Per Jason La Canfora: Bill O’Brien is on the hotseat

Bill O’Brien is on the hottest of the coaching hot seats according to CBSSports.com’s Jason La Canfora.

CBS Sport’s Jason La Canfora rates NFL coaches into 5 categories according to their likelihood of being fired. His top category is Mercury, closest to the sun, hottest of the hot. Bill O’Brien is included in that hottest tier.

Jason La Canfora? You may remember him from his 2014 scoop, Rick Smith was being pushed from the general manager position. Of course that didn’t happen as Smith still holds his post for the Houston Texans.

Then there was his 2015 scoop; Bill O’Brien was seriously considering the University of Maryland head coaching job. That was quickly debunked.

Next was his opinion regarding the 2016 free agency acquisition of Brock Osweiler. Rick Smith and Bill O’Brien blew it. Did the two debunked scoops contribute to this negative opinion?

Last week La Canfora rated quarterbacks. It’s no surprise he had Osweiler rated in the lowest of his experienced quarterback categories, the “…these guys will get the coach fired” category. The only way to be assigned below Osweiler was to have never stepped onto an NFL field.

Now he has Bill O’Brien in the hottest tier of his interplanetary scale, Mercury. Does the reader detect a trend yet? We may conclude that Jason La Canfora is not a Smith-O’Brien-Osweiler-Texans fan and let it go at that.

But let’s go a step further to examine the support La Canfora offers for his latest rating. First he ties O’Brien’s fate to Brock Osweiler’s success in the first two guaranteed years of Osweiler’s contract. That’s logical. I posted a similar opinion. The difference between us is that La Canfora projects that Osweiler will fail.

Unexplained is why O’Brien is placed in the worst category, the coaches that are most likely to be fired after or during the 2016 season. La Canfora has a better category for coaches who must perform in the next two or three years.

Apparently La Canfora’s logic for the lower rating comes from his statement that O’Brien obscured how bad the 2015 roster was by overcoming a terrible start and driving the Texans on a 2nd half tear. That’s right. Bill O’Brien first became vulnerable by coaching so well that his team overcame a lack of talent to reach the play-offs. That from the world of Jason La Canfora.

Next: Ranking AFC South Units: Offensive Lines

Rest easy O’Brien fans.