Pink Slips?

NFL Regular Season is over and so are the head coaching tenures of (at publish time of this post) 3 head coaches.

Detroit, Cleveland, and the NY Jets have all canned their head coaches. Happy trails to Rod Marinelli, Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini.

Straight to the point, here is the Sports Verdict's opinion on which NFL coaches should and should not be relieved of their duties. I will try to make this discussion shorter than the hour and a half me and Pleus spent on the subject in December 2003 in R 7 of Pi Kappa Phi...

"Should I Stay or Should I Go" (special thanks to the Clash, 1981)

Go!

Dallas- Wade Phillips- have to give credit here to Colin Cowherd, who said months ago that Wade Phillips was a "mushroom with a headset" Phillips needs to go, the locker room is in shambles, the offense under-performs in key games, Romo has not improved as a QB, T.O not being kept in check. A stronger personality needs to captain this ship.
Jerry Jones continues to say he is not changing head coaches... if this were a drinking game I'd call "bullshit!"

Kansas City- Herm Edwards- the man who is best known for his press conference quote "you play to win the game!" has not won many games recently. Only 2 this year and finished '07 spiraling downward. Not great talent in KC, especially at QB, but this team has no clue how to win close games.

Stay!

San Francisco- the 49ers are much better since Mike Singletary took over from Mike Nolan midseason. It's clear the players buy into his program. The Hall of Fame linebacker looks promising to turn around this once proud, now doormat franchise.

Tampa Bay- Jon Gruden- shut the hell up sports talk radio callers in and around Tampa! You have no QB, WR, and all of your RB's got hurt too! The defense is aging. Jon Gruden is an excellent football coach who understands running the football and what it takes to win. Who are you going to hire who is better?

Washington- Jim Zorn- Jason Campbell is improving and fact is, this franchise is still recovering from the tragic death of Pro Bowler Sean Taylor. Not a bad year any way you look at it.

Denver- Mike Shanahan- like Gruden, a proven winner. Talent on defense is shaky. I will say another playoff miss in '09 and a change may be in store, but not this year. Like Tampa, who are you going to hire that's better?

Already Gone! (thank you Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, etc)

Detroit- Rod Marinelli- 0-16, worst team in NFL history. we can quickly move on...

NY Jets- Eric Mangini- Just 2 years ago the Bill Belichick disciple was nicknamed "Mangenius." In 2008 his Jets started 8-3 only to finish 1-4 and miss the playoffs. After a preseason spending spree of $100 million plus on free agents AND Brett Favre, more is expected.

Cleveland- Romeo Crennel- like the Jets, Cleveland invested a lot in free agents and was a trendy pick as a playoff team in '08. No where close to expectations. Don't let the door hit you on the way out Romeo...