-11

We're two games under .500, we lost a game by 31, but somehow, we've only been outscored by 11 points. That's kind of insane.

 

Two of our six wins are against teams currently inside the playoffs. Another was a road win against the defending Super Bowl champs (we've done this in consecutive seasons).


Whatever. This team's probably not as far off as we think.

 

Under Rivera, assuming we don't beat the odds and sneak in this year, we've made the playoffs 4/8 seasons. Only two NFC teams have bested this. Green Bay (6/8) and Seattle (5/8). 50% is the same exact number of playoff appearances as New Orleans and Atlanta in that timespan. We have the same number of playoff wins as New Orleans over the last eight years (3). We're the only NFC South team to not have consecutive losing seasons over the last five years. We're only one of three teams to make the playoffs four times in a five year stretch within that eight year times span (SEA and GB).

 

Under Rivera, we've also had three winning seasons. Next year we're going to have another though.

 

I'm still leaning about 60/40 towards making a change, but the case for keeping Rivera is not a weak one at all. I just wanted to highlight that.

 

I'm pretty conservative in that I don't like change and think it should be careful and deliberate. But the numbers are against him, and at some point you have to admit that if you keep doing what you've been doing, you will keep getting what you've been getting.

 

Yeah, the case against him is that we've leveled off dramatically since 2015. We're exactly .500 over the last three years. I haven't blamed Ron for that until this year. It's been a bad coaching job from the start.

 

Before 2015 he was 32-31-1. That 15-1 season makes him look a lot better than he's been.

 

Well however you want to dissect it, a 50% playoff rate is actually very good in the NFL. It's hard to make the playoffs. We've actually been better at it than most teams under this coach.

 

This is pretty spot on. I’ve screamed for his head many times before this year. And a team must be careful when making a change at HC. But consider this:

We have had FIVE losing streaks of at least five games under RR

He had mismanaged his staff. Mismanaged his QB. Mismanaged countless games. And most importantly (to me) mismanaged the Super Bowl. I appreciate all he has done for the team and city. But to me, it’s time to move on.