Division Links: BGN discusses benching Wentz and firing Pederson; BtB is rooting for Eagles win; Colt McCoy preps for Sunday start

Bleeding Green Nation

What does it take to fire a Super Bowl winning coach?

From glory to inglorious

As the 2020 Eagles season does its best Operation Smash Hit impression, the chances that Doug Pederson is able to survive it seem to decrease by the week. Could Jeffrey Lurie really fire the coach who finally got him a Super Bowl, and just three years removed from it?

What does it take to fire a Super Bowl winning coach? 32 other coaches have won the Super Bowl, 5 of which are still coaching the team they won with. 11 didn’t get to decide when to leave: 9 were fired and 2 technically resigned but were practically fired. Some of them got canned twice.

Why did they get fired, and does that compare to Pederson’s situation? There are a few factors at play.

How far removed are they from winning the Super Bowl? Pederson is only three years out from winning the Lombardi, which—spoiler alert—isn’t a long leash.

How bad was their record in their final year? Pretty straightforward, but we’ll also look at the years leading up to the firing: was it one horrific year or a few lousy ones that piled up?

Why exactly were they fired? Sometimes the reason is pretty obvious: the team stunk. But as we’ll see, that hasn’t always been the case.

What happened next: Did the coach go on to some measure of success at his next stop, if he had one? And did the team turn it around with his replacement, justifying the firing?

Bleeding Green Nation

Carson Wentz is a broken quarterback

It’s seriously time to see Jalen Hurts for a few games.

Fifty-three different quarterbacks have finished a season this poorly, but only 6 of them were able to do it a second time, and 0 have done it three times. Carson is legitimately playing at a sub-NFL level, historically to the point that quarterbacks who have played this bad didn’t get many more chances. Jalen Hurts deserves to start a couple of games, and I’m officially calling for Carson to be benched ... again.

Big Blue View

Giants at Seahawks: Colt McCoy takes first-team practice reps

Giants begin preparing to play Sunday without Daniel Jones

Jones left Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals with a hamstring injury. Coach Joe Judge said the Giants were going to “see what he’s able to do” during Wednesday’s practice before making any plans for the remainder of the week. Before practice, Judge sounded as though he intended to be careful with Jones.

“Daniel is a guy that is very competitive. He has a tremendous work ethic and he’s a very tough guy,” Judge said. “You have to kind of pull a lot of these guys back because they’re coming in wired with the mindset that they’re getting ready for a game. As coaches, it’s our responsibility sometimes to protect players from themselves.”

Jones did not practice on Wednesday.

McCoy said he “felt a little bit rusty” in his first game action on Sunday against the Bengals. If he has to start Sunday, McCoy will be ready.

Blogging the Boys

Week 13 Dallas Cowboys Rooting Guides: It is going to be quite the week for the NFC East

What will you be cheering for this weekend?

There are two sectors of Cowboys fans at the moment. One group of people wants to see the team do everything that they can to win the lowly NFC East while other supporters of the club are fine forfeiting what has mostly been a lost season in the name of maximizing future draft capital. To be clear there is no wrong way to be a fan, both mentalities have merit and logic that support them.

Whatever side you fall on there are a number of things that you are going to be paying attention to throughout the Week 13 crop of NFL games. We have assembled rooting guides for both “teams” as they pertain to the Cowboys to make it easier for you to know what is needed for each particular cause.

This week tests the line that may be blurred for some in terms of deciding what they want to root for as rooting for the tank involves hoping that the Philadelphia Eagles win a game. Now that Philly is no longer in first place in the NFC East they have taken their rightful place among the worst teams in the league and looking at their schedule they might not win another game. It is possible that they could leapfrog the Cowboys in the draft order.