More stunning NFL coach firings to come? Keep an eye on playoff games

Is it over? Has the flurry of shocking moves that dominated the NFL news cycle over the past week subsided?

Hey, they are no guarantees as the NFL playoffs begin this weekend that the shakedown of the coaching landscape has been completed.

After all, Bill Belichick is on the market now. And Jim Harbaugh is arguably an even hotter free agent. 

Besides, it’s difficult to predict how Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would react if his team gets embarrassed with an upset loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday at JerryWorld.

And other cases involving coaches in the playoffs bear watching.

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It’s been a weird start to the NFL’s hiring cycle, with the surprises including the end to Pete Carroll’s run as Seattle Seahawks coach and the speed with which the New England Patriots on Friday named Jerod Mayo as the replacement for Belichick.

Already, Jones found himself this week on the defensive for his comments about McCarthy’s status following the Cowboys’ division-winning victory at Washington last weekend. As Clarence Hill of The Fort Worth Star-Telegramreported, Jones praised McCarthy’s results – he’s the first coach in franchise history to win 12 games in three consecutive seasons – but stopped short of ensuring that his coach could survive a playoff loss.

‘We’ll see how each game goes in the playoffs,’ Jones said after the win at Washington.

Jones has since backtracked in an effort to defuse speculation or provide clarity. McCarthy has one year left on his contract, Jones pointed out.

‘I couldn’t be more pleased with what he’s done and how he’s coached,’ Jones said Tuesday on his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan. ‘I certainly haven’t sat down here right in the middle of the playoffs and started talking to him about a contract. Why would you do that?’

As supportive as that sounds – and McCarthy’s work after taking over the offensive play-calling duties this season have been exemplary – it still didn’t completely rule out the possibility that Jones could make a switch.

In other words, this season began with McCarthy, in his fourth campaign, pressured to take the Cowboys deep into the playoffs. Rallying to win the NFC East crown put Dallas in a great position to advance. And an 8-0 home record built on blowouts – the Cowboys have a point differential of +172 at home – seemingly provides a great advantage for the No. 2 seed. But this is still a popular franchise that hasn’t advanced to the NFC title game in 28 years.

And McCarthy, like predecessors Jason Garrett and Wade Phillips, has a blemish on his record for blowing a home playoff opener. In 2021, the Cowboys fell to the San Francisco 49ers in a wild-card round matchup that ended with a mismanaged, last-minute sequence as the clock ran out before they could take a shot or two with Dak Prescott passes to the end zone. During the 2016 season under Garrett, they lost a divisional-round playoff opener against the Packers. And way back in 2007 under Phillips, they squandered a No. 1 seed by losing a playoff opener against the New York Giants.

That history is relevant right now, as much as McCarthy can rightfully contend that he and his current squad had nothing to do with the previous playoff setbacks. Suffer a big loss now, though, and the result would be added onto the pile of previous playoff failings – and the optics of that would not look good.

As Jones put it, we’ll see.

There’s also speculation in the Philadelphia media that Eagles coach Nick Sirianni could be in jeopardy, too, as they open the playoffs with a Monday night matchup at Tampa Bay. Say what? Sirianni nearly won the Super Bowl last season and has produced three consecutive playoff berths. But the NFL can be so fickle. Philadelphia started 10-1 before it dropped five of its past six games. Another embarrassment like the Week 18 blowout showing at the New York Giants and the questions will intensify for team owner Jeffrey Lurie, who has often maintained that he will do whatever is necessary to help him team win.

Considering the names on the market, Lurie just might be tempted.

Similarly, there have been media reports suggesting that the status of Bucs coach Todd Bowles bears watching, too. Bowles just won the NFC South crown for the second year in a row (and third straight for the franchise). It seems absurd that Bowles could be in trouble. But the available coaches fuel the buzz.

Then there’s Mike Tomlin. The Pittsburgh Steelers coach has never had a losing campaign in 17 seasons at the helm and may have done his best job yet in preventing his team from fading off the playoff map.

No, the Steelers — the NFL’s most stable franchise, with three coaches in 55 years — won’t push Tomlin out the door. In fact, with one more year on his contract, team owner Art Rooney II undoubtedly wants to sign him to an extension.

Yet buzz about Tomlin speaks to his leverage. If Sean Payton can take a year off to recharge his batteries, if Sean McVay could contemplate whether to bolt for a TV job (as was the case last year, before de decided to stay), it’s surely possible that Tomlin might explore his options before signing on for another tour of duty.

In any event, with Belichick gone, Tomlin now has the distinction as the NFL’s longest-tenured coach on his current job.

Which reminds us of another coach, back in the playoffs: Andy Reid.

The affable Kansas City Chiefs coach, 65, mindful of the surprises this week, anticipated that the question about his future would come up as he met the media on Thursday. Including his previous stint with the Eagles, Reid is in his 25th consecutive season as a head coach.

Ready to hang it up?

‘I figured that would come up when you guys were asking these questions because I’m old,’ Reid quipped. ‘But not that old.’

Then again, pass the chicken nuggies. Belichick and Carroll feel that way, too.

Stafford now public enemy No. 1 in Detroit

Matthew Stafford used to be so revered by long-suffering fans in the Motor City as the gritty Detroit Lions quarterback.

Now he’s no longer one of them. Stafford returns as the enemy. That’s some serious role-reversal fate that has the Los Angeles Rams quarterback headed back to Detroit as part of the opposition for the Lions’ first home playoff game in 30 years.

And it’s enough of a twist that a popular pub in downtown Detroit, Thomas Magee’s, won’t allow anyone wearing Stafford’s old Lions jersey inside the bar during the Sunday night opener a few blocks away at Ford Field.

There’s also a local real estate agent who has launched a jersey exchange program, offering fans to trade their Stafford jersey for one bearing the name and number of any current Lions player.

Stafford, traded to the Rams in 2021 in the blockbuster deal that sent Lions quarterback Jared Goff to Detroit, insists that he hasn’t paid attention to matters that include outlawing his jerseys. But he knows all about the passion – and suffering – after spending the first 12 years of his NFL career in Detroit.

‘I understand… I’m the bad guy,’ Stafford said. ‘I’m on the other team. They don’t want success for me. So, whatever happens, happens. I’m going to go experience it, play the game.’

Either way, Stafford and Goff are poised to make history. The winner becomes the first quarterback in league history to win a playoff game against a team that they previously started a playoff game for. 

Quick slants

The NFL will honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during wild-card weekend. In addition to announcing a five-year commitment with the King family through its ‘Realizing the Dream’ community service campaign, all players in games this weekend will wear MLK patches on their jerseys and a ‘Be Love’ phrase on the back of their helmets … With a win at Houston, Browns quarterback Joe Flacco would surpass Tom Brady for most road playoff victories by a quarterback (eight). Flacco, who has averaged 323.2 passing yards per game since coming off the couch for Cleveland, can also become the first quarterback 38 years or older to throw for 300 yards in five consecutive games, including postseason…Will McClay, the Cowboys’ vice president of personnel, has withdrawn his name as a candidate for a general manager job, citing a commitment made to his high school-aged son to stay put in Dallas. At least for now. McClay was tapped to interview for the vacant GM posts with the Carolina Panthers and Washington Commanders.