Dallas and Jacksonville are off to a combined 1-5 start to a season in which they were viewed as legitimate contenders, so it came as little surprise that Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy and Jaguars coach Doug Pederson are the current favorites to be the first fired.
Add to the mix that arguably the greatest coach in NFL history is currently unemployed, and it adds a layer of intrigue to both situations.
ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith implored Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Monday to hire Bill Belichick. “You do that and the Dallas Cowboys are challenging for the Super Bowl championship next year. … Mark my words,” Smith said the day after Dallas lost at home to Baltimore.
Later that day, the Jaguars fell to 0-3 following an embarrassing 47-10 loss at Buffalo.
By Tuesday, Pederson had taken over as the +400 “favorite” to be the first NFL head coach fired this season, followed by McCarthy at +450.
On Wednesday, BetOnline.ag released updated odds on where Belichick will be coaching in Week 1 of the 2025 season. Not coincidentally, Dallas and Jacksonville also top that list.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is a friend of Belichick, and the notion of the legendary coach taking the reins in Dallas was broached shortly after he parted ways with the New England Patriots after last season. Jones has proven particularly loyal with his coaches, and chose to give McCarthy another year.
However, the heat has ratcheted up once again with Dallas dropping consecutive home games to fall to 1-2.
Meanwhile, Jacksonville has endured an even bigger nightmare to begin the season, getting outscored a combined 85-40 through its first three games. Once considered an emerging threat in the AFC, the Jaguars are almost on par with the 0-3 Cincinnati Bengals as the biggest disappointments thus far.
Pederson accurately stated that no one’s season is over before the end of September, but Belichick could prove a particularly big threat to his job security. Jaguars owner Shad Khan desperately wants to take advantage of the quality core of young talent Jacksonville has assembled, and the struggles of franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence don’t bode well for the offensive-minded Pederson.
“We just got to figure out a way to play good football, and right now, the tape shows that we’re not and we’ve got to fix that,” Pederson said Wednesday.
How long he has to get the ship sailing in the right direction is uncertain. But one undebatable fact is that Jacksonville is now 9-11 in its past 20 games, including 1-9 in its last 10.
–Field Level Media
With 12 games on the schedule for Sunday featuring many of the NFL’s best teams, fans will have hundreds of player props to choose from for their betting pleasure in…
On a season-best four-game winning streak, the Denver Broncos enter a battle for playoff seeding holding the upper hand when they face the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night in…
Seth Henigan has major credentials, but you never hear him mentioned among the top quarterbacks in the nation. He is surprisingly invisible considering he has four consecutive 3,000-yard seasons and…
Week 16 TNF: Broncos-Chargers Preview, Props & Prediction
Frisco Bowl: Memphis-West Virginia Preview, Props & Prediction
NBA Cup Finals: Bucks-Thunder Preview, Props & Prediction
Week 15 MNF: Vikings-Bears Preview, Props and Prediction
Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM
