5 NFL Head Coaches With Their Jobs On the Line in 2013

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5 Head Coaches on the Hot Seat

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Every season, coaches go through the grind of a 16-game season and the lucky ones get to play more than that in the postseason. Some head coaches emerge as the best in the league at what they do while some falter and underperform with the team they are given.

Some teams have a hard time keeping coaches, like the Oakland Raiders, while others have a hard time getting rid of the ones they've had leading their team for quite some time due to a successful past and passable present. Bill Belichick may be the best coach in the league right now with three Super Bowl wins and 205 career wins, becoming a household name with the New England Patriots.

Tom Coughlin is another coach that front offices wouldn't dare to fire. He is a future Hall of Fame coach and has a couple Super Bowls under his belt with his eye on a couple more.

Jim Harbaugh and John Harbaugh are two of the best up-and-coming coaches and, interestingly enough, the two brothers faced off against each other in the 2013 Super Bowl. I'm sure if there was some type of head coaching brothers record, these two will obliterate it before it's said and done.

There are other coaches who aren't so lucky, however, and find themselves on the wrong track, headed straight for unemployment.

Some of these coaches are obvious because they have inherited solid teams and turned them into mediocre money-eaters while others have just turned their team into a circus, looking for media attention instead of wins -- a big no-no.

Here's my list of five head coaches who should be on the hot seat in 2013.

Connor Muldowney is a columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Connormuldowney, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google. You can also reach him at [email protected].

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Ron Rivera, Carolina Panthers

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John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Rivera inherited a 2-14 team in 2011 and has improved the Carolina Panthers since then, going 13-19, but he might need to lead this team to the playoffs before he is cut loose. Not having won an NFC South title since 2008 is something that the Panthers' front office wants to change. If Rivera can't lead them to the promised land in 2013, he will be out of a job.

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Jim Schwartz, Detroit Lions

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Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Jim Schwartz has a record of 22-42 since inheriting the head coaching job for the Detroit Lions in 2009. You might be wondering how he still has a job with a career-record that is 20 games below the .500 mark, but it can be classified as a given, seeing as he took over a team that went a miserable 0-16 in 2008. Turning that team into a playoff contender in two seasons isn't too shabby. However, he took a step back in 2012 and needs to make another playoff push or he will be out of Detroit.

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Jason Garrett, Dallas Cowboys

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Jason Garrett took over the pressure-packed Dallas Cowboys' head coaching position in the middle of the 2010, leading the Cowboys to a surprising 5-3 record in their final eight games. However, the Cowboys have only been able to muster eight wins in both the 2011 and 2012 seasons, good for third place finishes in the NFC East each season. Garrett needs to lead "America's team" to the playoffs this season if he wants Jerry Jones to be okay with the decision to keep him as the head coach after his interim stint in 2010.

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Rex Ryan, New York Jets

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Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

Rex Ryan doesn't really need any type of explanation as to why he's on the hot seat but I'll provide one anyway. Let's see, he has started a terrible quarterback for the past few seasons without really giving anyone else a shot. He's turned the New York Jets' locker room into a circus. He is just a flat-out nut. I guess those are enough to call for this guy's job. Oh, and not to mention the fact he has never won an AFC East title and has missed the playoffs in two straight seasons. What about the fact he got his poor, and maybe less-poor of the two options, starting quarterback injured in the fourth quarter of the Jets' third preseason game. Yeah, he could be in trouble.

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Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati Bengals

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Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

You may be asking why Marvin Lewis is on this list when he has led the Cincinnati Bengals to the playoffs in three of the past four seasons. Well, the guy has yet to win a playoff game in 10 seasons as the head coach of this team and his two division titles in that time-span may not be enough to keep him longer than the 2013 season if he doesn't produce. He has an unbelievably talented squad on his hands for the 2013 season so he better make the playoffs and win a game or he will surely be gone.

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