NFL Coaching Hot Seat: John Fox Going Off the Rails

The NFL coaching hot seat through week five is starting to gain a little more clarity as the field finally starts to separate between good and bad teams.

This has allowed for an opportunity to really get an idea of which coaches are in serious trouble and which ones are merely flirting with danger. Often the quickest way to find the fire is to look for smoke. In other words seek out the teams with the worst records. Obviously San Francisco and Los Angeles don’t count because they just hired new coaches.

There are other teams though that have to be seriously considering a change if their run of misfortune in the win column continues. Here are the names that stick out most thus far.

John Fox (Hot)

With each passing week the Fox mystique is dissipating. People have finally started to see him for the average coach he actually is. People talk about his two Super Bowl appearances way too often. He lost both, first of all. Both times because his team made egregious, bone-headed mistakes. Also if that weren’t enough, there is a damning stat floating around that seals it.

Since 2002, Fox is 91-106 coaching teams that didn’t have Peyton Manning at quarterback. He’s 38-10 otherwise. Now of course people will say that’s not fair but in fact it is. Tony Dungy was 54-42 without Manning as his quarterback. Jim Caldwell was 32-37. Not having Manning tends to separate the good coaches from the not-so-good. People now see where Fox lands.

Chuck Pagano (Warm)

The fact that the Indianapolis Colts are winning at all is a minor miracle given the roster Ryan Grigson left behind. It’s amazing to think that people are hammering Chuck Pagano so much given what he’s had to work with. The man had two winning seasons and an AFC championship appearance and has never posted a losing record in any of his years as head coach. Now he has this Colts team, without Andrew Luck, at 2-3 and still hanging tough in the division. Yet with a new GM in charge the odds are piling up against him being back in 2018.

Ben McAdoo (Warm)

It might be hard for the New York Giants to justify cutting ties with Ben McAdoo so soon after he led the team to the playoffs. Nonetheless much of what this team is going through can be traced back to the lack of hold he has on it. Things started going wrong with that infamous boat trip before the playoff loss in Green Bay. In fact the Giants haven’t won a game since that debacle and have looked dispirited way too often. McAdoo’s vaunted offense is a mess and only getting worse with injuries. Are the Giants willing to admit their mistake and move on?