To Fire or not to Fire?

There have been 3 major firings in the NFL this season, two of which were in the past week. Matt Millen was the first and Scott Linehan and Lane Kiffin were the two this week on back to back days. Did these men deserve to be fired? Were these firings handled in the proper way? Was is the right move for the franchise? Are these moves going to make an impact anytime soon for the respective franchises? Let me delve into my vast knowledge bank and find the answers to these questions!

Lets just go man by man and answer all these important questions...

Matt Millen:

All Mr. Millen did and President of the Lions was have the worst record in the NFL over his 6 and a half year tenure and win 0 playoff games. Oh and he drafted 4 wide receivers in a row in the first round, 2 of which aren't even in the NFL anymore. One other guy he drafted was Joey Harrington and right now the New Orleans Saints can't decide if they want him to be the 3rd string quarterback on their team right now.

A lot of people questioned whether or not he deserved the job in the first place and if William Clay Ford thought he did then I really can't argue against that. I would think anyway that Ford would have hired the best candidate he thought he interviewed for the job.

Irregardless, Millen didn't do a very good job and for the last 4 years or so that he was there the fans wanted him fired. At some point a change needs to be made if the results aren't coming and the fans want change. I do believe Millen deserved to be fired and I believe William Clay Ford waited much to long to do so. All of Detroit is glad the kid made the decision and stepped up and said something about it.

I question the handling of it just because it took the son of the owner to really get this thing going but as soon as he said something the decision was made. I say again, this was long overdue so why did it take something like this to get the ball rolling?

I don't honestly know who Millen's replacement is or will be but I think whoever it is has a good chance to get this team headed in a much better direction then Millen had it going. I think the Lions have a nucleus that could have them on the right track but the next couple of drafts are really going to be important so I don't expect much change for a few years unfortunately.

Scott Linehan:

This one is really hard for me to understand because Scott Linehan had 4 seasons to make his mark in the league and the team just progressively got worse and the Rams right now are arguably the worst in the league. I really thought the Rams had a real shot at being a good team this year with Jackson in the backfield, a healthy offensive line, Bulger and Holt and a serviceable defense. All Linehan really had to do was put together a decent game plan and the players probably could have won at least 8 games. 3 weeks into the season the offense looked terrible and the defense even worse. He benched Marc Bulger for Trent Green against most of the players wishes and then they got rid of their best cornerback. Seemed crazy to me and it almost seemed like Linehan had given up.

When a coach gives up on his players and the players give up on the coach you have to do something and that something was to fire him and I believe it was the right move for the Rams at this time. This one as opposed to the other two was handled in a very professional manner and other then some media people speculating the move it went down the way it should have.

The other two questions for this team are very interesting. I do believe it was the right move but with the firing obviously came a promotion or hiring of a new coach. Linehan's replacement is Jim Haslett who is a defensive minded coach. My question here is, how much say did Haslett have over the current defense? A defense that has given up a league high (by a lot) 147 points. I understand you need to bring in someone that has the ability to improve the D but if he had already been there and it wasn't working is anything going to change? I am not sure but I do know that it can't get any worse in the Gateway to the West, so let's hope anyway that it gets better. I think the potential to get better is there, they players just have to start playing again.

Lane Kiffin:

This one gets me a bit heated, not because I am huge Kiffin fan or even a Raiders fan for that matter but because Al Davis is an idiot! Kiffin was brought in from USC with no head coaching experience. He had been the offensive coordinator for USC before moving to Oakland. A lot of people questioned whether it was the right move at the time but to give this guy a shot was fair enough in my mind. What Al Davis doesn't understand is that Kiffin was inheriting a bad team! A team that is still pretty bad in my opinion. Drafting JaMarcus Russell wasn't going to change things in one season. Davis gave Kiffin 20 games. That's it! And really, from the beginning of the season rumors were flying around about Kiffin being fired. Kiffin was 5-15 in the 20 games there. That's not very good, but I say again the team isn't very good and that's on Davis because he makes all the personnel decisions. The only reason I can entertain the argument that Kiffin deserved to be fired right now is that in something like 11 of his 20 games the Raiders were leading at some point in the 4th quarter.

Did Lane deserve to be fired? Not right now he didn't. Not with only 20 games with that team he didn't. If he would've ended this season at like 5-11 or 4-12 then yea, in the offseason these things would need to be looked at. Remember fans, it was his first head coaching gig ever. Give the guy a chance.

Oh and to answer the next question. Just watch Al Davis's press conference and remember the three weeks leading up to it. You decide whether it was handled properly.

This one is the first one that I don't not believe was the right move for the franchise. They have a young quarterback that needs to stay in a consistent system and learn. This is the 4th coach in 5 years for them and I really don't think Tom Cable is going to be the coach at the start of next season. Which will make 6 coaches in 6 seasons. Kiffin was on the right track and had some good young studs that with time and experience could have developed into a good team. I think they still could its just going to take a little bit longer now.

This team will not get any better until Al Davis backs up a lot! He is crazy and at some points it seems doesn't have the franchise and its players in his best interest. This team could get much better if Davis finds a good experienced players coach and sticks with him. I, honestly believe that this is impossible for Al Davis right now and unless the guy goes undefeated he will thus be given 20 games and be fired.

I think Lane Kiffin will be fine. He will get a very good job somewhere else, either in college or the NFL and he will come out of this looking much better then his boss.


GMs Thoughts:

I agree with everything for the most part. I really just wanted to correct you on one point. Scott Linehan was only the coach for 2 full seasons and the current season. He was hired in 2006 and coached the 2006 and 2007 seasons in their entirety and obviously only got through 4 games in this, the 2008, season.