NFL hot seat: Panthers fire Ron Rivera, these 3 head coaches could be next

The NFL hot seat released some energy on Tuesday with the Carolina Panthers firing head coach Ron Rivera. Niner Noise explores three other coaches who may be next in line.

Remember at the start of the 2019 calendar year when some pundits linked the NFL hot seat to San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan?

Well, that narrative died a quick death.

The 49ers are 10-2 and were a couple of field goals away from being a perfect 12-0 on the season. Linking Shanahan to the NFL hot seat isn’t going to happen for a very long, long while.

At the same time, the Carolina Panthers just proved the NFL hot seat can strike down head coaches with more than a few accolades, made perfectly clear when the team sent head coach Ron Rivera packing, according to more than a few reports:

Rivera, whose Panthers went 5-7 this season, has a Super Bowl appearance under his belt along with two NFL Coach of the Year awards.

Not enough to save him.

Likewise, the Washington Redskins parted ways with a former head coach, Jay Gruden, earlier this season, too. And on an interesting note, both the Panthers and Redskins were knocked off by the 49ers earlier this year. Not saying there’s a correlation there, but it’s something to at least mention.

With Rivera the latest member of the NFL hot seat ax club, who are some other head coaches likely to be the next in line and potentially not survive the rest of the regular season? Some could say Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys. But with Dallas still leading the NFC East, despite being 6-6, it seems as if owner Jerry Jones sticks with Garrett as long as the division lead remains. Most of the first-year coaches are probably safe, too, unless reports of locker rooms blowing up start to surface.

Niner Noise takes a look at three candidates elsewhere, however, who could be gone by Week 17.