First year coaches on the hot seat

Usually first-year head coaches are exempt from the proverbial hot seat, but this season has been anything but predictable, and it has a pair of first-year head coaches beginning to look like dead men walking.

Romeo Crennel and Mike Mularkey aren't on their first head coaching jobs. Crennel led the Browns for four years from 2005 through 2008. Mularkey held the top job in Buffalo for the 2004 and 2005 seasons before resigning.

You would think hiring a former head coach to lead your team would be a safe move, but it just hasn't panned out for Kansas City or Jacksonville, and it has many around both organizations thinking big changes are inevitable.

In both cases, the general manager will likely be out the door at the end of the season. When a new general manager is hired, it seems likely that whoever that is would want his own head coach.

The situation is dire in both cases, but Romeo Crennel is under slightly greater strain than Mularkey. While most considered the Jaguars a bottom-tier team at the onset of the season, many thought the Chiefs would compete for the AFC West crown and a playoff birth.

The Kansas City Chiefs take on the Pittsburgh Steelers tonight in a game that could get very ugly very quick. The Chiefs former head coach, Todd Haley, is now the offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh, and his departure from Kansas City was anything but civil. You can bet he'd like to run up the score a little bit against his former team, and it seems likely he'll get the chance tonight.

About Shane Clemons

Shane Clemons came from humble beginnings creating his own Jaguars blog before moving on to SBNation as a featured writer for the Jaguars. He then moved to Bloguin where he briefly covered the AFC South before taking over Bloguin's Jaguars blog. Since the inception of This Given Sunday, Shane has served as an editor for the site, doing his best not to mess up a good thing.

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