As each day passes, football fans are one step closer to the start of the 2021 NFL season. That means that people are doing what they can to pass the time, which includes making predictions about what’ll happen next season. While some fans focus on who’ll win Super Bowl 56, others are turning their attention towards different markets.
Bovada has released odds on which head coach will be the first one to be fired in the 2021 NFL season. With a handful of coaches on the hot seat, the sportsbook is favoring the Chicago Bears’ Matt Nagy to be the first to lose his job next year at +700 odds.
After spending years around the league in smaller positions, Nagy was hired as the Bears head coach back in 2018. Chicago finished that season with a 12-4 record and made the playoffs for the first time since 2010. Needless to say, the future looked bright for Nagy. However, the Bears have posted back-to-back 8-8 seasons since then and haven’t made any real improvements. While Chicago made the playoffs again in 2020, they were eliminated in the Wild Card round for the second time in three years. Considering how the Bears haven’t won a postseason game in over a decade, ownership’s patience has to be running thing.
In other words, Nagy has to show results this year if he wants to keep his job into 2022 and beyond. With Andy Dalton and Justin Fields being upgrades over Mitch Trubisky at quarterback, Nagy has no excuses if he can’t produce results in the 2021 NFL season.
2021 NFL Odds: Coach to Be Fired First
Odds via Bovada as of Tuesday, July 13
- Matt Nagy (Bears) (+700)
- Zac Taylor (Bengals) (+800)
- Vic Fangio (Broncos) (+900)
- Jon Gruden (Raiders) (+1000)
- Mike Zimmer (Vikings) (+1000)
- Matt LaFleur (Packers) (+1200)
- Mike McCarthy (Cowboys) (+1200)
- David Culley (Texans) (+1400)
- Kliff Kingsbury (Cardinals) (+1400)
- Matt Rhule (Panthers) (+1600)
Full odds list available at Bovada.lv.
Is Taylor in Danger?
As one of the youngest coaches in the league, Zac Taylor could be in danger of losing his job next season. The Cincinnati Bengals coach has a 6-25-1 record during his tenure and has +800 odds of being the first bench boss to lose his job in the 2021 NFL season.
While Taylor’s six wins over twos seasons is certainly a bad look, it appears even worse once you realize that the team had a total of six victories in the year before he arrived in town. Obviously, last season’s disappointing performance isn’t totally on his shoulders because the team wasn’t that great on paper and the Bengals also lost QB Joe Burrow to season-ending knee injuries. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that Bengals have allowed the sixth-most points per game (26.38) in the NFL since Taylor became the coach.
With Burrow healed and a lot of new pieces on the roster, there aren’t any more excuses for Taylor. If he doesn’t show promise in the 2021 NFL season, he likely won’t be back in 2022.
Fangio’s Time in Denver is Ticking
While he might not be the likeliest candidate to get canned, Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio’s +900 odds are far from encouraging. He joined the Broncos as their coach back in 2019 after being named the Pro Football Writers Association’s Assistant Coach of the Year as a member of the Chicago Bears. Unfortunately, Fangio hasn’t brought that success — or any at all — to Denver. While the defense has been good under him, the offense has struggled and that includes how QB Drew Lock regressed significantly last season. With the Broncos in danger of missing the playoffs for the sixth straight year, it’s now or never for Fangio to prove why he should remain in Denver throughout the 2021 NFL season and beyond.
