I decided to reverse the order of the question for reasons that should be obvious to those who read my case.
Reasons to keep him:
1) He still has the locker room. The players seem to toe the line and there hasnt been any reported dissatisfaction with his coaching, other then an isolated incident on Hard Knocks during his rookie offseason. These are not unusual for new or even old coaches. Twice the Ravens locker room leadership has had a sitdown with Harbaugh over his practice habits, once in 2012. Basically, nothing out of the ordinary as far as players commitment goes.
2) Cause. While a head coach owns his record, Philbin hasnt been the biggest cause for losses: talent has. When this team is able to execute his game plans, we seem to win. If the other team stops our execution or if we have an off day, we dont have the talent to roll with the punches and pull out a win. That speaks to talent. Which is the arena of the general manager.
3) Staff. Mike Sherman was obviously a bad hire...if you look at it from a team wide perspective. As far as easing our franchise quarterback into the league, then that hire was acceptable and even laudable. Kevin Coyle has elevated the play of our defensive backs, much like he did for the Bengals. Dimitri Patterson is not a good player, but because of coaching he has played extremely well for us in a position he hasnt played much at(he was resigned in Cleveland to be their nickle corner, not starting corner).
4) Practice habits. Philbin was praised for introducing new concepts during practice. For example: quarterback/offensive drills in which he got more plays fired off by lining up our teams differently.
Reasons to go:
1) Outside of our secondary, the play of our players hasnt risen in any sort of dramatic fashion. This team still makes the same mistakes it did under Tony Sparano. The players that performed well under him(Wake) perform well under this staff. The players that struggled under Sparano still struggle under this staff. In fact, of late we have noticeably struggled in areas that used to be positions of strength(run stopping). Which is to say nothing of areas of weakness that still havent improved(o-line).
2) No victories to hang his hat on. We've played up to the level of some opponents and down to the levels of others. During that time, we havent had a decisive victory for this coaching staff to point to and say "this is what happens when you buy into what we are selling". Sure, we clobbered the Raiders and Jets last year, but those were some of the worst teams in the league. We beat the Colts this season, but we scrapped by. In the time Philbin has been here, we havent dropped +35 points on, say, the Patriots like Sparano did during the Wildcat game. We havent slapped around a contender. Despite that lack of "hallmark win", we have had some positively embarrassing losses. Losing to a practice squad quarterback and the Mike Glennon/Bobby Rainey Bucs have been extremely discouraging.
3) Scandal. No need to go into this, but some things have been inexcusable no matter what side your on: letting a headcase become a leader, not knowing whats going on in the locker room, etc.
4) Game day mistakes. We still have trouble with our clock management and we still dont make the right calls on challenges. Some of our substitutions and play calls are horrific(Daniel Thomas should never be given another stretch play, ever). Granted, while all teams make mistakes, its fairly inexcusable for this staff to be making the same mistakes they did a year ago. That is not a good sign.
5) Perception. If fans are questioning why everyone in the former "leadership council" is no longer around, then you can be sure its come up in the locker room. It doesnt really matter if it was Ireland or Philbin who did that, the stigma is attached to Philbin. That can create a lack of trust and a lack of communication between the players and coaches.
6) There is no reason to hamstring a future regime with this coaching staff. While it is not Philbin's fault Ireland filled this roster with crappy and overpaid players, Philbin had to know there was a possibility he would go down with the ship if things started to falter. That possibility was clear to everyone. No one forced him to take the job. No one even forced him to interview for the job. He gambled on his own abilities and he could lose big. I believe the average time a coaching staff has is 2 years to show noticeably improvement. Thus far, we havent shown that. In fact, we could end up worst then we were last season, by quite a bit.
For my closing argument, i could point out the negatives outweigh the positives, but instead i'll focus on one fundamental of the NFL: can we improve with a new coaching staff? The answer is clearly yes. If players can be cut or replaced through no fault of their own by a better acquisition, then that same standard can be held to the coaching staff. Joe Philbin simply hasnt done much to earn our loyalty other then being hired in the first place. While he is not a bad coach and even good in some areas, he does have enough poor qualities to make us all question if he can win a Superbowl. If he is not a special coach, if he has not clearly shown special qualities, why should we waste the time? The answer is: we shouldnt.
