Five NFL Teams Fire Their Head Coaches

The finish of the regular part of this NFL season marked a start of big cleanups among several franchises.

Since last night, five teams have fired their head coaches, which indicates that we are about to see some earth quaking changes in the NFL environment.

New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals, Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins, and Denver Broncos all released their coaches and decided to make a change at the most important role in the team.

Todd Bowles was expected to be fired while the season lasted. Simply, his Jets didn’t do anything well and hadn’t improved in the last year, which is why he had to go. After posting 10-6 in the first season as a head coach at New York, the next three were catastrophic, having a combined record of 14-34, with only 4 wins in the current one. Despite having the No.3 pick from this draft, Sam Darnold, Bowles couldn’t develop proper chemistry on the field. Also, the Jets were highly inconsistent, especially in the moments when leading. They couldn’t close several games because of their lack of discipline, which is also his inability to control the players.

Todd Bowles didn’t win enough & the #NYJets fired him. But he is a good man who didn’t want publicity for his good deeds. And he made an impact here, including the waterfront sports complex that bears his name in his hometown of Elizabeth, NJ. pic.twitter.com/IHd9hS2kz2

— Kim Jones (@KimJonesSports) December 31, 2018

Miami Dolphins also decided to fire their head coach Adam Gase. Once a young rising star, with a fantastic offensive knowledge, has been removed from his spot after three years in which he managed to take the Dolphins only once to the playoffs. His overall record at Florida was 23-25, and this season ended with 7-9, after an excellent start in which Miami had three wins in a row. Gase faced with many difficulties during his stint with the Dolphins, most significant was Ryan Tannehill’s injury. He was supposed to be the cornerstone of Gase’s play.

After 16 years in Cincinnati, Marvin Lewis is not going to be in charge anymore. The board had to react, because of the fans, who were not willing to watch the Bengals anymore, and the average attendance decreased to only 50 thousand per game. Lewis lost the control of the team, and for the second year in a row he fired one of his coordinators during the season. His team finished 6-10 this season. Lewis’ time there would be remembered only by positive things, as he transformed one of the weakest franchises in the NFL into a respectable force, with winning 4 AFC North titles.

The @Bengals have parted ways with Marvin Lewis. What's next?#Bengals #WhoDey #LetsRoar #CINvsPIT #SeizeTheDEY⁠ ⁠ #WPMOYChallengeDunlap #WPMOYChallenge⁠ ⁠Dunlap

pic.twitter.com/uk3ohOnlNb

— Cincy Fan Zone (@CincyFanZone) December 31, 2018

Arizona Cardinals also chose to enter the new season with another coach. We still don’t know who will be coaching the No.1 pick from the next NFL draft, but Steve Wilks is not going to be that for sure. This campaign has been disastrous for the Cardinals, who recorded only 3 wins and 13 losses, tying the worst record since they moved here. It is still unclear why did Michael Bidwill decide to replace Wilks after just one year.

And finally, the Denver Broncos released Vance Joseph after two seasons in Colorado. In the first years as an HC of the Broncos, he had 5 wins. This one was better, with 6, but more was expected from a team which was supposed to reach at least the playoff spot. Back-to-back losing seasons were something which hasn’t been seen until now since 1972, and that was the decisive factor for Joseph’s departure.