Browns fire Mike Pettine, 49ers fire Jim Tomsula

Black Monday doesn't begin for a few more hours, but a couple of teams have gotten a head start on the action by firing their head coaches on Sunday night.  The San Francisco 49ers announced that they have fired Jim Tomsula, while the Cleveland Browns announced that they fired Mike Pettine.  The Browns also fired general manager Ray Farmer, though owner Jimmy Haslam said Sunday night that they will hire a new head coach before a new general manager.

The moves figure to have an impact on the Colts, as it means two more coaching jobs have now come open.  Though the moves were to be expected, it still gives the Colts some competition in the form of more openings as the Colts will almost certainly begin their own coaching search on Monday.  Chuck Pagano is expected to be let go at that time and the Colts will then begin searching for another coach, joining the 49ers, Browns, Eagles, Titans, and Dolphins as head coaching openings.  The Colts' job will have a strong draw to candidates in the form of a franchise quarterback, Andrew Luck, so we will see how the search ends up.  But the Browns and 49ers have now thrown their name into the mix for potential coaches who will be looking for a head job.

Jim Tomsula was hired by the 49ers last year to replace Jim Harbaugh, a massive dropoff that was evident early on.  Tomsula seemed in way over his head at times this year as the 49ers struggled to a 5-11 record.  Tomsula served as the 49ers' defensive line coach for eight seasons before being hired as head coach, so he may be able to find another job coaching the position somewhere in the league, but Tomsula won't be in the consideration for any of the head coaching jobs.

Mike Pettine was hired by the Cleveland Browns in 2014 after serving as the defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills the year before (and the defensive coordinator for the New York Jets from 2009-2012 before that).  Pettine received two full seasons in Cleveland, which is a rarity of sorts for a dysfunctional organization - current Colts offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski received just one season.  Pettine was 10-22 in two seasons with the Browns, including a 3-13 campaign this year. The talent level on the team isn't great either, which is part of the reason why Ray Farmer was fired as well.