The 5 most fireable coaches of Week 15: Vance Joseph was just 3 kids in a trenchcoat this whole time

Back in November, Broncos general manager John Elway took a long look at his 3-6 team, squinted hard, and told the world he was pleased with head coach Vance Joseph’s progress. Joseph took those woteards to heart, beating the Chargers and Steelers and putting Denver in prime position to steal away the AFC’s second Wild Card spot.

It was a healthy rebound for a talented roster. At 6-6, the Broncos had cleared the runway for a return to the playoffs for the first time since Peyton Manning was their quarterback. Games against the 49ers, Browns, and Raiders gave the team a clear path to nine wins before a home game against a Los Angeles team they’d beaten on the road weeks before. In an uneven AFC, Denver looked like the conference’s safest bet to steal its final playoff berth.

This did not happen.

Instead, Denver painted the bowl in Weeks 14 and 15, losing to San Francisco and its third-string quarterback on the road and Cleveland at home. The Broncos are all but eliminated from playoff contention thanks to an offense that saw opportunities against the league’s 29th and 24th-ranked scoring defenses and put up 30 combined points.

Joseph’s inability to will his team to a win was on full display in the fourth quarter. The Broncos trailed 17-13 with under six minutes to play when they faced a fourth-and-1 situation from the Cleveland 6-yard line. The second-year head coach saw that four-point deficit and bravely decided to go for three, setting up the eventual 17-16 margin of defeat that would deal the death blow to Denver’s playoff hopes.

“I want points there,” Joseph told reporters after the game. “We had one timeout and the two-minute warning, so I trust our defense to get a stop there. If we don’t get points there, a touchdown has to win it. It was my decision to take the points.”

But Denver got that stop, with some help from Gregg Williams’ clock management and decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the Broncos’ 10-yard line. And even with Joseph’s best laid plans, Case Keenum wasn’t able to rally his team for a game-winning touchdown.

To wit: Joseph didn’t trust his offense to gain one yard late in a four-point game. But he did trust it to drive 40-50 yards into field goal range after a defensive stop even later in that game. That makes almost zero sense, but at least he’s still got his players on his si— oh no.

Joseph wasn’t the only guy torpedoing his own employment chances for the offseason.

The Cardinals took on the Falcons in a battle of disappointing bird-based teams, and Wilks’ Arizona team barely made an effort to give Atlanta the premier draft slot it deserves after an injury-riddled season. The Cardinals scored the game’s first touchdown, then were washed away in a tsunami of ennui as the Falcons then scored the next 40.

On Sunday, his rookie quarterback got sacked six times in 28 dropbacks, leading Wilks to throw his hands up and insert living scarecrow Mike Glennon into the lineup. In 11 passes, Glennon recorded a passer rating three times higher than Josh Rosen’s, which is a testament to Wilks’ inability to develop his young franchise passer in any meaningful way. Rosen needed 22 passes to throw for 132 yards Sunday. His two-interception performance gives him more games with multiple INTs (four) than with none (three).

Any flashes of progress by the former UCLA star have been quickly erased under Wilks’ watchful eye. Or, as my colleague Charles McDonald put it:

This is an immensely depressing season for Larry Fitzgerald, a Hall of Fame wide receiver playing out what may be his final year as a pro as part of the league’s saddest offense. The 15-year veteran is currently on pace to set career 16-game lows in both receptions and receiving yards despite leading his team’s wideouts in catch rate this fall.

On the plus side, undrafted rookie receiver Trent Sherfield might be pretty good!

In this, the year of our lord 2018, the two starting quarterbacks for an actual, real life NFL game were Josh Johnson and Cody Kessler. Johnson, originally drafted in 2008, had never won as a starter since ...uh, ever. I want to write about this game just as badly as you’d like to read about it, so we’ll move on and agree it was all just a fever dream that never actually happened.

So let’s talk about Washington instead. How do you judge Gruden’s 2018? He started out the season 6-3, though the only win over a likely postseason competitor in that span came against a disheveled Cowboys team. He’s 1-3 since losing Alex Smith to a leg injury so severe all recorded evidence should be sealed away in a vault designed to never open, but how do you judge a guy who had to rely on Colt McCoy, Mark Sanchez, and Johnson this fall? Do you ding him for not better shoring up his QB rotation since Smith has only played a full 16-game season in three of his 12 years as a pro? Or do you roll your eyes but feel quietly impressed that he won an NFL game with Josh by-god Johnson throwing 25 passes and handing off to a 33-year-old Adrian Peterson 19 times?

I dunno man. Washington’s weird this year.

The Jets nearly played spoiler in a competitive Saturday matchup against the AFC South-leading Texans, but Bowles’ refusal to accept some risk late in the game nearly derailed New York’s valiant comeback effort. Trenton Cannon’s third-and-1 run midway through the fourth quarter appeared to gain enough yardage to give his team a new set of downs at the Houston 24-yard line. But officials marked him short, and Bowles, hesitant to burn a timeout on back-to-back plays even with a winnable review on his hands, kept his challenge flag in his pocket.

Texans coach Bill O’Brien, however, was feeling charitable.

O’Brien called timeout before the Jets could fire off a fourth-and-1 play, giving Bowles some extra time to ask for a review. He ultimately decided against it, leaving his team’s fate in a 19-15 game in the hands of an offense that just got stuffed in a short-yardage situation the play before. New York would convert the first down and ultimately score a touchdown to take a short-lived 22-19 lead — but that’s as close as the Jets got to victory in Week 15.

Statistically, Jeff Driskel was still better than Josh Rosen.