16 seasons ago, the Rooney Rule was instituted in the NFL. At the time there were just two African American head coaches in the NFL: Tony Dungy of the Colts and his former assistant, Herm Edwards of the Jets.

Today, there are… just three African American head coaches in the NFL.  Mike Tomlin, hired by the Steelers in 2007, Anthony Lynn, hired by the Chargers in ’17, and newly-hired Brian Flores, who comes to Miami after a stint as the linebackers coach and de facto defensive coordinator/play caller in New England in 2018.

One big reason that Tomlin and Lynn are still around: they went to teams with Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers. Other minority head coaches — and, of course, white coaches — haven’t been nearly so lucky.

There has been a lot written over the last two months about the lack of African American head coaches in the NFL, especially after five were fired in the last few months. This is a complicated topic with a simple reality: African American coaches have been stuck with bad quarterbacks and subsequently fired.

Arizona’s Steve Wilks was fired after one season with Josh Rosen at quarterback, who was the worst statistical passer in 2018. Denver’s Vance Joseph was fired this year after winning 11 games in two seasons in Denver with Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch and Case Keenum as his quarterbacks. Cleveland’s Hue Jackson was finally fired in 2018 on the basis of a 1-31 mark in ’16 and ’17 with Cody Kessler, Josh McCown, and a 21-year-old DeShone Kizer. And in New York, Todd Bowles was fired after four years with the Jets, coaching Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh McCown, Bryce Petty, and a 21-year-old Sam Darnold.

In other words, these four coaches didn’t inherit a Roethlisberger or Rivers. Marvin Lewis joined them on the chopping block this year, but he’s a unique case after 16 years in Cincinnati (and he also had one of the worst quarterback situations in the NFL, in terms of salary cap dollars and production). What about the other African American coaches hired since the Rooney Rule was instituted?  Let’s look at all of them:

• Jim Caldwell was fired in 2017 after four years in Detroit. You might say he inherited a good quarterback, and you’d be right, but consider that during those four seasons, Matt Stafford and the Lions went 36-28; the former number one overall pick has a record of 30-47 over the rest of his career.

• Lovie Smith was hired by the Bucs in 2014, but wasn’t able to get enough out of Josh McCown (yes, him again) and Mike Glennon in 2014, or a 21-year-old Jameis Winston in 2015, to keep his job.  With Tampa Bay worried that OC Dirk Koetter was going to leave following the 2015 season, the Bucs fired Smith and promoted Koetter to head coach.  Koetter was fired last month after three years as head coach in Tampa Bay.

• Leslie Frazier was fired after the 2013 season in Minnesota, after 35 games of starting Christian Ponder.  GM Rick Spielman, who drafted Ponder, survived and remains in that same position today.

• Jim Caldwell was fired in Indianapolis after the 2012 season, a zombie quarterback year for the Colts where Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky took most of the snaps.  Caldwell went 24-8 in the other two seasons, albeit with one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

• Lovie Smith had a long run in Chicago — he went to the Super Bowl with Rex Grossman and reached the NFC Championship Game in 2010 — but lost a power struggle in Chicago to new GM Phil Emery and was fired despite going 10-5 with Jay Cutler in 2012. For what it’s worth, Cutler went 34-22 in four seasons under Smith and 40-57 for the rest of his career.

• Romeo Crennel was the Chiefs defensive coordinator in 2011 and was promoted to head coach after Todd Haley was fired in December.  Crennel’s Chiefs beat the 13-0 Packers in his first game, and the interim tag was removed after the season.  But after one year where Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn each started 8 games, Crennel was fired following the 2012 season.

• Raheem Morris was fired after the 2011 season after three years in Tampa Bay, where he oversaw 40 starts from a very young Josh Freeman. The GM who overdrafted Freeman (who was a bad passer in college), Mark Dominik, remained in Tampa Bay for two more years.

• Mike Singletary replaced Mike Nolan as the 49ers interim head coach midway through 2008, and then was hired as the full-time head coach in 2009.  He was stuck with a not-yet-solid Alex Smith at quarterback — Smith was the worst passer in the NFL before Singletary arrived — and was fired in 2010, despite overseeing the development of a roster that would make it to the NFC Championship Game a year later and the Super Bowl the year after that.  Singletary went 18-22 in San Francisco, while his predecessor went 18-37.

• Romeo Crennel was fired in 2008 after four years with the Browns where Derek Anderson, Charlie Frye, and Trent Dilfer received 57 of the 64 starts.

• Herm Edwards  second stint in the NFL was with the Chiefs, and he inherited a 36-year-old Trent Green who wound up only starting the first 8 under Edwards.  The last 40 starts in Edwards’ 3 seasons in Kansas City went to Damon Huard, Tyler Thigpen, and Brodie Croyle.  Unsurprisingly, Edwards was fired after the 2008 season despite doing his best to work a miracle with Thigpen.

• Art Shell was hired and fired in Oakland in 2006, after watching 8 starts of Andrew Walter and an 0-8 showing by Aaron Brooks in his final NFL season.

• Dennis Green was hired by the Cardinals in 2004, and saw Josh McCown (yes, really, he has gotten 4 African American head coaches fired) and a rookie Matt Leinart start 30 games in 3 years (along with 3 starts going to John Navarre and Shaun King).  Green also had Kurt Warner start the remaining 15 games, but this was still during the down phase of Warner’s career (he went 3-12 in those starts). Green was fired after the 2006 season.

• Herm Edwards was already the Jets head coach when the Rooney Rule was instituted, but a 4-12 season with Brooks Bollinger (2-7) and a 42-year-old Vinny Testaverde (1-3) signaled the end of his tenure in New York. Chad Pennington (1-2) had been injured in ’04 and rushed back for week 1 of the ’05 season despite recovering from rotator cuff surgery; he never looked healthy in ’05, and was shut down and had the surgery again after three weeks.  After the 2005 season he was traded to Kansas City amid rumors that the Jets were going to fire him and Kansas City would hire him.

The list of failing African American head coaches is filled with bad quarterbacks, or coaches who couldn’t win enough with the Staffords, Cutlers, and Alex Smiths of the world. Lynn and Tomlin should be fine for as long as they have Hall of Fame caliber quarterbacks, while Flores is going to have to hope the Dolphins finally find their franchise quarterback in 2019.