This morning, three NFL coaches have been fired by their teams. Matt Nagy, Mike Zimmer, and somewhat surprising to others, Brian Flores.
Mike Zimmer; Minnesota Vikings
After 8 seasons, Minnesota has finally decided to part ways with their head coach. Zimmer managed to go 72-56-1 in this amount of time, going to the postseason three times. Despite all of that, Minnesota has not had a winning season or a playoff appearance since 2019. Zimmer needed a postseason appearance to solidify his job, and he managed to miss out on that. The next head coach of the Minnesota Vikings will receive a roster with several talented players, including Dalvin Cook, Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, and Kirk Cousins, whose future still remains uncertain (depends on what the new HC thinks of him). Zimmer should still receive a strong interest from other NFL teams in the coaching market, as he’s had a lot of experience in this league.
Matt Nagy; Chicago Bears
Matt Nagy’s time in Chicago hasn’t been very great, after posting an 8-8 record in both 2019 and 2020, then a 6-11 record in 2021 (Nagy won the NFC North in 2018 at 12-4 in his first season). Nagy’s departure was first whispered around the league on the Thanksgiving Day game vs the Lions, we’ve all known that his job has been in jeopardy all season long. Jordan Schultz back in November reported that “an overwhelming number” of players in Chicago’s locker room wanted Nagy fired. An undisclosed source then said that Nagy reportedly “lost some of the locker room last season, but now it’s gone”. The new HC of the Chicago Bears will have the job of developing the young quarterback, Justin Fields. He’ll also have Khalil Mack, Eddie Jackson, David Montgomery, etc to work with. Chicago is also projected to have around $41M in cap space with no first-round selection (owned by Seattle).
Brian Flores; Miami Dolphins
One of the more “surprising” firings from today so far is Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins. I say “surprising” because as a Dolphins fan, I had a feeling this would happen, especially after Miami reportedly being linked to Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh. Flores in his three year tenure in Miami went 5-11 in 2019 with arguably the worst roster in the league (more than 50% of the roster came from the practice-squad), 10-6 in 2020, and 9-8 in 2021 with no playoff appearances. Flores in 2021 started off very slow (like in 2020), starting off at 1-7 in the first 8 games of the season, which is too slow if you wanted to contend. Flores also let Josh Boyer take over the play calling duties on the defensive side of the ball, which made the 2020 defense look like a joke.
During this time, Flores reportedly “started to lose the locker room” and with the front office. Jeff Darlington of ESPN reported that “the release of Brian Flores was more related to his deterioration of relationships behind the scenes rather than the on-field product”. This mainly started between GM Chris Grier and Brian Flores, after the former head coach would not back the situation of their young quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa. It was easily shown all season that Flores and his staff didn’t have trust in Tua, especially vs Tennessee where the camera’s showed Flo yelling at Tua for an error that wasn’t even on him. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network stated “the strain between Grier and Flores had been percolating for weeks”.
The interesting part of this whole thing is that, does Deshaun Watson still want to play for the Dolphins? Watson was a big fan of Brian Flores and wanted to play for him. Rapoport stated that “the firing of Brian Flores may wind up creating an opportunity for teams to swoop in”, meaning that Miami would no longer be Watson’s only preference. Chris Grier sounds like he’s on the Tua side of the story, which would be a good thing for those Tua supporters (like myself), as we wouldn’t have to worry about Deshaun Watson in South Beach. Watson is set to be deposed in February at the earliest, after 22 woman filed civil lawsuits against him.
For Flo, finding a new home as a head coach should not take long for him, as he’ll reportedly be a “prime candidate” for vacancies, according to many NFL analysts. Teams such as the Las Vegas Raiders, Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars are all open to finding a new HC. The Denver Broncos are a team to watch as they have been linked to Deshaun Watson in the past, could they meet up together in Mile High? Who knows. I believe that Stephen Ross has heavy interest in Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh though, as they do have a strong relationship. Ross is the reason why Harbaugh got the Michigan job. Miami must already have something aligned with someone already if they released Brian Flores that quickly. Hopefully, Miami can make a postseason appearance and take home the Lombardi.
*Miami needs to clean up their coaching staff (OC’s/o-line coach) as these members have been horrendous all year, which was all aligned by Brian Flores.
Fangio retired; health, Broncos