On a day where seven NFL head coaches lost their jobs, the quick fix mentality of the league was on display again.
According the ESPN NFL Nation Blog, twenty-two head coaches have been fired over the past three seasons, which, if you are doing the math, equates to almost 70 percent of the league. Add to it the fact that several head coaches in the league may never get fired (Coughlin, Belichek, Tomlin) because of their past success, and the average fan should get an understanding about how much of a game of musical chairs the league's head coaching seats have become.
The quick-fix mentality of the current NFL makes sense in some cases, because new coaches, with a new perspective have taken teams to the playoffs in a single season. And if the team with a new head coach, doesn't make the playoffs, fans clamor for progress to be made in the form of a better record.
After two losing seasons, a rookie head coach is clearly on "borrowed time".
But standing pat, through a legitimate rebuilding program, is no longer an option in the NFL nowadays, so when a team that does not make the playoffs, someone in management typically has to go because a complete roster turnover is not feasible.
That's why yesterday's New York Giants' press conference, which was devoid of any real news, was so noteworthy in today's NFL. No one lost their job.
Big Blue's general manager Jerry Reece did not offer any excuses in yesterday's conference with the media. As reported by Giants.com, he said, "The bar is set very high here and we didn’t get the job done. I wish I had something clever to say to you guys, but that’s soup to nuts. We didn’t get the job done."
The most interesting aspect of Reece's comments yesterday was that no coaches were mentioned, it was all about the players. And Reece appeared to be very clear in his vision for the team, "I don’t think we’re that far off, to be honest with you. This team will look different next year, but I think we’ll have a good core of players coming back and I think we can see what we can do in free agency in the offseason."
Added to the mix, Tom Coughlin's terse answer, "he is", to a question if Perry Fewell was still the team's defensive coordinator, it is not hard to see that the players' performance is being called into question and little else.
Because when Coughlin was pressed further about Fewell's contention that the defense was simply not making plays, the head coach was somewhat "political" in his answer, but still made it clear in which direction he leaned.
"As I said before, I would think, based on what was actually said by Perry Fewell in that interview, that the thing that was not happening is that plays were not being made. I don’t think the defense would disagree with you at all on that one," Coughlin opined.
Later in his press conference, Reece did articulate, what many thought was the downfall of the 2012 New York Football Giants when he stated, "You’d like your defense to just go out there and shut people down and get thee-and-outs all the time, but I think the offenses…the National Football League is structured for the offense to be dynamic and I think it’s tough for the defense a lot of the time. It’s no excuse. We expect our defense to play better than that. We think we had some good players defensively. There were some plays that needed to be made that didn’t get made. Moving forward, we have to look at that and I think we have to make more plays defensively."
If what changes that the team has in store for the off-season was not apparent to players before yesterday, it should be abundantly clear to them today; mainly that several current defensive starters won't be suited up as New York Giants come next September.
The morale of the story is that when you win Super Bowl titles, management is not going to question the coaching schemes, when players aren't making plays.
If you're not causing turnovers on the field, you'll become part of the roster turnover in the off-season.
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