Happy New Year: Green, Mora fired

Dennis Green couldn’t get the Arizona Cardinals into contention. Jim Mora couldn’t keep the Atlanta Falcons in contention. Both are now unemployed.

The first two coaching dismissals after the NFL season came quickly. Less than 24 hours after their teams concluded losing campaigns, the Cardinals canned Green and the Falcons fired Mora.

No one expects the flood of movement that occurred a year ago, when 10 head coaching spots changed hands, but Monday indicates this could be a painful January in the precarious profession.

“In the final analysis, when you look at the three years of wins and losses, we didn’t win enough games,” said Cardinals vice president and general counsel Michael Bidwill, son of owner Bill Bidwill.

Green was 16-32 as the latest failed coach for the Cardinals, who have had one winning season in 22 years.

Bidwill believes it won’t be difficult to find a replacement, and he identified six candidates, including former Packers coach Mike Sherman, now the assistant head coach of the Houston Texans. Sherman will be in Tempe, Ariz., to interview Thursday.

Interviews have yet to be scheduled for Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, Titans offensive coordinator Norm Chow, Colts assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell, and two Steelers assistants: Russ Grimm, assistant head coach/offensive line coach, and Ken Whisenhut, offensive coordinator.

Mora, whose father Jim was a longtime NFL coach, was a 49ers assistant when he was hired by Atlanta in 2004. The Falcons went to the conference title game that season, losing at Philadelphia, but then were 8-8 and 7-9. In the last two seasons, they collapsed in the second half of the schedule, going 4-13 combined.

“I’m proud of the many things we accomplished here over the last three years … although our main goal was to bring a Super Bowl back home to the great fans of Atlanta, and we fell short in that area,” Mora said.