NFL Black Monday Firings: Which Coaches Might Go and Why?

• NFL Black Monday firings are part of the league’s brand, whether it openly admits it or not
• Already, the Falcons and Browns have swung the axe
• Others are on the chopping block and have not, as of this writing, been announced yet
• Which big names and surprises could be on the horizon on Black Monday or in the coming days?

At 11:15 a.m., Morris and Stefanski Are Already Out

While the NFL will not admit that it likes Black Monday, in which people are losing their jobs, the league is keenly aware of days in which it will be the top story. It maximizes that for its brand. And Black Monday is a key part of the brand as it draws web hits, sparks conversation, and promotes the league just as it’s heading for the most important time of the year, the playoffs.

Coaching searches are also crucial in the interim between the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft, right before free agency.

As of this writing at around 11:15 a.m., the Falcons have fired general manager Terry Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris, and the Browns have fired head coach Kevin Stefanski.

The Falcons Underachieved

There seemed to be a lack of cohesion in Atlanta from the top down. CEO Rich McKay, GM Fontenot, and HC Morris never appeared to be on the same page.

McKay has been removed as president and CEO, but will stay with the organization.

Owner Arthur Blank didn’t even wait until Monday to pull the trigger. He followed Patriots owner Bob Kraft’s lead from a year ago when Kraft fired Jerrod Mayo as soon as the Pats’ final game of the 2024 season ended.

This could be a case in point for NFL owners who want to make a change and are looking for ways to justify it. It certainly went well for Kraft.

Blank and Kraft are owners who made their money on their own. They’re businessmen as opposed to Jets owner Woody Johnson, who woke up one day and decided he wanted to buy a football team and had the money on hand to do it.

Billionaire businessmen who built successful companies accept mistakes and move on. Others, like Johnson, think about how they’re perceived, focusing on their ego.

When Blank hired Morris, he wanted to hire Bill Belichick, but was talked out of it.

Belichick has not distinguished himself on the football field since the Pats fired him. He’s become a joke off the field. But he would not have allowed the Falcons to finish at 8-9 in consecutive seasons with the talent on that roster.

Fontenot has a good eye. But he was there five years and has never had a winning season.

Who decided to sign Kirk Cousins and then immediately pick Michael Penix Jr. with the 8th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft?

How does a team with an effective pass rush, a good secondary, and the offensive weapons Bijan Robinson, Tyler Allgeier, Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and whichever QB —Cousins or Penix— plays, finish 8-9 in consecutive seasons?

Stefanski Heads to the Market as a 2X Coach of the Year

It’s the Browns, so who knows what was going on within the walls.

Jimmy Haslam’s apparent concern wasn’t firing Stefanski, but that Stefanski would go elsewhere and become a huge success and the Browns would again be mocked for pushing a good coach out the door.

The questions with Stefanski are whether he was the one who wanted to discard Baker Mayfield, whether he decided they should go so hard after Deshaun Watson, if he was adamantly against Shedeur Sanders, and how much blame he should be accorded for never putting together an offense to go along with that great defense which just had its star, Myles Garrett, set the NFL record in sacks.

GM Andrew Berry is staying on.

Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta already departed to take over as president of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies. It’s Berry’s ball now.

Stefanski is well-regarded, but there’s a sense of “I’m a genius and if I found someone to run my offense, we wouldn’t have a problem.” Still, he’s had Mayfield, Watson, Jameis Winston, Joe Flacco, Dillon Gabriel, and Sanders under center and never seemed happy with any of them. Before hiring him without a deep dive, prospective employers like the Giants and Titans need answers as to what went wrong in Cleveland. As for the 2x NFL Coach of the Year stuff…

Yeah?

So?

Just Waiting for the Annoucement

Pete Carroll – Raiders

The Raiders are 99.9999% certain to fire head coach Pete Carroll.

While it’s Carroll’s business if he wants to coach, he probably should not have come back, particularly in the Raiders’ situation. He tried to Scotch-tape it together with his former Seahawks QB Geno Smith, rookie running back Ashton Jeanty, star tight end Brock Bowers, and by building a defense around Maxx Crosby.

The result was 3-14.

It’s a dual-edged argument for Carroll.

He has probably damaged his Pro Football Hall of Fame case with his end in Seattle and the lone season in Vegas. But it’s no one’s business to tell a coach who still wants to coach that he shouldn’t pursue that.

The Raiders were not the best place for him, but there were no other opportunities on the horizon.

There’s talk that part-owner Tom Brady is set to take a more active role in operating the team with him eyeing Brian Flores as head coach and Brian Daboll as offensive coordinator. They will get a QB with the 1st overall pick in the upcoming draft, presumably Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza of Indiana.

No one has dared to ask what Brady’s credentials to run a franchise are if he’s not the QB.

But…what are Brady’s credentials to run a franchise when he’s not the QB?

Jonathan Gannon – Cardinals

Gannon’s fate was sealed in Week 5 wh put his hands on Emari Demercado. It was a moment of justified anger after Demercado fumbled by dropping the ball just before he crossed the goal line on a long TD run. But once Gannon did it and needed to apologize?

Click click. Boom boom.

At the time, the Cardinals led the Titans 21-6. The TD would have made it 27-6 with just under 13 minutes left in the game. Arizona was 2-2 and about to be 3-2.

They lost 22-21 and won one more game the rest of the season.

Gannon made his name as a defensive coach and the Cardinals gave up 40+ points four times.

Maybe Stay, Maybe Go

Mike McDaniel – Dolphins

McDaniel has supporters in the media. There’s a new GM coming in and they’re moving on from Tua Tagovailoa. Do they want to tell them to expect another lost season with the same head coach?

For some reason, Troy Aikman is assisting in the head coaching search.

The team is not tough.

They should move on.

Aaron Glenn – Jets

Back to the Kraft template of “it wasn’t working” and firing the coach after one year, could an angry Woody Johnson pull the plug on Glenn after one year?

For those who defend Glenn by saying he didn’t have a quarterback, well, he had Aaron Rodgers. Then he made Rodgers fly cross-country to tell him face to face the team was moving on. It was portrayed as a stand up decision in respecting the future Hall of Famer. But it could also have been perceived as bullying. Was Glenn showing who’s in charge as a message to the rest of the team?

Then they signed Justin Fields expecting him not to play like Justin Fields. The same Justin Fields who was on his third organization and cannot be trusted to throw the ball downfield with any accuracy.

They were outscored 188-54 in their final five games.

Glenn is a 3X Pro Bowler as a player at cornerback and somehow managed to oversee a Jets team that did…not…record…a…single…interception…for…the…entire…season.

That’s probably harder to do than winning a Super Bowl, which the Jets haven’t done since 1969.

Wait for the Odds…

Odds are not yet available on head coaching vacancies, but once they are, there are some appealing vacancies and big names who will be up for the jobs. Keep watch and know who to consider as options.

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