Nobody's seats are hotter than Quinn, Gase
Mike Florio and Peter King explain why coaching changes seem inevitable in New York and Atlanta with Adam Gase and Dan Quinn, respectively.
Video Transcript
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MIKE FLORIO: PFT on Yahoo Sports. Peter King, Mike Florio talking about some of the biggest stories in the National Football League. And, Peter, three weeks in, just three weeks in, just 48 regular season games, already talking some coaches on the hot seat. I think you and I are on the same page. I'm gonna go ahead and let you plant the first flag on who needs to be worried about possibly getting a pink slip.
PETER KING: I mean, I don't see any way around Dan Quinn. I mean, how possibly can he save his job unless he goes 11 and 2 the rest of the way? It's so hard to imagine. Now I'm exaggerating there. If he goes 9 and 4, he'll probably be back.
But it's a pattern of events. That's all there is to it. It is a pattern of events. The defensive head coach gave up the defense last year because the defense wasn't playing well, and the defense head coach puts an emissary in there as his defensive coordinator. And if anything, they're leakier, more unreliable than they were last year.
So again, look, everybody knows. Everybody who covers the NFL knows that Dan Quinn might be the nicest, most stand-up guy in the NFL, but you can't put Fred Rogers in charge of an NFL team. And so Dan Quinn has got to do some amazing work, the work of his life in the next couple of months, or he'll be gone.
MIKE FLORIO: If Fred Rogers wins, he can stick around. Tony Dungy was pretty damn close to Fred Rogers, but he won. That's the key. Whatever your style is, if you're gonna consistently lose and if you're gonna blow gigantic leads over and over and over again, at some point the owner of the team, Arthur Blank, has to do something.
The real question for me is would it happen during the season? Would it happen after the season? Remember, last year, 1 and 7 were the Falcons at the bye week, and Arthur Blank didn't fire Dan Quinn. They went 6 and 2 down the stretch.
So it'll be interesting to see if a decision is made to make a move during the season. They have a week eight Thursday night game, which gives you a mini bye to install a new coach on an interim basis, and then a week 10 bye. So it's a few weeks off.
Sooner than that for the New York Jets, Peter, is a Thursday night game with a mini bye on the back end. And it may be goodbye to Adam Gase if they continue to just play completely uninspired. Look, I understand what the Jets are trying to do. They're in a multi-year rebuild, but you can't just shut down in the interim. You've got to go out and play hard, and you can't get embarrassed week in and week out.
Now they stayed within 10 points of the Bills week one. That's fine. But to get blown off the field by the 49ers and blown off the field by the Colts-- if they get blown off the field by the Broncos, which may be a stretch because the Broncos aren't very good, wouldn't be stunned if Christopher Johnson, who's running the team in the absence of his brother Woody, the US ambassador to the UK, says we just have to do something. We'd love to fulfill this plan, but it gets unsustainable. And I feel like we're getting close to that point with the Jets.
PETER KING: Mike, I might say to you, well, wait a second. We have seen teams be horrible early and rebound, OK? You saw the Miami Dolphins last year. They start 0 and 7. And you said, well, jeez, the Flores thing just isn't working. You're not firing a coaching in your first year unless you're the Cardinals.
But what you saw in Miami is signs of progress. They lost by 1 to Washington. They had a couple of close losses. Played respectably in Pittsburgh in a primetime game. And then at the end of the season, they went 5 and 4 in their last nine.
You saw it coming. You see disaster coming and only that with the New York Jets. And that's why at the end of this year, Christopher Johnson is gonna say to Joe Douglas, Joe, find me a coach who's better than Adam Gase.
MIKE FLORIO: And remember this, there's a chance Woody is coming back depending upon the outcome of the election. And Woody may say to everyone, including his brother, see you later. I'll take it from here. And, Peter, we joked about this on "PFT Live" on Monday, but I don't put out of the realm of possibility a return of Rex Ryan when Woody Johnson comes back. I'm kind of rooting for that if they make that change.
All right, that's PFT on Yahoo for now. He's Peter King. I'm Mike Florio. Keep shaking your head. I'm rooting for a good story. See you next time.
