Jaguars Failed Search

This really started on January 14, 2021, when the Jacksonville Jaguars hired former Ohio State Head Coach, Urban Meyer, as the sixth head coach in the franchises history. Many people, including myself, did not expect the hire to go well.

Almost every where Meyer has gone, controversy has followed. They could make an entire documentary on his time as the head coach of the University of Florida, and it would not be a positive look for Meyer.

I did not expect everything to go the way it did, as fast as it did in Jacksonville. I feel it has been well documented how everything in Jacksonville went, so I do not feel the need to dive into that.

Not even lasting a whole season, Meyer was fired on December 16, 2021.

The Jaguars had almost a whole month head start on the coaching search, with only the Raiders as the only other team with a head coach opening at that time. Meaning, the Jaguars had a lot of time to do a good, thorough search. It may have been thorough, but it was not that good of a search.

The team was well positioned to get whoever their top choice of a candidate was. Between being in a good situation with regards to their cap, having the first overall pick (again), and of course Trevor Lawrence.

There was one negative that seemed to be a turn off for many candidates who interviewed with the Jaguars, General Manager Trent Baalke.

The same GM who is 10-39 when Jim Harbaugh is not his head coach. Owner Shad Khan's allegiance to Baalke might have cost them the best candidate - specifically Buccaneers Offensive Coordinator, Byron Leftwich.

Leftwich was once drafted by the Jaguars to be the teams savior back in 2003. It seemed like this was a job Leftwich really wanted, and to be honest he deserved to get it. However, like other candidates, he appeared to have reservations about Baalke.

It was heavily rumored that Leftwich wanted to bring his own general manager on board with him, with former NFL Safety and current Arizona Cardinals Vice President of Pro Scouting, Adrian Wilson, coming to the forefront of those rumors.

If you asked me, Khan should have caved to those demands from Leftwich. Leftwich was arguably the best candidate on the market, and I am firm believer that if you fire a head coach, you should do a clean sweep (in most instances) and fire the general manager as well.

Baalke just has not been good enough as a general manager to be willing to risk doing further damage to your team, and more importantly your quarterback.

This is a team that has been left with a bad stench. The culture in Duvall is toxic at the moment, and in order to rid of a toxic environment you must get rid of everything that is making it toxic.

For a minute, it seemed like Leftwich was going to be named the next head coach. Obviously he was not, and if Khan is that adamant about keeping Baalke, I do not blame him. Chances are he will only get one chance at being a head coach, and I wouldn't want to attach my future to Baalke either.

The entire process was a mess for the Jaguars. After the Leftwich situation fell through, it seemed like the team was starting back at square one. They attempted to put in a request to interview Rams Offensive Coordinator, Kevin O'Connell, but because he was not in their initial round of interviews, the Jaguars would've had to wait until after the Super Bowl to get in a first interview.

O'Connell has since been "unofficially" named the next HC for the Minnesota Vikings.

If Owner Shad Khan really did care about getting the right people in the building, and making sure it was done right this time around, he would not have attached the future of the Jaguars to Trent Baalke. This entire cycle has just been another example of the circus and clown-show that is the Jacksonville Jaguars.

They may have gotten a solid hire in former Eagles HC, Doug Pederson. But with the way the process went, was he really who the team wanted, or did the settle? That is nothing against Pederson for he was a good coach in Philadelphia. He won the teams first ever Super Bowl. That said though, it felt like there were, and still are, better candidates out there.

Only time will tell if the Jaguars made the right choice or not. But with how much optimism there was around the future of this team just a few weeks ago, as of today it seems like Duvall may be in for some more long days ahead.