Black Monday

7 NFL head coaches were fired on Monday, the day after the NFL season ended.
12 coaches made the playoffs. 5 coaches just completed their first year (hired after their predecessors were fired on last Black Monday.
The leaves just 8 coaches who missed the playoffs and kept jobs they've had for more than a year (Ron Rivera, Jason Garrett, Jim Schwartz, Sean Payton, Tom Coughlin, Mike Tomlin, Mike Munchak and Rex Ryan).
I can understand most of those, except Rex Ryan.
The Jets did fire GM Mike Tannenbaum who certainly was a large part of the problem. When the Jets were contending for AFC titles Tannenbaum pursued a very polarized salary structure (a few high-priced players, mostly low priced roster-filler) and it backfired due to injury and underperformance. He also made a huge bad gamble on by giving Mark Sanchez more money. I don't blame him for the Tebow deal, because it was low risk and never given a chance to pay off.
And that's where Ryan comes in. He continued to insist his strategies were working when everyone else knew they failed. His stubbornness in refusing to replace Sanchez, was a major failing. And it's not as if the Jets have real hopes to turn this around next season, with such weak quarterback prospects. What's the point of giving Ryan one more year when he's likely to fail anyway. Better to completely clean house, bottom out and start to rebuild.

If there's any fired coach I would have given another chance to, it would have been Lovie Smith. The Bears finished 10-6 but missed the playoffs, particularly hard to swallow given their 7-1 start. Smith has been unable to get the best consistently out of Jay Cutler. I'm starting to believe that no one will ever be able to do that. But Smith continued to field a strong defense intent on forcing turnovers and keeping the team in games. The Bears are getting older on defense, but I think Smith could have been given another season or two to try to make this work.

Unlike Andy Reid who had long since overstayed his welcome. 14 years is a long time, and despite his early success, there comes a time when change is necessary for change sake. Like Smith and Cutler, Reid wasn't able to reform Michael Vick into a quarterback who could play without turning the ball over. Unlike Smith, he's an offensive coach who should have had more success than that.

Norv Turner also was there too long. Turner is a terrible a coach. His teams always underachieve and though it's hard to pinpoint his exact problem I think it's clear at this point that he should never be an NFL head coach ever again. I think there is a good chance Andy Reid gets this job and tries to make something out of Philip Rivers.

Ken Whisenhunt is another coach who had success early on (almost won a Super Bowl) but has since faded horribly. Remember when the Cardinals won their first 4 games this season, including a win over the Patriots? Well, they lost 11 of the next 12, and that was the end of Whisenhunt. But I'm not sure any coach can win with that array of quarterbacks.

Pat Shurmur in Cleveland was also dealt a difficult hand. He got only two years and shitty quarterbacks. The team and Brandon Weeden showed promise towards the end of the season. I would have given Shurmur more time but I understand a new owner wants to come in and pick his own guys.

Chan Gailey coached the Bills for 3 seasons. They lost at least 10 games and finished last all three years. This season the team sank a ton of money into its defense, which stunk. Gailey deserved to be fired, but good luck to the next guy.

And lastly, Romeo Crennel. He took over with 3 games left in last season and was given the full-time job. Then the Chiefs went 2-14. Crennel is a nice man but not a very good head coach. But like most coaches on this list, he was the victim of poor quarterback play. His season as head coach of the Chiefs will always be remembered for Jovan Belcher committing suicide as Crennel watched and tried to convince him not to. "You're taking the easy way out," Crennel yelled, to no avail.