Week 7 Coaches on the hot seat
The high point of the Kansas City Chiefs’ season may have come and gone before halftime of their season opener.
With five minutes left in the second quarter of that game, in Houston, the Chiefs were up 27-6 on the Texans. The Texans shut the Chiefs out the rest of the game, but Kansas City did hold on for the win.
They haven’t won in the five games since.
Statistics can always be deceiving, and in the case of the Kansas City offense, that’s true: after six weeks, the Chiefs have the 20th-ranked offense in the NFL (20th in rush yards, 19th in pass yards), but to watch them against the Vikings last week, you wonder how that’s possible. They looked dreadful. Kansas City punted on its first six possessions and turned the ball over on downs on its seventh. Alex Smith is the king of the checkdown, he hasn’t gotten high-priced free agent Jeremy Maclin consistently involved, and now Jamaal Charles, one of the league’s best running backs, is gone for the season.
And Andy Reid is an offensive coach.
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This is Reid’s third season with the Chiefs, and he did lead them to a nine-game win improvement and a playoff berth in 2013. But last year the Chiefs were 9-7, and this year it looks like they’ll be lucky to get to that mark.
ON THE HOT SEAT
Andy Reid, Kansas City
The remainder of the Chiefs’ schedule isn’t terribly daunting: the toughest teams left are the Steelers, whom they this week, and the Broncos, whom they play in Denver in Week 10, so maybe Reid can get his team to .500.
Gus Bradley, Jacksonville
Could Bradley become the second coach this season to be canned after his team loses in London? The Jaguars have lost four straight and play the Bills at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Like the Chiefs, they are 1-5. Unlike the Chiefs, they play in the sorriest division in the NFL.
Chuck Pagano, Indianapolis
Just when we thought Pagano’s seat was cooling off, he went and did that. You know what he did. We’ve made fun of him enough this week, so we’ll just leave it at that.
SEAT’S STILL WARM
Jay Gruden, Washington
He keeps sticking by and making excuses for Kirk Cousins (on Monday, he said it was windy at MetLife Stadium, where Washington lost to the Jets last week. As if quarterbacks have never dealt with wind before.), and Cousins keeps throwing interceptions.
Jim Caldwell, Detroit
The Lions finally got their first win of the season last week, though it took them over 12 minutes of overtime to edge the Bears. Detroit plays the Vikings and Chiefs before their bye, so a win streak could be possible.
