Black Monday Thread 2022 (Latest: Gettleman)

Would Da Bears welcome him back in that role?

DEN with Drew Lock at QB wasn’t going to make a lot of noise in the playoffs no matter who their coach was.  DEN’s D has played pretty good this year, it seems to me, but not so well as to be able to carry a team all on their own (although you could argue they did play well enough be beat KC that way yesterday, if not for the improbable Q4 fumble).

The main reason to fire Fangio is that his whole tenure he behaved like a DC forced into acting as interim HC.  The skills he showed are those of a good coordinator.  Too bad they couldn’t have kept him as DC, but obviously that couldn’t happen.  He’ll go back to being a good DC somewhere else, I expect, while DEN rolls the dice on someone else.

The main reason to keep Fangio would have been if DEN had a bead on a high end QB, i.e. Rodgers in free agency or a high pick in a good QB draft year.  The rest of their team, including skill players on offense, are good enough that with a pending upgrade at QB it might have been worthwhile keeping Fangio who at least isn’t a disaster of a HC and provides a high floor to their D.  But if you’re likely a year or two away on a quality QB, as DEN seems to be, might as well spend those years trying to find the HC of your future, too.

Sure there is.  The same excuse there will always be—Reid is the HC, Mahomes is the QB, so how much value is he really adding?

Double post.

Yeah that was a bit of a surprise.

This is exactly why the Dolphins are going nowhere as a franchise.

“He totally made lemonade out of lemons”

Exactly.  I really don’t get the the rationale, unless they had already made up their minds when the team started 1-7 (although even that would be shaky).  

And yet Joe Judge may keep his job.  Ridiculous.

He pretty clearly had buy-in throughout his tenure, and that’s easy enough when your team is winning but not nearly as easy when they aren’t. The next HC probably isn’t going to be excited by Tua, and there’s also a possibility they bring in someone who wastes time blowing up the roster to bring in his own pieces. Whoever the new hire is, though, the Dolphins will probably still beat the Pats in Miami next year.

It really seems like Belichick tree coaches have a super-short leash. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like one underperforming year, and you’re gone. Unless you’re Joe Judge, apparently.

Flores was pretty lost out there on gamedays. If first quarter was all that counted, Miami would have been top team, but he wasn’t able to make ANY adjustments. His decision-making was also highly questionable (see any edjsports table of coaching decisions).

Finally, he just wasn’t able to get the right people around him. He went through four offensive coordinators and four offensive line coaches in 3 years. He decided to have TWO SIMULTANEOUS offensive coordinators calling plays this year, which lasted nearly half the season before he realized it didn’t work sand stuck to one for play-calling.

The team was solidly below average. 25th in DVOA and 6.5 estimated wins.

I don’t know that I would have fired Flores, personally. He has some positive attributes as well and you have to expect a rookie coach to have some growing pains. Realistically, though, the team was looking at a new offensive coordinator and new offensive line coach, even if Flores stayed. That would be the fifth of each to start of the Flores’ fourth season in Miami. Hardly much continuity.

Ross wanted Watson. (He wanted Tua over Herbert in 2020). He sabotaged the locker-room and helped cause the 1-7 start. Instead of blaming himself, he is making Flores the bad guy. Unless he really lands Harbaugh, this is a terrible move. Hint: all the data suggests Ross is a terrible NFL owner. 

Let’s see:

Bears fire HC and GM

Vikings fire HC and GM

Dolphins fire HC and … nope, that’s it.

So I think that’s your answer.  The GM convinced the owner that he gave Flores the talent to be a playoff team and all he did with it was go 9-8 (beating NE twice, for good measure).

There’s also some possibility that “he’s ruining our young QB” was whispered often and loudly, the sort of blame that falls squarely on the HC and leaves the GM unblemished. 

If Jeff Darlington is to be believed -and he’s the most credible source of Dolphin information- and we read between the lines, it seems that the issue was Flores didn’t want Tua and Grier did.

Presented with two choices, the Miami Dolphins unerringly make the wrong one.

New OC and OL coach and stay the course? Absolutely not. Fire the best HC since Johnson maybe? Yep, sure, that works for us.

Now watch them get spurned by all the big name QBs and go hard after a man who may concievably never play another down in the NFL. In fact it would be the most Dolphins ever to make the trade (3 #1’s and X Howard) and then find out Watson’s going to jail…

They seem the team most stuck in purgatory. Cousins will stop them from tanking but not take you far in the playoffs…if he makes it.

I agree that might as well have kept Zimmer but him being grouchy about Mond ain’t a good look. Can’t imagine play for him with that attitude.

It will take three years until you have YOUR team.

Yeah, not really. Cousins has a huge contract for next year but that’s it – and it’s not crazy-land to believe he could be traded, even with that guarantee. It’s only $35M for the trading team, and it’s likely the trading team could extend Cousins and get a reasonable cap number. It wouldn’t be a terrible option. (Note: I didn’t say it would be a good option).

By 2023 the team’s almost completely a blank slate, with about $75M of free cap space. They need to shove some things around next year, but with a new head coach it wouldn’t be that hard to have a transitional year and then basically be fresh and ready to go for 2023.

I’ve been saying for a while that I think Minnesota’s problem has been that they’ve been working with one foot out the door in the Zimmer era for years now. They’re well-structured to transition quickly.

While New’s view is understandable, this is the sort of team Parcells would jump at.  Both Dallas and the Jets were disasters before he got there, but Parcells would actually use what was there before and improve them.  There’s a story that Mo Lewis puked his guts out on Parcells first day of mini-camp because he hadn’t worked hard the last two years with Kotite.  While Zimmer isn’t Kotite bad, if the Vikings get a great coach they could end up surprising everyone.  Another comparison would be Rex Ryan’s first two Jets teams.  Of course, there is one candidate who would make sense, and would love not having a GM telling him what to do.

They have Jim Harbaugh all but signed. There is zero reason to believe that is true. Flores will be in the NFL next season somewhere. If not another HC job, then certainly he’s going to be DC somewhere. It’s not like his first 3 seasons were terrible. And it’s not like Miami job has a lot going for it. There are questions at QB, RB, WR, TE, Oline . . . and all that is Chris Grier’s fault and he’s staying! Unlike Gase, Flores is a very likable guy. If Miami was doomed to be stuck in a division with the greatest coach ever for 4-5 more seasons, they could do a lot worse than Flores to be stuck with waiting for Belichick to retire. 

Kudos to McCaskey for looking beyond his personal admiration for Pace and doing the proper housecleaning.

Sadly, firing the GM and head coach isn’t actually a real housecleaning. The Bears are one of those franchises where the GM and head coach can change all they want, but strangely you still just keep ending up with Bears football.

It’s almost like the same people have been making the overall decisions for decades. Wait…

How could they possibly get rid of Barry after the job he’s done?