NFL owners showing much less patience with coaches now

I’ve often said the dirty little secret of the NFL is that the main goal isn’t winning the Super Bowl. The goal is staying competitive and avoiding those 5-12 seasons that erode the fan base and make it harder to sell tickets.

But things are changing now. Just winning isn’t enough. Owners and fans want Super Bowl titles.

Buffalo coach Sean McDermott found that out when he was fired Monday after the Bills lost in overtime at Denver despite winning 10 or more games for the past seven years. 

That follows the firing of Baltimore coach John Harbaugh, who coached the Ravens for 18 years and won a Super Bowl. He  was fired just two years after he had the Ravens in the AFC title game. The Ravens didn’t make  the playoffs this year because of a missed field goal against Pittsburgh on the final play of the regular season.

It didn’t take him long to find a new job. He was hired by the New York Giants and will report to the owner instead of the general manager.

And Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin decided to step down after 19 years as the head coach. He won a Super Bowl but hadn’t won a playoff game since 2016 and the fans have been calling for a new coach for the last two or three years even though owner Art Rooney II was going to stick with him if he hadn’t stepped down. Unlike Harbaugh, Tomlin is still under contract and will sit out a year.

In Buffalo, general manager Brandon Beene was promoted to the role of director of football operations and is under pressure to find the right coach and to get a better supporting cast around Josh Allen.

So far, four of the 10 teams who will have new coaches besides the Giants have hired a new coach. The Falcons hired former quarterback Matt Ryan to run the football operations, and he hired Kevin Stefanski, who was fired by Cleveland; the Titans hired Robert Salah, formerly of the Jets; the Dolphins hired Jeff  Hafley; and the Steelers hired Mike McCarthy to replace Tomlin.

When it is all said and done, 10 of the 32 teams will have new coaches. It remains to be seen if the new way of doing things is Super Bowl or bust for coaches.