Week 5 gave us some interesting and perplexing coaching decisions that didn't break in favor of the top men making or overseeing the calls. In an NFL that routinely has high turnover rate among its head-coaching ranks, we're always asking "who's in trouble?"
Yahoo Sports' Frank Schwab, Jay Busbee, Jori Epstein and Eric Edholm each answered that this week as the league approaches completing one-third of the season:
What coach should be feeling the most heat at this point in the season?
Frank Schwab: Dan Quinn screwed up the finish of Sunday's game in a way that wasn't imaginable. Nick Sirianni blew a finish to what should have been a win too. But I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment.
Yes, Todd Bowles shook off some of the speculation about his job security with a great game plan and execution in a season-saving 24-16 win over the Cowboys. Let's also not forget that the weird decision to bypass a field goal in the fourth quarter, which would have given the Buccaneers a 17-point lead, could have cost Tampa that game. It's also just the Buccaneers' third win in their last 14 games.
They're not out of the woods yet at 1-4, starting either undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels or Baker Mayfield coming off a dislocated thumb at quarterback on Sunday against Pittsburgh. Then come pivotal games against the Panthers and Falcons. With one win, Tampa Bay allowed itself a chance to get back in the division race (gotta love the NFC South) but we're just a couple losses away from the Buccaneers being irrelevant again this season and Bowles being on a very hot seat.
Jay Busbee: I grew up a Falcons fan, so my feelings on Dan Quinn, who led the team all the way to the third quarter of a Super Bowl, are complicated and compromised. That said, the mistakes that happened on Quinn's watch at the end of the Commanders-Giants game leave scars not just on a season, but on an entire résumé.
Yes, Quinn engineered a necessary and welcome turnaround of Washington in the post-Dan Snyder era, overseeing that meteoric rise in 2024. But then the turnaround turned back around, and Washington is at the bottom of an already woeful NFC East. You can have occasional misfires if you generally win more than you lose (see: Los Angeles Rams), and you can hang onto your job a while if you're losing but appearing to try (see: Tampa Bay). But losing in embarrassing fashion? Becoming the butt of the league's jokes? Yeah, that's the kind of public humiliation that gets you booted. It was a good run, Dan, but don't make any DoorDash orders that will take longer than a half-hour to arrive.
Jori Epstein: I tend to view job security in the NFL as the result of several factors. A team's record of course is one. But there's more. How does the performance of a losing team compare to expectations for the team's position in the lifecycle of roster building? Were the losses gritty and borderline-moral victories, or were they embarrassing — for coaches, players and at times even team ownership? What other changes could come before changing a head coach? A head coach who has already tried to salvage a project with coordinator turnover has fewer options left.
With that formula, the Washington Commanders' Dan Quinn and Los Angeles Chargers' Jim Harbaugh seem the most susceptible right now. Each team has a quarterback with experience and talent (yes, Jayden Daniels missed time with a dislocated elbow, but Washington's lone win came in his absence); each coach is in at least his third season. Harbaugh hired offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel to salvage an offense that currently ranks 30th in scoring and 25th in yardage; Quinn hired defensive coordinator Daronte Jones to modernize a defense that currently ranks 30th in points allowed and 23rd in yards.
On the Chargers' front, Harbaugh has gone from spats with reporters earlier in the season to this week saying he "can't think of a time I've ever been more mad at myself" than his decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 from his own 41 in the fourth quarter. The Broncos capitalized on the short field to tie the game and score 13 unanswered points en route to a road victory.
The Commanders infamously botched their overtime game mechanics so thoroughly that they couldn't even attempt the game-winning field goal. Quinn has said he was "furious" and minority team owner Magic Johnson tweeted that he was in "total disbelief."
In an impatient league, seats warm quickly.
Eric Edholm: Like, right now now? I'd say Dan Quinn, fair or not. The sight of an angry, helpless Quinn, tangled in his headset cords Sunday, was striking. He'd just witnessed his supposed franchise QB run the clock down to zero, with a chance to win the game, turning it into a shocking tie. Minority owner Magic Johnson posting that he was "in total disbelief" told you all you needed to know about the temperature around Quinn now. Whatever goodwill he earned with the home win over the Seahawks evaporated in that fateful moment against the Giants.
You could make a case for 0-5 Jim Harbaugh being on a hotter seat, but I think Quinn is the hot-seat name of the week because of how that game went down. At 1-3-1, there's not a ton of wiggle room, even in the much-maligned NFC East, and a blowout loss Monday night at San Francisco could be very concerning for Quinn, with the Commanders set to go on bye.
Josh Harris strikes me as a team owner who won't get too emotional about a coaching change, even if he was part of the group that brought in Quinn. The Commanders have a lot to figure out and fix in short time to keep their coach off the proverbial seat.