Herm's Term's Over: Part II

HermYesterday, I posted Reason #1 why Herm will be fired. Today is a new reason. It’s based on the 2008 season alone. The question is always, how will a franchise tolerate a miserable year such as the one the Chiefs had? As you will see, the answer is “Not well.”

Part I: Existing NFL coaches and their success (or lack thereof).

Part II: NFL coaches who have had 2-14 seasons or worse.

Part III: Similar coaches in NFL history who have had three years at the helm and have lost at a similar rate.

Edwards will be fired: Reason #2

As we painfully know, the Chiefs record this season was 2-14. Most coaches who have had an NFL season that bad have been fired at the end of the season. Excluding expansion teams, there are 24 examples of a coach in charge of a team the entire season which finished 2-14 or worse. The table is below. If the coach survived the season, I commented to the right by showing his following season and if he was fired or not.

*First year, **Second stint first year

As you can see, 13 of the 24 were fired at the end of the abysmal season. Two more were fired during the following season and five more were fired at the end of the following season. One coach made it an additional year before being fired and three were considered a success – meaning they had at least one winning season thereafter. Three out of 25 is 12%.

To even better understand this list, you have to factor in which coaches were in their first year. After all, a coach is much less likely to be fired if he has only had one year to do his magic. If you remove the first year coaches, the numbers are all the more significant. There are 13 examples of a coach with a 2-14 record or worse since 1970 who did it in a year other than his first. This is the category Edwards is in. Of those 13, nine were fired, one was fired during the following season, two were fired at the end of the following season and one was considered a success. But even in that case, his worst year was his second year so one would assume he might have been given more leeway than Edwards would in his third season.

Here is the bottom line on reason #2. What is the point in not firing him? Even if he is kept around another season, he’s going to get fired sooner or later. Why not start over now rather than wait a year - or part of a year?

Tomorrow, I’ll give you Reason #3 why Herm will be fired – as if you need another.