A total of six head coaches have been fired as of Monday afternoon, the first day of the NFL offseason for 20 teams in the league and a day commonly referred to as “Black Monday” in professional football circles.
The Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers all announced the firing of their head coaches on Monday. The Cleveland Browns wasted even less time by announcing the firing of first-year coach Rob Chudzinski on Sunday night.
The first firing of an NFL head coach of 2013 happened several weeks ago, with Gary Kubiak seeing the end of his run as coach of the Houston Texans in the midst of the team finishing the season on a 14-game losing streak.
The highest profile of all the firings came in Washington, as two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Mike Shanahan was let go after four seasons with the team. The former Denver Broncos coach went to the playoffs in 2012 after leading the Redskins to a 10-6 record and an NFC East Division title. Washington finished the 2013 season 3-13.
Three of the four coaches fired on Monday made the playoffs in the past two seasons, including Shanahan, Minnesota’s Leslie Frazier (2012) and Detroit’s Jim Schwartz (2011). However, all three failed to finish this season with winning records. Tampa Bay let go of second-year coach Greg Schiano after an 11-20 record in two seasons with the team.
In his one season with the Browns, Chudzinski went 4-12.
Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more details.