Whipped Cream Difficulties

Josh Boyer out as defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins. Also out: safeties coach Steve Gregory, outside linebackers coach Ty McKenzie, and assistant linebackers coach Steve Ferentz.

Byron Leftwich out as offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay.

Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and quarterbacks coach Shane Day out at the worthless Los Angeles Chargers.

There haven’t been any additional head coach firings in the past couple of days, but there have been a few lower level firings:

Mike LaFleur out as offensive coordinator for the Jets.

Scott Turner out as offensive coordinator for the Washington Generals Redskins Commanders.

The Tennessee Titans fired offensive coordinator Todd Downing on Monday. Also out: ffensive line coach Keith Carter, secondary coach Anthony Midget and offensive skill assistant Erik Frazier.

The NFL regular season ended yesterday. You know what that means.

Yes, the firings will continue until morale improves. This is your Bloody Monday NFL firings thread, which I will try to keep updated today.

Starting with yesterday’s “Damn, you didn’t even wait to get him in the house” firing: Lovie Smith out as head coach of the Texans after one season. 3-13-1 as Texans coach. From the NYPost:

Smith had a successful nine-year run in Chicago, going 81-63 and taking the team to the Super Bowl in 2006 after a 13-3 season. Since, though, he has gone 11-35-1 in stints with the Buccaneers and now the Texans.

Smith replaced David Culley, who was also fired after one year in Houston, as head coach in February 2022.

This team was so inept, they couldn’t even get the first draft choice. What the heck happened? The Texans used to be at least competitive.

Joe Woods out as defensive coordinator in Cleveland. At least the Browns were competitive (7-10 this season).

More later, if there are any more firings today.

Edited to add: Kliff Kingsbury out as head coach of the Cardinals, and Steve Keim stepping down as GM. Keim’s resignation is apparently for health reasons.

Kingsbury was 28-37-1 overall, and the team was 4-13 this season. Interestingly, both Kingsbury and Keim had their contracts extended last March.

I know, it is December 26th, but as I always say: all people of goodwill know the Christmas season runs through January 6th.

Today’s Christmas present: Nathaniel Hackett out as head coach of the Denver Broncos, less than a year after being hired.

The Broncos are 4-11 this season (and in Hackett’s tenure) and lost 51-14 to the (5-10) Rams on Sunday. But they did beat the Texans in week 2, so they’re not quite the most pathetic team in the NFL this season.

Not exactly a firing, but relevant:

NFL officials have informed the owners of the league’s 32 franchises that teams have spent $800 million on fired coaches and front-office executives over the past five years, league sources told ESPN.
The message, delivered this past week at the owners meetings in Dallas, was sent by the league as a reminder that as some franchises mull significant changes at the end of the season, hundreds of millions of dollars have been squandered recently by teams that may need to act less hastily.
NFL officials went so far as to compose spreadsheets specific to each team about the employees they fired and the costs incurred by the team, according to sources. The league wanted each team to see the exact cost for instability and the employees that they paid for services no longer rendered.

…

The Giants are paying three different head coaches, and their respective coaching staffs, this year alone: Pat Shurmur, who was fired in 2020 just two years into a five-year deal; Joe Judge, who was fired this past January after also lasting only two years into a five-year contract; and first-year coach Brian Daboll, who had led New York to a 7-5-1 record entering Sunday night’s showdown with the Commanders.

Jon Robinson out as general manager of the Tennessee Titans.

The Titans went 66-43 under Robinson, reaching the AFC Championship during the 2019 season and securing the No. 1 seed in the playoffs in 2021. But despite postseason berths in four of Robinson’s six full seasons, including the past three, a confluence of failed selections at the top the NFL Draft, the untimely trade of star receiver A.J. Brown and some uncharacteristic performances this season put Robinson’s tenure in the cross-hairs.

Interestingly, the Titans are 7-5 and at the top of their division…

…but haven’t looked particularly dominant. They have lost three of their past five games, including a 35-10 loss at NFL-leading Philadelphia on Sunday that saw Brown torch his former team for 119 yards and two touchdowns.

Former first round draft pick and Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield waived by the Carolina Panthers.

The Browns picked him first in the 2018 draft, and traded him in July to the Panthers for a fifth-round draft pick (“…that could have become a fourth had Mayfield, the first pick of the 2018 draft, played 70% of the snaps.”)

This is a weird one.

Sean Kugler out as offensive line coach/running game coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals..

Why fire Kugler? Well, they are 4-7…but apparently that’s not why.

Answer: there was some sort of unspecified “incident” while the Cardinals were in Mexico City for Monday Night Football. More from ESPN, although the article seems speculative.