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There are just four shopping days left till Christmas including the madhouse that you will find out there this weekend.  However, if you are in the marketfor a new head coach in the NFL, Black Monday is fast approaching as well.  It’s a madhouse too.  Black Monday is the day several coaches will get their pink slips.  This year it falls on New Year’s Eve.  What a way to end this year and ring in next.

Parts one,  two, and three predicted which franchises thought their coach was naughty and which were nice on 24 teams.  Personnel decisions are always part art and part science.

Today we examine the last eight teams of the 32 in our four-part series.  We begin with the team that will call Vegas its new home one day soon.  As Chris Berman refers to them, “da Radas!”

Oakland Raiders, Jon Gruden–  Want to know who is calling the shots here?  It’s the guy with the ten-year guaranteed contract that traded off his best assets to garner future draft picks.  You need a hint?  It’s not GM Reggie McKenzie who was fired last week.  It’s the guy with the bad haircut.  No, it’s not the owner, Mark Davis.  It’s Jon Gruden, aka Chuckie.  Chuckie’s contract makes him one of the safest bets in our feature.  And you were told there was no such thing as a safe bet in Vegas.

Philadelphia Eagles, Doug Pedersen– One year removed from a fine Super Bowl season Pedersen has his team playing well of late.  Injuries early and a strong Super Bowl hangover contributed to a slow start.  Pedersen is but one good Nick Folks start away from a bona-fide QB controversy.  But, there are worse problems.  You could coach Buffalo for example.  Pedersen is good for a few years to come.

Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin– The Steelers are the definition of stability.  Tomlin is only the fourth head coach for the franchise since 1969.  That’s four in basically 50 years.   Compare that to the Cleveland Browns from the same AFC North Division.  Not counting four interim head men, they have burned through 15 head coaches in that span.  If they navigate the last two games they will head to the playoffs for the ninth time in his twelve strong years.

San Francisco 49ers, Kyle Shanahan– Shanahan is considered one of the new wave, new offense, bright minds of the game.  However, you don’t win consistently in the NFL if you don’t have a franchise type QB.  Whether Jimmy Garappolo is or is not one of those remains to be seen. But, until he is healthy the performance of the young head coach is a bit of an unknown.   A few NFL teams make the jump from bad to good each year.  It would not be too hard to build a case for them being one of those in 2019 under his guidance.

Seattle Seahawks, Pete Carroll– He may not look it, but Pete Carroll will celebrate birthday number 68 on 9/15/19.  You get the feeling that he still enjoys what he is doing and certainly shows no drop off in his approach.  He’s a good fit in the great northwest to boot.  A change here driven by a decision from either side would surprise.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dirk Koetter– Coach K is 19-27 cumulatively in year three with two meaningless games to go.  Dirk is coach number four since Chuckie bolted from the bay area ten years ago.  The results over that decade have been below average.  Koetter is averaging 6 and 1/2 wins a year.  His winning first season in 2016 seems so long ago.  Tampa Bay has QB issues.   Tampa Bay actually has bigtime QB issues.  We think Dirk Koetter gets shown the door after the Bucs close down another forgettable season.  We also think if he was named Kirk Doetter no one would notice.

Tennessee Titans, Mike Vrabel– Coach Vrabel has gone through some growing pains in year one.  His team has some talent.  They play hard.  They are relatively young and inexperienced.  So is Vrabel as the leading man.  You could see them all growing up together relatively soon.  Marcus Mariotta needs to take the next step next year as well.  They play in the suddenly tough AFC South.  Vrabel once was a tough linebacker.  He’ll have the chance to infuse that in his team for the coming years.

Washington Redskins, Jay Gruden– Jon Gruden’s brother has a tough job.  The Redskins have a meddlesome owner who knows little about big boy football.  This group incessantly over values free agents. Value wins.  Do they have a plan?  Have they ever had a plan?  If you toss out his first 4-12 year, Jay has coached the Skins to as many wins as losses for the next four.  He’s done that without QB stability especially this year as broken legs are plentiful in the nation’s capital.   That’s not too bad.   Will he return next year?  Only Daniel Snyder knows for sure.  Our hunch is that a change takes place.  Why do we think this way?  We flipped a coin.

Our guess is that two coaches of the eight above hit the bricks.  That brings the total tally to ten gone and 22 returning in our estimation.  By historical standards this isn’t out of line.  Surely there will be a surprise retention or two as well as a surprise firing or retiring or two.

In the NFL either you are getting better or you’re getting replaced.