THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Too many NFL coaches making head-scratching decisions

It’s just amazing how so many NFL coaches don’t know what they’re doing.

Despite being aided by huge staffs — no team has less than 17 assistant coaches — at least a couple dozen of these guys are flailing around in the dark.

Oh, a note on the number of assistants…

Bill Belichick has that smallest number of 17 at New England, and one of them is his son.

Are we surprised?

On the other end of the coaching spectrum was Bill O’Brien, fired Monday as coach AND general manager of the Houston Texans because, well…

Because a Domino’s delivery guy couldn’t have done worse in those jobs.

Consider that O’Brien gave cornerback Aaron Colvin a $34 million extension after the 2018 season and cut him after one game the following year.

The Texans have a bona fide franchise quarterback in Deshaun Watson and the highest payroll in the NFL (just over $250 million), yet they finished last season by blowing a 24-0 lead in the playoffs and have started this year 0-4.

DID WE mention that O’Brien traded DeAndre Hopkins, one of the best wide receivers in the game, for a running back (David Johnson) who was a dynamite threat at Arizona but has taken too many hits to offer much in Houston?

Hopkins already has caught 39 passes from Kyler Murray for 397 yards through four games.

Case closed.

But who will take over O’Brien’s two jobs with the Texans?

Maybe they should call Domino’s.

O’Brien’s foolishness in Houston is unmatched, but plenty more head coaches probably should keep their resumes handy.

Vic Fangio in Denver has already proven he doesn’t know how to manage the clock, and…

Hey, Vic, what good are all those assistants if they don’t help you call a timeout?

Meanwhile, Adam Gase of the Jets may not last the season, either.

The Jets have committed 11 personal foul penalties in four games (all losses) and gave up seven first downs by penalty in a single game.

Gase admitted after seven-first-down fiasco: “We need to look at that.”

In response, former Raiders CEO Amy Trask went on CBS Sports, noted that Gase had mentioned taking a peek at the penalty situation, and said: “You think?”

Her summary of the Jets’ penalty spree…

“It’s a sign of bad coaching.”

Don’t sign a long-term lease, Adam.

BESIDES these guys who clearly need to find another line of work, it baffles me that even the good coaches make silly errors.

My pet peeve is the notion of deciding not to punt on fourth down with a yard or less to go.

Just in the last week, Green Bay, Kansas City and the Seahawks all rolled the dice and “went for it” on fourth down.

All three teams have future Hall of Fame quarterbacks — Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson — and also now have a combined record of 12-0.

The skills of those QBs and all those wins are directly connected, obviously.

Yet on fourth-and-short, I watched each team try to slam a running back straight up the middle and get stuffed.

Watching those failures, I was reminded of a quote from the legendary coach Paul Brown, who was asked why running back Jim Brown was given such an extraordinary number of carries.

The coach replied: “I’ve always believed that if you have a big gun…shoot it.”

So back to these teams ploughing uselessly at the line of scrimmage.

They each have a spectacular, transcendent player at quarterback, so why not shoot the big gun?

I CAN’T speak for Rodgers and Mahomes because I don’t see them every week, but I do know that Wilson has about a 99 percent success rate in short yardage situations — faking to a running back, rolling out and lobbing the ball to a wide-open receiver.

More to the point, don’t you want your most talented player to handle the ball in any critical situation?

Did anyone but Michael Jordan ever take the last shot?

If you fail, at least they stopped your best.

Actually, those fourth-down situations come to mind because the one play that ALWAYS works is a quarterback sneak.

The Chiefs’ Andy Reid says he won’t call it for fear of injury to Mahomes (who gets clobbered just after releasing a pass too many times to mention).

Injuries?

Belichick had Tom Brady sneak it on fourth and short every time, and TB12 seems to have survived the experience with his career intact.

Maybe there’s a reason Belichick has all those Super Bowl rings.

He isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel.

Oh and he wouldn’t trade DeAndre Hopkins, either.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball, once per month during the offseason.