Week 5 gave us some fascinating and perplexing teaching choices that did not break in favor of the highest males making or overseeing the calls. In an NFL that routinely has excessive turnover price amongst its head-coaching ranks, we’re at all times asking “who’s in hassle?”
Yahoo Sports activities’ Frank Schwab, Jay Busbee, Jori Epstein and Eric Edholm every answered that this week because the league approaches finishing one-third of the season:
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What coach must be feeling essentially the most warmth at this level within the season?
Frank Schwab: Dan Quinn screwed up the end of Sunday’s recreation in a method that wasn’t conceivable. Nick Sirianni blew a end to what ought to have been a win too. However I do not need to be a prisoner of the second.
Sure, Todd Bowles shook off a few of the hypothesis about his job safety with a terrific recreation plan and execution in a season-saving 24-16 win over the Cowboys. Let’s additionally not neglect that the bizarre determination to bypass a area purpose within the fourth quarter, which might have given the Buccaneers a 17-point lead, may have value Tampa that recreation. It is also simply the Buccaneers’ third win of their final 14 video games.
They don’t seem to be out of the woods but at 1-4, beginning both undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels or Baker Mayfield coming off a dislocated thumb at quarterback on Sunday in opposition to Pittsburgh. Then come pivotal video games in opposition to the Panthers and Falcons. With one win, Tampa Bay allowed itself an opportunity to get again within the division race (gotta love the NFC South) however we’re only a couple losses away from the Buccaneers being irrelevant once more this season and Bowles being on a highly regarded seat.
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Jay Busbee: I grew up a Falcons fan, so my emotions on Dan Quinn, who led the group all the best way to the third quarter of a Tremendous Bowl, are difficult and compromised. That mentioned, the errors that occurred on Quinn’s watch on the finish of the Commanders-Giants recreation go away scars not simply on a season, however on a whole résumé.
Sure, Quinn engineered a obligatory and welcome turnaround of Washington within the post-Dan Snyder period, overseeing that meteoric rise in 2024. However then the turnaround turned again round, and Washington is on the backside of an already woeful NFC East. You may have occasional misfires should you typically win greater than you lose (see: Los Angeles Rams), and you’ll hold onto your job some time should you’re shedding however showing to strive (see: Tampa Bay). However shedding in embarrassing vogue? Changing into the butt of the league’s jokes? Yeah, that is the form of public humiliation that will get you booted. It was a very good run, Dan, however do not make any DoorDash orders that can take longer than a half-hour to reach.
Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers are nonetheless trying to find their first win of the 2026 season. Up subsequent for LA: the Chiefs.
(IMAGN IMAGES through Reuters Join / REUTERS)
Jori Epstein: I are likely to view job safety within the NFL as the results of a number of elements. A group’s report in fact is one. However there’s extra. How does the efficiency of a shedding group evaluate to expectations for the group’s place within the lifecycle of roster constructing? Had been the losses gritty and borderline-moral victories, or have been they embarrassing — for coaches, gamers and at instances even group possession? What different adjustments may come earlier than altering a head coach? A head coach who has already tried to salvage a venture with coordinator turnover has fewer choices left.
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With that system, the Washington Commanders’ Dan Quinn and Los Angeles Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh appear essentially the most inclined proper now. Every group has a quarterback with expertise and expertise (sure, Jayden Daniels missed time with a dislocated elbow, however Washington’s lone win got here in his absence); every coach is in not less than his third season. Harbaugh employed offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel to salvage an offense that presently ranks thirtieth in scoring and twenty fifth in yardage; Quinn employed defensive coordinator Daronte Jones to modernize a protection that presently ranks thirtieth in factors allowed and twenty third in yards.
On the Chargers’ entrance, Harbaugh has gone from spats with reporters earlier within the season to this week saying he “cannot consider a time I’ve ever been extra mad at myself” than his determination to go for it on fourth-and-1 from his personal 41 within the fourth quarter. The Broncos capitalized on the quick area to tie the sport and rating 13 unanswered factors en path to a highway victory.
The Commanders infamously botched their time beyond regulation recreation mechanics so totally that they could not even try the game-winning area purpose. Quinn has mentioned he was “livid” and minority group proprietor Magic Johnson tweeted that he was in “whole disbelief.”
In an impatient league, seats heat rapidly.
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Eric Edholm: Like, proper now now? I might say Dan Quinn, truthful or not. The sight of an offended, helpless Quinn, tangled in his headset cords Sunday, was putting. He’d simply witnessed his supposed franchise QB run the clock all the way down to zero, with an opportunity to win the sport, turning it right into a surprising tie. Minority proprietor Magic Johnson posting that he was “in whole disbelief” informed you all you wanted to know in regards to the temperature round Quinn now. No matter goodwill he earned with the house win over the Seahawks evaporated in that fateful second in opposition to the Giants.
You might make a case for 0-5 Jim Harbaugh being on a warmer seat, however I believe Quinn is the hot-seat title of the week due to how that recreation went down. At 1-3-1, there’s not a ton of wiggle room, even within the much-maligned NFC East, and a blowout loss Monday night time at San Francisco may very well be very regarding for Quinn, with the Commanders set to go on bye.
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Josh Harris strikes me as a group proprietor who will not get too emotional a few teaching change, even when he was a part of the group that introduced in Quinn. The Commanders have so much to determine and repair in brief time to maintain their coach off the proverbial seat.
