| Thursday, December 9
By Chris Mortensen
Special to ESPN.com |
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Dick Vermeil and Dan Reeves are going to get Mike Ditka fired. At least that's my read.
|  | | Mike Ditka gambled big-time with Ricky Williams, but that bold move hasn't paid off yet. |
New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson, whose carefully chosen words this week clearly make Ditka an endangered species, isn't blind.
Vermeil, Reeves and Ditka each entered the NFC West as coaches in 1997. Reeves won the division in his second season, and took the Atlanta Falcons to
the Super Bowl. Vermeil has won the division in his third season, and the St. Louis Rams will make a pretty good run at the big game with (probable) home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.
In the meantime, Ditka has followed a pair of 6-10 seasons in '97 and '98 with a 2-10 showing thus far in '99. That's the wrong direction. Even as the Saints have been hit with key injuries, and appeared to be at least fighting the good fight, it did not help Ditka's cause when the 2-9 Saints were pounded 35-12 this past Sunday by the 2-9 Falcons.
Aside from the success of Vermeil and Reeves, here are a few other reasons why Benson is liable to make a move:
Ditka blew the quarterback test. His choices have been reclamation projects such as Heath Shuler, Billy Joe Hobert, Billy Joe Tolliver and even Kerry Collins. He did draft one, but it was Danny Wuerffel, a wonderful guy who apparently can't play in this league.
This past offseason, there were enough free-agent quarterbacks on the market such as Trent Green, Neil O'Donnell and Jeff George, but Ditka favored
loyalty to the Billy Joes and Wuerffel.
Ditka oversold Ricky Williams. The Heisman winner is going to be an excellent, probably great, NFL back. But by giving away the draft, not to mention first- and third-round picks next year, Ditka declared that Williams was the franchise player who would get the Saints to the Super Bowl. In the coach's words, he was the missing piece of the puzzle. I think Benson remembers this.
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MORT'S WEEK 14 PICKS |
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Titans over Raiders
Redskins over Cardinals
Ravens over Steelers
Packers over Panthers
Bengals over Browns
Colts over Patriots
Bills over Giants
Cowboys over Eagles
Rams over Saints
Seahawks over Chargers
Dolphins over Jets
Lions over Bucs
Falcons over 49ers
Chiefs over Vikings
Jaguars over Broncos |
Ditka's loyalty to his staff. Again, Ditka's loyalty is an admirable trait. He is really a very good man in this respect. He has some fine coaches on board, but when changes have been suggested, Ditka has balked. The results don't help his case.
Ditka is no longer an icon. Not in New Orleans, anyway. He was a popular hire, and at times he has seemingly willed this team to win. But the
will might have worn off, and Saints fans aren't buying anything, including tickets. By the way, Mr. Benson is looking for a new stadium.
Somebody has to come up with a plan. One must wonder whether Benson is contemplating whether the chief planner, team president Bill Kuharich, will be held accountable, too.
Other fluid coaching fronts:
Norv Turner, Washington Redskins. Why Turner would even want to remain on board with new owner Daniel Snyder is a legitimate question. But it's clear that Snyder will want his own man when the season is over. Turner has done an excellent job with this team. It's in first place in the NFC East, but a very challenging schedule down the stretch gives the Cowboys a fair shot to overcome the Redskins.
Pete Carroll, New England Patriots. Carroll's Pats are 7-5, and may need to win out to get his team a playoff spot. A win in Indianapolis this week would be a boost, but it's hard to envision Carroll being able to save his job.
Bruce Coslet, Cincinnati Bengals. Coslet is talking boldly about winning out, but his team is 3-10. Bengals president Mike Brown is actually public enemy No. 1, and he might make some front-office changes, but he's almost certain to swap the coach one more time.
Jim Fassel, New York Giants. In the end, Fassel probably stays, because there's a new quarterback to develop in Kerry Collins. Bringing on another coach would retard the progress, and he might not even like Collins. Fassel appears ready to step more into a head-coach role, and Giants owners Wellington Mara and Robert Tisch aren't likely to panic.
Bill Parcells, New York Jets. Parcells is likely to fire himself. There's been this misinformed conventional wisdom going around New York that Parcells has been optimistic about next year -- Vinny Tesatverde's coming back, etc. Parcells doesn't have to apologize for anything; the job he did in 1998, when the Jets reached the AFC title game, was probably the best coaching he's done in his career. But coaching equals stress, stress equals health
problems, which Parcells has endured, and I think that's about that for the coach.
Bill Cowher, Pittsburgh Steelers. Cowher says he's coming back. Steelers president Dan Rooney is emphatic that Cowher is coming back. But the rumblings persist, probably because Cowher is on his eighth year in the same job. It might be time. It seems that there is tension between Cowher and staff members, coaching and front office alike. Even the players, who Cowher always had on his side, have a few dissidents among them. One friend of
Cowher's suggests that if the North Carolina State job remains open at the end of the year, he might be interested in a return to his alma mater.
But the last time I looked, Cowher is making $2 million per year, and the N.C. State job is paying $500,000.
Steve Mariucci, San Francisco 49ers. He's not getting fired. Owner Denise DeBartolo York met over the weekend with the coach to express her support and concern about potential college suitors. Mariucci wants to stay on board, but he might not want to stay so badly if GM Bill Walsh still has the bottom-line say on personnel matters after a disastrous year of decisions.
Chan Gailey, Dallas Cowboys. For almost a year now, there has been speculation that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will dump Gailey if Norv Turner becomes available. After all, Jones would have hired Turner to succeed Jimmy Johnson, but the ex-Cowboys offensive coordinator was freshly hired by the Redskins. The problem for Jones is that Gailey has swept Turner and the Redskins twice this year, has beaten Johnson's Dolphins, and has endured enough injuries. Chances are, too, that the Cowboys will finish strong when they get some more players back, and win their second straight division title.
Chris Mortensen, ESPN's lead NFL reporter, writes a weekly column for ESPN.com that appears each Wednesday. He also chats with ESPN.com users every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET |  |
