5 numbers on why NFL history says firing Frank Reich won't help the Colts this season

The cries for Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Reich's job started on social media before halftime of Sunday's 24-0 loss in Jacksonville.

"@colts please fire Frank Reich time for him to go!!! Time to let em go!"

"Dominated in every aspect of the game. How do you NOT fire Reich tomorrow? If you are going to do it at the end of the year why do you wait?"

Others have pointed to Reich's winning record and the fact team owner Jim Irsay has never fired a coach midseason as reasons it won't happen.

There is no way to predict what will happen with the Colts and Reich but we can look back at NFL history and see what has happened.

Thirty-six coaches have been fired in-season since 2000. We will exclude Jon Gruden from the dataset since his resignation came as a result of homophobic and misogynist language he used in emails that went public, not his team's on-field performance.

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Here are five key numbers from the remaining 35 coaches:

0

Teams that made the playoffs after firing their coach during the season. This shouldn't be a surprise, coaches don't get fired if they're competing for playoff berths.

3

The fewest games a coach has coached in a season before being fired. Bruce Coslet was fired after losing the first three games in 2000 for Cincinnati. Three coaches have been fired after four games, and three others after five. The average number of games is 10.

10

More than a quarter of the coaches fired had a winning record with the team. Reich is 37-29-1, a .560 winning percentage. Five of the coaches in this dataset had better records: Mike Martz (.624), Mike McCarthy (.618), Dennis Green (.610), Wade Phillips (.607) and Dave Wannstedt (.575). Phillips (1-7) and Wannstedt (1-8) are the most relevant, getting fired during a horrific season after a successful run with their team. The fired coaches as a whole had a .474 winning percentage.

.062

That's the win percentage improvement of the replacement coaches, equivalent to 1 win over a 17-game season. Firing your coach midseason usually results in a better record -- 23 times -- but the improvement is marginal. Only 10 of the new coaches posted a winning record, the best was two games over .500.

11

The Colts are one of 11 teams to have not fired a coach midseason since 2000.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: NFL history says firing Colts coach Frank Reich won't help