NFL Hotseats: NFC East

It’s onto the NFC for our look at the state of front offices. AFC North | AFC East | AFC South | AFC West |

We’re going to go around the league, looking at each division and seeing what vacancies could open up for Black Monday. Thankfully there probably won’t be any in Santa Clara, but a coach could bail to fill one of the vacancies elsewhere. Today, we have the NFC East.

We’re out of the AFC and going to the NFC. The NFC started their firings with the north and Green Bay showing Mike McCarthy the door, we’ll get to that later. Right now it’s the East, a division hard to pinpoint on what will happen.

Washington

Washington has all sorts of issues, most of them not a fault of head coach Jay Gruden. Once in the hunt and leading the division, the loss of quarterback Alex Smith not only deflated the team, but killed all their morale, especially when Smith’s post-ops have been nothing but trouble in infections.

Washington also has been rotating quarterbacks, none of them Colin Kaepernick. They just got a shiny new linebacker too in Reuben Foster. An acquisition when combined with the Kaepernick refusal has led to a PR nightmare for the team. They just came off a huge blowout that was 40-0 at one point until Josh Johnson showed he was the man and started getting points on the board.

Regardless of all the issues, Jay Gruden is signed through 2020. With two years left, it might be time for Washington to save face and deflect blame from Dan Snyder and the front office by firing Gruden. It’s a mistake, this season is not Gruden’s fault, especially when he lost his starting quarterback while ahead in the division. But he’s not handling himself well in press conferences and someone will have to go down. For those thinking team president Bruce Allen may be the scapegoat can get that out of your minds, he’s not going anywhere either.

Who should get fired: Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder
Who will get fired: Jay Gruden

New York Giants

Pat Shurmur is having the worst year of his life for his first season as Giants head coach and while he may or may not be a good coach, Eli Manning is definitely the one holding the team back. Ben McAdoo has to be laughing his head off, because he’s the one who had the gall to bench Manning in 2017 and lost his job for it. Now, to be fair, it wasn’t what McAdoo did, but how he did it.

The Giants will need a new quarterback and from there, other things can fall into play. Given that it’s Shurmur’s first season, don’t expect much turnover. Do expect, however, the Giants to orchestrating a trade with someone to get their quarterback of the future in 2019. General Manager Dave Gettleman is also going to get a pass with it being his first season as GM.

Who should/will get fired: Nobody

Philadelphia Eagles

Let’s be frank, the Eagles won the Super Bowl. Unless they won zero games the following year, there’s no way they would put this coaching staff under the microscope. That said, their season is a bit disappointing with them sitting at .500 as of this writing. The division is still up for grabs and they still have that Super Bowl win hanging over them. All is well here.

Who should/will get fired: Nobody

Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys win the award for manic/depressive team of the year. Sometimes you think head coach Jason Garrett will get canned and then something comes out to prove otherwise.

One thing to remember is while Jerry Jones is giving Garrett the votes of confidence in interviews, he’s done this several times before and whacked his coach before the season ends. I think some of us may remember the Wade Phillips firing fiasco years ago. Despite the trend, the Cowboys are in the lead of the NFC East right now and given that they just beat the Philadelphia Eagles to tighten their grip, they very well could be representing in the playoffs. Washington isn’t going anywhere and the Giants are an accident waiting to happen.

Garret could still get canned, but it’s doubtful. The big question is how many of these season with playoff limps and non-appearances the Cowboys can take. There’s no consistency or a sign of a team that can beat the big boys, and they’ve had Garrett for how long? It should be time for a change, but if they make the playoffs, it’s not happening.

Who should get fired: Jason Garrett
Who will get fired: Nobody

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