When Tennessee used the No. 1 overall draft pick on quarterback Cam Ward, the plan was for a long-term pairing with head coach Brian Callahan to bring success to the Titans.
The marriage didn’t even last a full season with Callahan fired after six games in a move that maybe should have been predictable based on recent history.
Over the last decade, nothing has put an NFL coach on the hot seat more than the franchise using a high draft pick on a quarterback.
Ward is the fourth straight quarterback picked No. 1 overall to have his coach fired before the end of his rookie season. Caleb Williams and Matt Eberflus lasted 12 games together in Chicago in 2024; Bryce Young and Frank Reich got 11 games in Carolina in 2023; and Trevor Lawrence and Urban Meyer got 13 games in Jacksonville in 2021.
In all, there have been eight quarterbacks selected first overall in the last 10 drafts and six of those teams fired their coach during that season. It also happened in 2018 with Hue Jackson and Baker Mayfield in Cleveland and in 2016 with Jeff Fisher and Jared Goff with the Rams.
The only No. 1 pick quarterback in the NFL still with his original coach is 2020 top selection Joe Burrow in Cincinnati with Zac Taylor.
Teams picking first in the draft typically have many holes based on getting that selection although the Bears and Rams got their No. 1 picks in trades. Four of the fired coaches — Callahan, Eberflus, Jackson and Fisher — came into those seasons on thin ice based on a lack of success already during their tenure.
Reich got fired in his first season with the Panthers and Meyer got fired in year one with the Jaguars, although that decision went far deeper than just the quarterback.
But the issue of quick hooks potentially stunting the growth of young quarterbacks goes beyond players picked first overall.
There have been 35 quarterbacks taken in the first round of the past 10 drafts — including Ward and Jaxson Dart of the New York Giants this season. Seven of those teams fired their coach during the rookie season of the quarterback with eight more making a change before the start of year two.
Only seven of those first-round picks finished their four-year rookie deals with the same coach, with the verdict still out on several members of the 2023-25 drafts.
Fields goes backward with the Jets
One of those first-round quarterbacks who had a coaching change before the start of his second season was Justin Fields with Chicago. Fields spent his rookie season in 2021 under Matt Nagy before playing the next two seasons for Eberflus.
Fields is now on his third team with the Jets and his game is trending in the wrong direction. Fields was sacked nine times and completed only nine passes in a 13-11 loss to Denver on Sunday in London, with the Jets finishing with minus-10 net yards passing thanks to the sacks for the lowest total in any game since the Chargers had minus-19 against Kansas City on Sept. 20, 1998, in Ryan Leaf’s third career start.
Fields had the 10th game since the merger with at least nine sacks and nine or fewer completions and is the first player to do it twice with it also happening in his first career start in 2021 for Chicago against Cleveland. He has one other start when his sack total matched his completion total when he had seven of each in a loss to Detroit in Week 17 of the 2022 season.
The only other quarterbacks this century with at least nine sacks and nine or fewer completions were Jay Cutler for Chicago against the New York Giants in Week 4 of the 2010 season and David Carr for the expansion Houston Texans against the Chargers in Week 2 of the 2002 season.
New York is the first team in 20 years to start 0-6 while averaging less than 150 net yards passing (144.2) with Houston averaging just 87.2 in the first six games in 2005 with the sack-prone Carr at QB.
The Jets have lost all those games despite holding a fourth-quarter lead in three of them: Week 1 versus Pittsburgh, Week 3 against Tampa Bay and last week versus Denver.
According to Sportradar, the Jets are the fourth team in NFL history to start 0-6 despite holding at least three fourth-quarter leads, joining the Buccaneers in 2013, the 1999 Detroit Lions and the 1953 Chicago Cardinals.
Race to the bottom of the AFC
There is a big crowd at the bottom of the AFC standings with four teams — Baltimore, Cleveland, Miami and Tennessee — tied for second-worst record at 1-5 with the Jets in last at 0-6.
This is just the third time since the merger in 1970 that a conference has had at least five teams at 1-5 or worse through five games with it last happening in the AFC in 1986 when four teams started 1-5 and the Indianapolis Colts were 0-6. The only other season it happened came in 1974 when five AFC teams were 1-5.
Steelers lapping the AFC North
The last three weeks couldn’t have gone much better for the Pittsburgh Steelers when it comes to their hopes of winning the division.
Pittsburgh beat Minnesota in Week 4 and Cleveland in Week 6 surrounding a bye and opened up a wide lead in the division thanks to the poor performance of the other three teams.
Baltimore, Cincinnati and Cleveland all went 0-3 in that stretch, marking just the third time since 2002 realignment that one team in a division won every game in a three-week span and the other three teams lost every game.
According to Sportradar, the only other times that happened came in 2012 in the AFC West when Denver went 3-0 and the rest of the division was 0-9 from Weeks 10-12 and in 2009 in the AFC West when the Chargers went 3-0 and the other three teams were 0-6, with each having a bye, from Weeks 7-9.
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