Coaches who could be fired before Bengals’ Zac Taylor after Week 8’s close call

I've wondered aloud whether Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor is someone who can lift a football program to the next level. Yes, he's gotten the Bengals to a Super Bowl and another AFC title game, but does he have the extra oomph to seize a Lombardi Trophy?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. There's a real urgency around the Bengals this year, and with Taylor under contract through only 2027, it's coming up on the time where he could be shown the door.

For now, Taylor is safe thanks to a 5-2 record, right on the heels of a 43-36 overtime win over the 1-7 Tennessee Titans. However, there are some discouraging bouts of inconsistency that have plagued his tenure and this season.

But assuming Taylor is safe for now amid much scrutiny, at least a few other coaches merit being fired before him.

Jim Harbaugh, Los Angeles Chargers

How quickly things can unravel in the NFL, eh? Jim Harbaugh got the Chargers to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons with the team. Justin Herbert proceeded to play horribly in both those one-and-done trips.

Harbaugh tried to bring in Mike McDaniel and inject new life into the offense. Unfortunately, the Bolts don't have the dudes on the perimeter, nor the dudes on the interior o-line, nor the right style of quarterback, to make the system go.

Combine that with a defense that lost its elite coordinator in Jesse Minter to the Ravens after last season, and everything has gone south for the 0-7 Chargers.

Here's hoping the Bolts have a fire sale, blow this thing up fully, and the Bengals can benefit by acquiring, say, Tuli Tuipolotu!? In all seriousness, the clock appears to have struck midnight on the Harbaugh magic. How does he spin this season into any case to retain him? It's a shocking fall from grace with seemingly no answers in sight.

I think this is where the weirdness/strange birdness of Harbaugh could make things really uncomfortable. The team is dead in the water. Still, Coach Harbs and his GM Joe Hortiz seem delulu, via The Athletic's Noah Furtado:

"While other struggling teams have embraced themselves as deadline sellers, Hortiz has refused to see his team in that light, according to The Athletic’s reporting in recent weeks. 'The Chargers have confounded teams by not engaging in trade talks,' Jonathan Jones wrote over the weekend. Outsiders wouldn’t understand. The Chargers aren’t supposed to be 0-7. As far as the fast-approaching Nov. 10 trade deadline is concerned, they aren’t."

Nick Sirianni, Philadelphia Eagles

Urban Dictionary's definition of a chotch should have Nick Sirianni's mug as the central image. This guy sucks. Eagles GM Howie Roseman has built elite rosters and dragged Sirianni's candy rear to Super Bowls and even a Lombardi Trophy.

Sirianni rifles through an annual revolving door of offensive coordinators and is still incapable of calling the plays after all this time. That's mind-blowing incompetence in the modern NFL.

Errbody afraid to talk smack since Sirianni has a Super Bowl to his name. But let's be honest, if Howie fires him tomorrow, who on Earth is picking up the phone now or in the offseason to try to get Sirianni as anything more than a position coach? "Nobody" is the answer.

The scary Jalen Hurts blood clot situation and an offensive line on the verge of collapse combine for a convenient exit scenario for Sirianni. I don't know how he survives after this season. That 2-6 record is bound to be a lot worse soon enough.

Aaron Glenn, New York Jets

There's a bit of an overcompensating hardo type of personality to Aaron Glenn that's always rubbed me the wrong way.

Look, maybe Glenn is genuinely that intense or whatever, but it's almost like he's trying too hard to play the, "I'M A FORMER PLAYER, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" card in his oft-condescending press conferences.

Glenn once played for the Jets and it's a dope storyline that he could be the guy to bring them back to glory. Alas, doesn't look like it'll happen for Gang Green. The Bills and Patriots are predictably way ahead in the AFC East standings. All the free agent money New York spent and three first-round draft picks evidently weren't enough to ignite something special.

Employing an old head like Frank Reich as offensive coordinator was certainly a choice by Glenn. To me, Geno Smith is overcoming that to some degree, but the 2-6 Jets are dead-last in red zone TD scoring percentage (42.3%). That's more of a coaching/scheme issue than a "GENO CAN'T EXECUTE" thing.

And to circle back to my point about Taylor, does Glenn strike anyone as a guy who elevates a program? Not really. Robert Saleh had Zach Wilson and other folks. Glenn is getting good QB play out of Geno at least at the moment. He's 5-20.

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