hope they get an appropriate name soon) rallied around their coach to dominate rival Dallas. That was only the beginning of Rivera’s very good week.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsHow it started. How it’s going! pic.twitter.com/PbBMovYIel
— Ron Rivera (@RiverboatRonHC) October 26, 2020
Vrabel’s Titans suffered their first loss of the season despite a nearly epic comeback. Crennel, Gruden, Fangio, Carroll and Nagy’s respective teams also lost.
Instant Pot
Joe Judge, Zac Taylor, Bill Belichick.
I never thought I would see the day where we would see Belichick in this part of the hot seat scale. But after his Patriots were decimated by the 49ers on both sides of the ball, he finds himself here. Will Bob Kraft give Belichick his walking papers after 2020? I doubt it, but it’s not the same Patriots team we’ve seen over the last decade or so. Even the most hardcore Pats fans are beginning to see that this season might be a wash. He’s not alone in the scale; Taylor’s Bengals may be fun to watch on offense, but his defense is (as the French say) merde. This week’s loss led Carlos Dunlap in a now-deleted tweet to put his house on the market.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAccording to our calculations… @Carlos_Dunlap wants out of Cincinnati!! pic.twitter.com/qo4uy4TlHS
— Belly Up Sports (@BellyUpSports) October 25, 2020
Dunlop was traded to Seattle later in the week.
Circle of Hell: Level 8
Adam Gase, Mike McCarthy, Doug Marrone.
Is it just me, or is Gase getting way too comfortable in this hot seat scale level? Gase gave up The Precious this week (The Precious being play calling) and the Jets still managed to gain only four yards of offense in the second half of their Week 7 game against Buffalo. How a team manages to gain only FOUR YARDS in one half in a modern NFL is beyond belief. Meanwhile, in Dallas, there are grumblings that McCarthy might be gone sooner than later. Although the Cowboys’ defense managed to not surrender 30 points to their opponent, their offense only managed three against the Football Team. Some fans – okay, one of our authors – have urged owner Jerry Jones to sign Colin Kaepernick to save the offense. And we welcome Marrone to the scale after the Jaguars suffered their sixth consecutive loss in a rather historic fashion.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe Jaguars have now joined the 1968 Broncos and 1984 Vikings as the only teams in NFL history to allow 30-plus points in six consecutive games in a single season, Per ESPN Stats & Info. https://t.co/GdtVEIuQCu
— Michael DiRocco (@ESPNdirocco) October 25, 2020
Yikes.
Toast
Bill O’Brien, Dan Quinn.
Bye Week
Frank Reich, Brian Flores, Mike Zimmer, John Harbaugh.
Got your own take about the NFL hot seat scale? Leave a comment below or hit me up on Twitter: @WhoIsRyanMcC. And don’t forget to check out my podcast No Credentials Required (new episodes every Wednesday) and my live stream show A-Round for the Weekend (most Fridays at 6:30pm).
