Three weeks isn’t usually enough time to decide the future of an NFL head coach, but patience disappears quickly when expectations aren’t being met. As Week 4 approaches, these three coaches have considerably more to worry about than another number in the loss column.
Jim Harbaugh has something most coaches sitting at 0-3 wouldn’t have: a résumé that buys him time.
Harbaugh has won everywhere he’s gone, from Stanford and San Francisco to Michigan and Los Angeles. His reputation alone should keep the Chargers from making any irrational decisions three games into the season.
But the reality is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Los Angeles is 0-3 after Sunday’s 24-16 loss to Buffalo. Somehow, the Chargers forced five turnovers against the Bills and still couldn’t win the game.
The offense has been particularly troubling. Justin Herbert and company haven’t looked anything like a group capable of competing with Kansas City in the AFC West, and the Chargers now head into Week 4 as the division’s only winless team.
Harbaugh’s name carries enormous weight in football. At some point, though, the Chargers need the current version of Harbaugh to start producing results instead of relying on everything that came before it.
How much longer can Green Bay be satisfied with being pretty good?
Matt LaFleur has been the Packers’ head coach since 2019. He’s won plenty of regular-season games, but Green Bay has repeatedly watched promising seasons end without reaching another Super Bowl.
LaFleur is just 3-6 in the postseason. Last year’s playoff appearance ended with Green Bay blowing a 21-3 halftime lead against Chicago.
Now even the regular season isn’t providing much comfort.
The Packers are 1-2 after getting embarrassed 35-14 by Atlanta at Lambeau Field. It’s the worst three-game start of LaFleur’s eight seasons in Green Bay, and the NFC North no longer looks like a division the Packers can expect to control.
At some point, playoff appearances and winning records stop being enough. Green Bay has invested in Jordan Love and given LaFleur years to build around him.
If this season continues sliding toward mediocrity, the Packers will eventually have to ask whether LaFleur is still the coach capable of taking them somewhere they haven’t been since 2010.
Todd Bowles may have the least room for error of anyone on this list.
Tampa Bay is 0-3 after Sunday’s loss to Minnesota, and the situation became even worse when Baker Mayfield suffered a dislocated thumb that will sideline him for at least three weeks.
The Buccaneers have already made their long-term commitment at quarterback. Mayfield signed a lucrative extension this offseason, meaning Tampa Bay has decided who it wants leading the offense for the foreseeable future.
The same security doesn’t necessarily extend to Bowles.
Tampa Bay isn’t committed to keeping the same coach around Mayfield if the losses continue piling up. If the organization believes Mayfield is its quarterback but the current staff isn’t getting enough from him or the roster surrounding him, changing coaches becomes the obvious lever left to pull.
Bowles now has to navigate a winless start without his starting quarterback.
That may earn him some sympathy. It won’t necessarily earn him another season.