The first NFL head coach firing has taken place, and the man out of a job was the one who had been the betting favorite entering the season: Carolina's Matt Rhule, who was given his pink slip Monday following the team's 1-4 start. The Panthers floundered to an 11-27 record overall during his tenure. Rhule was less than three years into a seven-year, $62 million contract he was given in January 2020 by owner David Tepper. Rhule will have no trouble finding another college job as he did a great job at Temple and Baylor. T he new betting favorite via SportsLine oddsmakers to be the next NFL coach fired (or voluntarily leave) is Denver's Nathaniel Hackett.
Despite the trade for likely future Hall of Fame quarterback Russell Wilson, the Broncos are massive disappointments at 2-3 and their offense has frankly been hard to watch with Hackett clearly making some questionable decisions as the play-caller. Denver is coming off an ugly 12-9 overtime home loss to Indianapolis on Thursday in Week 5. Wilson didn't throw a touchdown and was picked off twice.
With his team up 9-6 with just over two minutes left, Wilson threw an interception on third-and 4 at the Indy 13 when a first down would have all but ended the game, and a field goal obviously would have forced the Colts to score a touchdown to win. Wilson received an injection in his throwing shoulder on Friday to relieve discomfort but plans to play through it. To make matters worse, cornerback Ronald Darby tore his ACL in the loss and is obviously done for the year.
How bad would things have to get for the new Broncos owners to fire Hackett (a first-time head coach)? Denver is a 6-point underdog Week 6 on Monday night at the Chargers but could easily win the two games after that at home vs. the Jets and against the Jaguars in London ahead of a Week 9 bye. Ideally, owners/GMs try to at least wait until a bye to make a coaching change. Of the 10 candidates the Broncos interviewed for the coaching job, only one of them other than Hackett got a job. The other candidate was Kevin O'Connell, who has his Vikings at 4-1.