Black Monday: Coaching, front office changes around the NFL

The NFL regular season ended on Sunday, which makes Monday the annual “Black Monday,” the day when NFL franchises begin cleaning out their front offices and coaching staffs after bad seasons and the annual coaching carousel begins. It actually started on Sunday, with some coaches being “relieved of their duties” then, and we will track all of the changes as they happen.

The first, and most important thing to note for our website is, the Miami Dolphins will not have changes this year. There was a loud group of fans who wanted to see head coach Adam Gase fired after just two seasons, but in a year in which craziness was the norm (Ryan Tannehill’s injury, Jay Cutler, offensive line coach drug video, hurricanes, no bye week, an IR list larger than the practice squad, etc.), there are plenty of reasons to give Gase another year to try to fix the issues that came up this season.

After the Dolphins’ loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, team owner Stephen Ross told the media, “I’m terribly disappointed. The season didn’t start out right with the injuries, and you can’t replace a good quarterback. You look forward to next season, there will be adjustments, and you put as much as I put into a team, and try to do all the right things to win, how can you not be disappointed. I fucking hate losing. Excuse me.”

Ross then went on to add that Gase, general manager Chris Grier, and executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum will all “definitely” be back next year.

With that settled, we look at what is happening around the NFL:

Firings

Retirement

Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians could retire, but continues to deny the rumors; reports indicate he is still likely to retire (Adam Schefter); Arians expected to tell team he is retiring during team meeting on Monday (Ian Rapoport); Arians has officially announced he is retiring (Darren Urban)

Baltimore Ravens DC Dean Pees has announced his is retiring (Ravens)

Rumors

Staying

Hirings