Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas
As of the moment I'm writing this, Atlanta coach Mike Smith has a 92-percent approval rating in our SportsNation poll.
The thing that jumps out at me there is, what are the other eight-percent thinking? Smith's taken a team that was supposed to be among the dregs of the NFL and made it a playoff contender. Is Bobby Petrino doing some voting in his spare time?
Anyway, Smith still tops the approval ratings in the division. But Carolina's John Fox, who started the season on the hot seat, is only a point behind. The Bill Cowher fan club has stopped its weekly meetings in Charlotte.
After Smith and Fox, there's a big drop off. Tampa Bay's John Gruden is at 74 percent. Yeah, you can question some of Gruden's moves and the Bucs haven't always been pretty, but they are 6-3 at their bye week.
Although he's in the middle of the pack overall, New Orleans' Sean Payton is at the bottom in the division. He's at 68 percent. The irony here is that the guy who preceded him, Jim Haslett, has a 72 percent approval rating with the Rams.
Yasinskas joined ESPN.com in January 2008 after covering the Carolina Panthers for The Charlotte Observer for nine seasons. He began his journalism career with The Tampa Tribune in 1990.
