Question of the day: Who will be the first NFL coach fired this season? {Updated} | The Fabulous Forum | Los Angeles Times

Reporters from around Tribune Co. weigh in on the topic. Check back throughout the day for more responses and feel free to leave a comment of your own.

Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times

With all the labor uncertainty and the looming possibility of a work stoppage when the CBA expires in March 2011, NFL owners are going to be reticent to lock into long-term deals with coaches. So I think any coach fired this season will be replaced by an interim leader.

That said, Chicago’s Lovie Smith is most likely the first to go. He has been on shaky ground the last couple of seasons, and going by a first glimpse of the Bears, this could be a long one. Chicago survived its opener against Detroit, but only because of a wrong-headed rule about what is a reception and what isn’t.

Smith will be shown the door before Oakland’s Tom Cable or Cleveland’s Eric Mangini or Jacksonville’s Jack Del Rio, who need not check their mail slots for pink slips quite yet.

Dan Pompei, Chicago Tribune

We still are 15 games away from the end of the regular season and four months away from firing season, so it’s a little early to be determine whose failures will result in pink slips. But one coach who looks like he has been set up to be fired is Carolina’s John Fox. He is in the last year of his deal, and Panthers owner Jerry Richardson is allowing him to be a lame duck. 

By slashing the player budget, Richardson has made it difficult for Fox to look good this year. Richardson didn’t give Fox enough money to re-sign Julius Peppers, and he also forced Fox to purge other veterans who had been solid contributors, such as Chris Harris, Maake Kemoeatu, Damione Robinson and Keydrick Vincent.

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