Silverman’s Sacks and Scrambles: NFL coaches likely to be fired after Robert Saleh

It may be a bit of a surprise that Saleh was dismissed by the Jets shortly after they lost to the undefeated Minnesota Vikings in London and that he didn’t get a chance to take the team to midseason, but his time was clearly short. Saleh had been in his fourth year with the Jets and there had been no progress on the offensive side of the ball.

Saleh had a major excuse last year when Aaron Rodgers went down in the first quarter of his first game with the Jets. The team was doomed to fail after that and it bought Saleh an extra year.

While he came in with a sharp reputation as an excellent defensive coordinator with the 49ers, Saleh never demonstrated the growth it takes to grab hold of an NFL team and deliver any kind of legitimate plan for winning.

The defense certainly was solid throughout the majority of his tenure, but the offense never showed any signs of coming around. The Jets won two of their first three games, but a home loss to the Denver Broncos and another defeat at the hands of the undefeated Vikings was too much for owner Woody Johnson to bear.

The thought behind the firing is that the Jets have plenty of time to turn things around in a flawed AFC East, and the Jets need some more decisiveness at the head coaching position. Owner Woody Johnson cited Jeff Ullrich’s command and leadership as a “tough coach” in naming him the interim leader of the team the rest of this NFL season.

There are several other coaches who may be set to follow Saleh on the firing line, and Jacksonville’s Doug Pederson does not have much rope left. The Jaguars collapsed last season after an 8-3 start and have only won one game this year.

They escaped with a 37-34 victory over the Colts in Week 5, and it was a win they were lucky to get. The Colts roared back from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to tie the score, with the Jaguars needing a 49-yard field goal from rookie placekicker Cam Little in the final seconds to win the game.

Now the Jaguars go to London for a pair of games against the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots, and Pederson will almost certainly get the heave-ho if they lose both games. Even if they beat lowly New England, the Jaguars have four brutal games coming up against the Packers, Eagles, Vikings and Lions — and that will almost certainly end Pederson’s NFL tenure in Jacksonville.

“I don’t know that any of his players are listening to him because he doesn’t seem to have any answers at this point,” said one NFC general manager. “You see a good man in Pederson who gets decent results right away but then can’t really hold on after that. It happened in Philadelphia and it is happening now in Jacksonville.”

Much of the problem lies with quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who is supposed to be an upper-tier signal caller with elite physical talent. However, there does not appear to be much growth in his game. There is plenty of blame to go around — offensive coordinator Press Taylor and quarterbacks coach Mike McCoy are clearly involved — but it is the head man who always takes ultimate responsibility in the NFL.

Kevin Stefanski is in a brutal situation in Cleveland because few quarterbacks are playing worse than Deshaun Watson. The quarterback has one of the most onerous contracts in the NFL — five years, $230 million — and the terms simply won’t allow the Browns to get rid of him this year or next.

So what is Stefanski supposed to do with a quarterback who has yet to throw for 200 yards in a game this season?

Last year the Browns thrived with backup quarterback Joe Flacco after Watson went down with a fractured right shoulder socket, but he’s with the Colts this year. Jameis Winston is the backup, and his track record indicates that multiple mistakes are the likely result if he gets a chance to take over.

Many thought the Browns would battle the Ravens for the division title because of a dominating defense, but the team is 1-4 and seemingly going nowhere.