Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Mike Shanahan, coach of the Washington Redskins, finished the season 3-13. He was fired on Monday.

The N.F.L. did not wait until black Monday to begin its annual wholesale dumping of coaches. The Cleveland Browns were so eager to fire Rob Chudzinski — only a year after hiring him and despite the franchise's needing so much more than the next coach in a revolving cast — that they beat the rush by announcing it Sunday night, fresh off their 20-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Many fans expected the Washington Redskins' owner, Daniel Snyder, to act just as quickly to kick Mike Shanahan to the curb after his 3-13 season sputtered to a close, but Snyder waited until at least most people had breakfast Monday to render that verdict. Shanahan's stormy 24-40 tenure included three seasons with double-digit losses and the questionable handling of the talented quarterback Robert Griffin III.

Chudzinski was not the first coach fired, thanks to the Texans barely waiting for Gary Kubiak to recover from a mini-stroke to render him unemployed in early December, but he was the first in the procession of what it expected to be a grim Monday. The Vikings got on board quickly by axing Leslie Frazier after a 5-10-1 season left him 21-32-1 in his three-plus seasons with the team.

At least Frazier got more than one season to turn around a franchise mired in irrelevance. Chudzinski was 4-12 in his first go-round as head coach, but considering the Browns have won more than five games only once in the past eight seasons, he hardly seems like the root of the problem.

There could be as many as eight coaching casualties in a busy day of firings. The watch is on in Detroit, where the Lions' discipline problems could spell the end for Jim Schwartz after a 7-9 season with several ugly collapses. The Dallas Cowboys' owner, Jerry Jones, holds the future of Jason Garrett in his hands after the Cowboys slid out of the playoffs at 8-8 with Sunday night's loss to Philadelphia. Tampa Bay could go either way on Greg Schiano after a 4-12 debacle included some positive signs toward the end of the season.

Jacksonville could go the route of Cleveland and fire a coach after one year after Gus Bradley's debut ended 4-12 and the Jaguars were outscored by a league-high 202 points. Bradley was the Seattle Seahawks' heralded defensive coordinator when he was hired last January. The Jaguars, however, might not want to be hiring a third coach in three years, and Bradley at least did better in his inaugural outing than Mike Mularkey did last season in going a franchise-worst 2-14.