It’s Black Monday in the NFL where coaches are fired and teams make moves for the future, and we’re tracking every move and rumor from the proceedings.
After a tumultuous 2018 NFL season for many teams, it became apparent that Black Monday in the league — the day after the regular season ends when jobs are lost in bunches — was going to be busy. In fact, going into Sunday, two vacancies for the 2019 season were already open with Hue Jackson and Mike McCarthy having been fired earlier in the year by the Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers, respectively.
Of course, that was just the unfortunate appetizer to the more unfortunate main course of NFL Black Monday. The gloomy day on the league calendar got an early start with two firings happening on Sunday night right after the Week 17 games. Then things got rolling further on Monday.
With the firings and moves also comes speculation and reports about what teams are going to do next in regards to their head coaching positions. We’re here to look at it all, though, tracking every firing and every rumor about head coaching jobs from NFL Black Monday.
Firings
- Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson and Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy were fired midseason.
- On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired head coach Dirk Koetter (Adam Schefter, ESPN).
- Also on Sunday, the New York Jets relieved Todd Bowles of his head coaching duties. (Ian Rapoport, NFL Network).
- The Arizona Cardinals have fired head coach Steve Wilks after just one season (Ian Rapoport, NFL Network).
- Vance Joseph has been fired by the Denver Broncos after two seasons with the team (Adam Schefter, ESPN).
- The Miami Dolphins fired head coach Adam Gase (Adam Schefter, ESPN).
- After 16 seasons Marvin Lewis is out as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals (Dianna Russini, ESPN).
Rumors
- The Packers are looking heavily at the Patriots, requesting interviews with both offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and defensive coordinator Brian Flores for their vacancy, per Jim McBride of the Boston Globe. Also in the mix for Flores is the Broncos (per Schefter).
- The Browns (per Schefter) have also requested an interview with Flores. Meanwhile, Cleveland GM John Dorsey says that interim head coach Gregg Williams and offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens will also get interviews (per Rapoport). Moreover, Schefter reports that they’ve also requested an interview with Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. And, for good measure, after just being fired by Miami, the Browns reportedly have real interest in Adam Gase (per NFL Network’s Mike Garfolo).
- More on the Broncos, Schefter reports that they have requested an interview with Mike Munchak, the current offensive line coach for the Steelers.
- Somewhat dipping back to Cleveland, former Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians had previously said the Browns job is the only one that would interest him. However, his relationship with Buccaneers GM Jason Licht changes that as, per Rapoport, Arians would listen to an offer from Tampa.
- As for the New York Jets, they have put in a request to dip into the Andy Reid coaching tree in current Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, per Rapoport.
Obviously Black Monday in the NFL is just the start of everything that’s going to happen. But no matter what transpires, we’ll be sure to keep updating throughout the day and have you covered for the rumors that are swirling.