NFL Coaches Already on the Hot Seat This Season

The NFL remains a results-oriented business with short leashes for those in charge, including head coaches. 

Last year, the Washington Football Team fired Jay Gruden after only five games. Prior performance and understandable expectations not being met played a big role in the decision to part ways with a coach, which is true of most teams that ended up making such a change this past offseason. 

The same factors will hold true in 2020 as head coach dominoes start to fall.

The likeliest candidates to be shown the door aren't first-year coaches still trying to make their mark in a number of ways. Instead, they're veteran coaches who have already flirted with the hot seat or are finally starting to see seats warm for the first time.

Bill O'Brien, Houston Texans

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This one wasn't hard to see coming, right? 

Houston Texans head coach (and general manager) Bill O'Brien spent the offseason serving as a public punching bag after he opted to trade away star receiver DeAndre Hopkins for a package featuring running back David Johnson. He also added wideouts Brandin Cooks via trade and Randall Cobb in free agency.

That didn't prevent the Texans from getting off to a 0-3 start. Quarterback Deshaun Watson has thrown only four touchdowns against three interceptions, and he's already been sacked 13 times behind a still-porous offensive line. 

Meanwhile, Johnson has averaged only 3.8 yards per carry, and Cobb and Cooks have scored only one total touchdown. In Arizona, Hopkins has more catches (32) and receiving yards (326) than Cobbs and Cooks combined.

In the Texans' Week 3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Watson attempted only nine passes in the second half despite completing 19-of-27 pass attempts and throwing two touchdowns on the day. In other words, it isn't just head-scratching offseason decision-making holding back the Texans.

With widely panned moves already backfiring and the Texans flopping against AFC contenders Kansas City, Baltimore and Pittsburgh, O'Brien's seat should be close to catching fire. 

Matt Patricia, Detroit Lions

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The Detroit Lions were supposed to be better this year. 

Head coach Matt Patricia had another year to impart his vision and culture on the roster. Quarterback Matthew Stafford returned after missing half of the 2019 season with fractured bones in his back. And generally speaking, the only way to go after a three-win season is up...right?

Instead, the Lions are 1-2 with a minus-22 point differential in an NFC North division already boasting a pair of 3-0 teams. They're already 0-2 in that division, with losses against the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears.

Stafford has already been sacked nine times, and top-50 picks Kerryon Johnson and D'Andre Swift has taken a backseat to 35-year-old running back Adrian Peterson, who joined the team in late August. Detroit's revamped defense also blew an 11-point lead against Green Bay and a 23-6 fourth-quarter lead against Chicago.

Detroit fired Jim Caldwell, Patricia's predecessor, after he went 36-28 across four seasons, including three campaigns with nine wins or more. Patricia currently boasts a 10-24-1 record, which is teetering dangerously close to Rod Marinelli's 10-38 mark that included an 0-16 season.

Billed as a defensive stalwart but getting little from that unit (or any other), Patricia's seat is scorching hot. 

Doug Pederson, Philadelphia Eagles

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Three years ago, Doug Pederson had Carson Wentz playing at an MVP level and won a Super Bowl. Now he's getting whipped by Washington and tying with lowly Cincinnati. 

Life comes at you fast in the NFL, and the Philadelphia Eagles are one of the best examples in recent years.

The Eagles went from winning 13 games and the Super Bowl in 2017 to nine apiece in the following two seasons. They're now 0-2-1 after losing 27-17 to Washington in their season opener, 37-19 to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 2 and tying the 0-2-1 Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.

The tie was especially damning, as Pederson passed on attempting a 64-yard field goal that would've won the game in the waning moments of overtime. Instead, he had his team punt the ball away and settle for the tie, which he quickly admitted was a mistake the next day. 

More than anything else, coaches are tied to their quarterbacks. Wentz has dramatically regressed and is a mechanical mess, with a 59.8 completion percentage and three touchdowns and six interceptions to date.

The continued regression under center, as an overall team and the white flag of a punt while already sitting at 0-2 is enough to nix any remaining feel-good vibes from that championship season. 

Zac Taylor, Cincinnati Bengals

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Zac Taylor and the Cincinnati Bengals knew they were lucking into a potential generational talent at quarterback with Joe Burrow, so the team went on an uncharacteristic spending spree in free agency. 

However, the Bengals hardly spent anything on the league's worst offensive line. 

Through three games, Burrow has looked like anything but a rookie, completing 64.5 percent of his passes with five touchdowns and one interception. His 91 completions are the most ever by a player over his first three games. 

But he's also been sacked 14 times and is facing seemingly endless pressure from opposing pass-rushers. He went viral for the sheer brutality of the hits he's taking. 

All the while, Taylor has called only 52 carries for Joe Mixon (3.2 yards per carry), and A.J. Green has turned a team-high 28 targets into only 116 yards. For all the money Cincinnati spent on defense, the unit ranks second-to-last against the run (181.7 yards per game) and has the same tackling issues from a year ago. 

Perhaps 2020 was more about development than winning in Cincinnati. But besides under center, this team looks similar to the one that went 2-14 a year ago, and Taylor is now 0-10-1 in one-score games. His seat should be getting uncomfortably hot. 

Dan Quinn, Atlanta Falcons

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

Another year, more talk about Atlanta Falcons head coach Dan Quinn sitting on the hot seat. 

Quinn seemed like one of the likeliest names to get fired this past offseason. Since making a Super Bowl appearance on the back of an MVP season from Matt Ryan in 2016, Atlanta has done nothing but regress, posting a 10-win season in 2017 and then a pair of seven-win campaigns in 2018 and 2019. 

Three games into 2020, Quinn's Falcons have yet to win. His offense is putting up video game numbers, with Matt Ryan sitting on seven touchdowns and two interceptions, wide receiver Calvin Ridley boasting 348 yards and four scores on 21 catches and Todd Gurley showing signs of his prime form in the backfield. 

But the usual problems remain.

The Falcons have coughed up 30 or more points in all three games and dramatically choked twice. In a 40-39 loss to the Cowboys in Week 2, the Falcons blew a 15-point fourth-quarter lead even though they forced three Cowboys turnovers and won the time-of-possession battle. This past Sunday, the Falcons let a 16-point fourth-quarter lead slip away over six-and-a-half minutes in a 30-26 loss to the Chicago Bears. 

Quinn is now just 43-40 as a head coach during a tenure defined by the numbers 28-3, and he's heading into a Monday night game against Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay on the road. 

Adam Gase, New York Jets

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Adam Gase was a controversial hire by the New York Jets in 2019, and that skepticism appears to have been justified in the year-plus since. 

Prior to joining the Jets, Gase went 23-25 during his three years as the Miami Dolphins' head coach. He's now 7-12 in New York after a 7-9 campaign last year and an 0-3 start this year in which the Jets have looked like the NFL's worst team.

That disappointing start could be forgiven if the Jets appeared to be heading in the right direction moving forward. But it might be time to press the panic button on 2018 No. 3 overall pick Sam Darnold, who has completed only 60.0 percent of his career attempts with 39 touchdowns, 32 interceptions, 16 fumbles and 69 sacks.

Gase is supposed to be an offensive-minded head coach, but the Jets have scored fewer than 20 points in 13 of his 19 games at the helm. Before the blowout 36-7 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Chris Mortensen reported Gase was under "intense scrutiny" from the Jets' brass.

If the Jets lose to the Brett Rypien-led Denver Broncos on Thursday Night Football, Gase could be the first NFL head coach out of a job in 2020.