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As widely expected, Mike Shanahan is out in Washington.

Shanahan and his staff were officially fired this morning, the Washington Post first reported and the team has now announced.

The departure of Shanahan had been expected for several weeks, as a team that made the playoffs last year and entered this year with high expectations ended up being one of the worst teams in the NFL.

The question now is whether Dan Snyder can find some coach who can come in and resurrect a franchise that has only been to the playoffs once in the last six seasons. Shanahan looked like he was that coach a year ago, and now Shanahan is done.

With Washington firing Shanahan, Minnesota firing Leslie Frazier, Cleveland firing Rob Chudzinski and Houston already firing Gary Kubiak, there are now four head-coaching vacancies in the NFL.