First NFL coach fired odds entering Week 3: Vikings' Mike Zimmer new favorite with winless start, seat of Giants' Joe Judge warming quickly
There's a new betting favorite to be the first NFL coach fired this season.
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Following the Minnesota Vikings' Week 1 overtime loss in Cincinnati, CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora reported essentially that Coach Mike Zimmer probably was going to be fired by ownership if the team didn't make the playoffs this season. Well, Zimmer's seat only got hotter in Week 2 as the Vikings were 34-33 losers in Arizona, although it certainly wasn't his fault that kicker Greg Joseph missed a 37-yard field goal in the final seconds. That has put Zimmer on the NFL's hottest seat, just ahead of the Giants' Joe Judge. SportsLine offers updated odds on the first NFL coach fired this season/to leave his position.
"I think today was encouraging, honestly, about the heart that we played with today, and the fight that we played with today," Zimmer said following the Cardinals loss. "If we play like that, we'll win a lot of games. They may all come down to like this, like the last two have. As long as we do that, we keep fighting and keep trying to get better, and keep working together, sticking together as a football team, then I think we've got a chance."
In 2018, Minnesota cut kicker Daniel Carlson just two games into the season, but apparently Joseph's job is safe for now; Carlson has become one of the league's top kickers with the Raiders.
Minnesota looked completely undisciplined against the Bengals with 12 penalties for 116 yards. Against the Cardinals, that was cleaned up in a big way with only three penalties for 16 yards. However, Zimmer's specialty is defense. That unit was torched last year on the way to a 7-9 record and has been little better this year in allowing 30.5 points and 420.0 yards per game. The Vikes focused heavily on that side of the ball in the offseason.
To make the playoffs, the Vikings are +225 and -280 to miss. It's very rare that teams starting 0-2 play extra football. From 1990 to 2019, only 12 percent of teams to go 0-2 made the playoffs. Last year, the playoff field was expanded by one wild-card team in each conference and no teams that started 0-2 made it. Minnesota is a 1-point underdog for its home opener this Sunday against Seattle.
As for the Giants' Judge, his specialty is special teams – he was formerly the special teams coordinator with the Patriots – and yet that unit cost New York a win on Thursday in Week 2. Washington kicker Dustin Hopkins missed the winning 48-yard field-goal try as time expired, but the Giants' Dexter Lawrence was offside. Hopkins then nailed the winning 43-yarder on an untimed down.
Judge's seat will be scalding hot if the Giants (0-2) lose Sunday as 3-point home favorites against the also-winless Atlanta Falcons, who have been outscored a combined 80-31 under first-year coach Arthur Smith.
Via SportsLine oddsmakers: Who will be the first NFL coach fired/leave his job?
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