NFL Hot Seat Roundup: Which coach is most in danger of getting axed?

Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia owns a 12-26-1 record midway through his third season in Detroit. (Photo by Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire)

First-year New York Giants head coach Joe Judge is off to a 1-7 start, but his near win against Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday temporarily quieted some criticism of his performance in New York.

While Judge’s job is likely safe for at least one more season, other head coaches across the league are surely feeling the heat beneath their seat.

Longtime Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien was the first to get the axe in 2020, after he traded away star receiver DeAndre Hopkins in the offseason, then proceeded to drop his first four games of the season.

One week later, the Atlanta Falcons fired sixth-year coach Dan Quinn following an 0-5 start.

Now, entering Week 9 of the 2020 season, there are a handful of coaches searching for a turnaround to keep them from ending up next on the chopping block.

Let's examine the five NFL coaches most in danger of getting canned this season, plus one who is virtually guaranteed to be jobless at the end of 2020.

Warm seat

Zac Taylor (Cincinnati Bengals)

No one expected Zac Taylor’s Bengals to win a game in his first year as head coach, so his 2-14 finish was actually better than anticipated.

This season, with No. 1 overall draft pick Joe Burrow at the helm of the offense, Cincinnati is 2-5-1 and showing glimpses of promise.

Sunday’s shocking win against the Titans certainly helped Taylor, but players requesting trades out of Cincinnati and voicing discontent on social media is never a good look for a coaching staff.

Tyler Boyd was asked about Carlos Dunlap tweeting about selling his house and end of game incident.

“For him to do that on the sideline, I don’t agree with it.”

This locker room is fed up with his nonsense. #Bengals
— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) October 25, 2020

Taylor's job is safe for now, but he’ll need to start winning a lot more games to convince Cincinnati he is worth keeping around long term.

Anthony Lynn (Los Angeles Chargers)

After a 12-4 record in his second year as head coach, Anthony Lynn and his Chargers stumbled to 5-11, behind Philip Rivers’ inconsistent play and a plethora of injuries on the roster.

The 2020 season hasn’t gotten any better. The Chargers own just two victories against Cincinnati and Jacksonville, and have been forced to play rookie quarterback Justin Herbert because of a freak injury to Tyrod Taylor.

Sunday’s loss against AFC West rival Denver further stoked the fire under Lynn’s seat, when the Chargers blew a 24-3 lead and lost by one point on a last-second touchdown pass.

Hot seat

Matt Patricia (Detroit Lions)

The defensive specialist who won three Super Bowls as an assistant in New England hasn’t been able to usher in the same type of success in Detroit.

Patricia’s predecessor, Jim Caldwell, went 36-28, with one losing season in Detroit and was fired after a 9-7 result in 2017. Since then, Patricia has compiled a 12-26-1 record, including last year’s 3-12-1 campaign.

Matt Patricia has lost 12 of his last 13 games, despite leading in all but one of them. He's lost the last 6 games in which he's led by double digits, an NFL record.

He has the third-worst winning % in Lions history, and now faces an uncertain future: https://t.co/ACcf4gX3Ml pic.twitter.com/j6AgMNlQNc
— kyle meinke (@kmeinke) October 4, 2020

Injuries to quarterback Matt Stafford did not help the cause, but Patricia’s expertise is defense, and Detroit’s D was one of the worst in the league last year. In 2020, they are mediocre, at best.

With a 3-4 start in 2020, Patricia will need to string together some victories in the second half of the season to rebuild the confidence of the front office.

Doug Marrone (Jacksonville Jaguars)

The Jaguars entered the 2019 season as a dark horse in the AFC South. Then, quarterback Nick Foles — newly signed on a four-year, $88 million contract — went down in Week 1 with a broken collarbone and the mania surrounding backup rookie Gardner Minshew died down quickly.

Cornerback Jalen Ramsey seemingly had no respect for the coaching staff and forced a trade last season, while in the offseason, Jacksonville shipped Foles to Chicago, defensive end Calais Campbell to Baltimore, and A.J. Bouye to Denver, all in exchange for draft picks.

The Jaguars currently sit 1-6, to no one’s surprise. Marrone will likely be the next to go in Jacksonville’s effort to clean house and rebuild.

Mike McCarthy (Dallas Cowboys)

With a 2-6 start to the Mike McCarthy era, Dallas must miss those 8-8 finishes under the Jason Garrett regime.

The defense has been an absolute disaster, and the offense is beginning to match the dysfunction, now that Dak Prescott is out for the season.

#Cowboys players initially bought into keeping things internal. Now as they sit 2-4 the discontent is leaking out. On the coaching staff “totally unprepared. They don’t teach. They don’t have any sense of adjusting on the fly.” Another “they just aren’t good at their jobs”
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) October 20, 2020

Cowboys players have anonymously expressed dissatisfaction with the coaching staff, which might push Jerry Jones back to the drawing board at the end of his Year 1 experiment.

Burning seat

Adam Gase (New York Jets)

The chances of Adam Gase keeping his job in New York after this season are as good as the Jets’ chances of winning the Super Bowl.

No team has made it more obvious it is tanking for the top draft pick, and at this point, Gase’s only role is to ensure more losses in 2020.