It seems that every week there’s an NFL coach on the hot seat. Well for the last few weeks that head coach has been Ron Rivera of the Carolina Panthers. Most people expected the Panthers to make a coaching change since they have new ownership and normally that includes a coaching change, but they thought the change would happen after the regular season. Panthers owner David Tepper decided not to wait until the off season and fired Rivera after Carolina lost 29-21 to the Washington Redskins.
Rivera was in his 9th year as the Panthers head coach and had just coached his 140th regular season game. Rivera had a 76-63-1 in the regular season. Carolina made the playoffs four times under Rivera and the Panthers went to the Super Bowl under Rivera in 2015. Carolina played 7 playoff games under Rivera and went 3-4.
The Panthers are 5-7 this season, but have had their starting quarterback Cam Newton for just two games. Rivera has been dealing with Newton and his injuries for a couple of seasons now and will have to wait and see what Tepper decides to do in the off season with Newton.
Carolina got off to a rough start with Newton as their starting quarterback going 0-2. Kyle Allen took over at quarterback and the Panthers ran off 4 straight wins. Carolina split their next 2 games before dropping 4 in a row and ending Rivera’s coaching stint with the team.
Perry Fewell is taking over as Panthers interim head coach. This is Fewell’s second stint as an interim head coach. In 2009 Fewell went 3-4 after taking over the Buffalo Bills. Fewell is in his 10h year as an NFL coach. He was the Bills defensive coordinator for 4 seasons. He then spent 5 seasons as the New York Giants defensive coordinator. This was his first season on the Carolina coaching staff as defensive backs coach.
With the firing of Rivera Carolina has the first coaching opening in the NFL and they’ll have the first chance to interview whichever hot college coach they might be interested in hiring. There are yet to be any names linked to the Carolina job, but I’m sure it won’t be too long before we hear a few come up.
With Fewell taking over there are some other changes that Carolina is making to the coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Norv Turner is now the special assistant to the head coach. Quarterbacks coach Scott Turner will move to offensive coordinator. When it comes to the front office it appears as General Manager Marty Hurney will keep his job. Tepper has said that he’ll search for a assistant general manager or a vice president of football operations.
Who do you think the Panthers will hire as their next head coach?
The NFL draft isn’t until April 23rd, but there have already been seven under classmen who have declared for the draft.
There are three wide receivers who’ve declared. Jalen Reagor of TCU, Isaiah Hodgins of Oregon State and Laviska Shenault Jr. of Colorado. Also declaring are Maryland running back Anthony McFarland Jr. along with three players from Missouri defensive lineman Jordan Elliott, offensive lineman Trystan Colon-Castillo and tight end Albert Okwuegbunam
The one player most of not everyone expects to declare for the NFL draft is Tua Tagovailoa of Alabama, but in an interview Tagovailoa has said that he’s unsure if he’ll enter the NFL draft or return to Alabama for his senior season.
Tagovailoa is rehabbing from a hip injury and it’s unclear right now what his health situation will be by the time the draft rolls around or when teams want to work him out and you have to wonder if this will affect his decision. Tagovailoa has a chance to be the first player taken in the draft, but with his hip injury there’s also a chance that he’ll slide down the draft board.
The Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin made official what seemed pretty clear after Sunday’s 20-13 win over the Cleveland Browns. Devlin “Duck” Hodges will continue to be the Steelers starting quarterback this week. The Steelers travel to Arizona to face the Cardinals in Week 14.
Hodges was solid in his start against the Browns going 14 of 21 for 212 yards with one touchdown and one interception. This will be Hodges third start this season; the Steelers are 2-0 in his first two starts.
Hodges has completed 67.2% of his passes this season going 41 of 61. He’s thrown for 530 yards with 3 touchdowns and two interceptions.
The Steelers are 7-5 on the season and are currently tied with the Tennessee Titans for the final AFC wild card spot. Pittsburgh currently holds the tiebreaker over Tennessee as they have the better winning percentage in conference games.
Including this weeks games against Arizona the Steelers played three of their final four game on the road. The Steelers only home game left this season is Week 15 when they host the Buffalo Bills. Week 16 Pittsburgh is on the road against the New York Jets before they wrap up the season against their division rival and AFC North leading Baltimore Ravens in Week 17.
The New York Jets finally decided to place linebacker C.J. Mosley on injured reserve and officially end his season.
Mosley signed a 5-year $85 million dollar deal this past off season with the Jets, but played in just two games this season due to his injury.
There has been some talk for a while now that Mosley would under go surgery for his injury which is listed as groin/abdomen. It now appears as though Mosley is going to have the surgery even though he’s done everything he can to try and avoid it.
In his two games his season Mosley made 4 tackles and assisted on 5 others. He also had one interception which he return for a touchdown; he also had one fumble recovery.
To take Mosley’s place on the roster the Jets signed another former Raven defensive back Bennett Jackson.
Jackson was drafted in 2014, but just made his NFL debut this season with Baltimore. The Ravens just waived Jackson this week.
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