As of noon Monday, three NFL head coaches had already been given their walking papers. The Lions said goodbye to Rod Marinelli after a winless season. The Browns, who haven’t scored an offensive touchdown since leaving Buffalo, whacked Romeo Crennel. And Eric Mangini took the fall for the Jets’ late-season collapse.

Three other coaches were dismissed during the season: The 49ers’ Mike Nolan, the Rams’ Scott Linehan, and the Raiders’ Lane Kiffin. As you might recall, the last two were let go soon after losing to the Bills, which seems even more of a firing offense in retrospect.

Meanwhile, Ralph Wilson and his “inner circle” were huddling in Detroit, determining the fate of Dick Jauron. More than 3,000 fans from around the globe had taken part in our on-line poll, and 90 percent said it was time for Jauron to go.

Of course, the Bills operate by a different standard than, say, the Jets. Mangini went 23-26 in three seasons [including one playoff loss], two games better than Jauron in the regular season over the same period. In his first season, he got to the playoffs. This year, the Jets were flying high at 8-3 until Brett Favre hit the wall, and they lost four of their last five to fall out of the playoffs.

Evidently, that dramatic win over the Bills, the one where Jauron called the rollout for J. P. Losman, wasn’t enough to save Mangini. We’ll soon know whether that call, along with countless other game-day gaffes, will cost Jauron his job.

It’s hard to predict what Wilson will do anymore. Last week, he said he was giving Tom Modrak, his vice president of college scouting, a larger voice in football decisions. Why would Modrak, who turned down a chance to be general manager in the past and works out of Florida, suddenly gain more power? Wilson said it was no knock against Russ Brandon, the chief operating officer and nominal head of the football operation. But Brandon can’t be thrilled about it.

Maybe Wilson wanted a veteran football guy to tell him what he wants to hear: That Jauron has the team on the right track and they should honor that three-year contract extension. Or maybe Wilson wants advice on which assistant coaches to threaten.

That’s always a possibility with Ralph. He has a history of tossing assistant coaches into the volcano when the heat is on the head coach. Remember, that’s how he got rid of Wade Phillips (nice finish by his Cowboys, by the way). Wilson ordered Phillips to fire his special teams crony, Ronnie Jones. Wade refused and was gone. To this day, Ralph insists Phillips quit and that he shouldn’t have been forced to pay him off.

Wilson fired offensive coordinator Mike Sheppard after Gregg Williams’ first season. He fired five of Mike Mularkey’s assistants after the 2005 season. Mularkey quit a week later, leaving a three-year contract on the table.

So we might be looking at a similar gambit by Wilson. There’s speculation he’ll order Jauron to fire one or both of his coordinators to appease the masses. But there’s no way Wilson should get away with that. I can’t see Jauron going for that sort of deal. He’s supposed to be a man of dignity and principle. If he sacrifices an assistant coach to save his own skin, he’ll lose all remaining respect with Bills fans. He has to be bigger than that.

If the Bills keep Jauron, it’s an endorsement of his three years as head coach. You don’t re-sign a coach and scapegoat people at the same time. They’ll have to smile, tell the public the team is heading in the right direction, and bring back the whole staff.

That’s the box they’ve put themselves in. Wilson hates paying off coaches. He’s capable of squeezing Jauron by demanding that he fire someone. If that happens, I can see Jauron resigning for the good of the team.