The firing of Urban Meyer by Jaguars owner Shad Khan was the culmination of an unprecedented season of bad decision making, structural mistrust, and lack of communication or basic people skills.
From the complete mishandling of the Trevor Lawrence vs. Gardner Minshew quarterback “competition,” to getting grinded on at a bar by a college girl after not flying back with his team from an away game, from literally kicking one of his players, to challenging the résumés of his assistant coaches in team meetings, what Meyer just did in Jacksonville has never and will never be matched again as long as the NFL exists.
The dichotomy of two organizations is on full display this weekend when the Jaguars face the Patriots in Foxboro. One organization has been in perpetual perrill pretty much since its inception in the 1990s, and the other has had a top-down communication structure and rock solid culture for the last 20 years. But the usher of that culture, Bill Belichick, may not be in charge by the time Mac Jones’ second contract comes around.
The Meyer situation will never happen in New England. Not only because the Krafts aren’t stupid enough to hire someone like Meyer in the first place, but like I said before, the a situation as out of hand as that of Meyer and the Jaguars is way to unusual to repeat. But could a situation similar to other distasteful cultures happen in New England? Surely.
Just looking at the potential list of Belichick successors, some have already built cultures of distrust elsewhere: Josh McDaniels in Denver and Bill O’Brien in Houston. One would like to think McDaniels has learned his lesson and has developed as a human and as a leader in the decade since the Denver fiasco. A clean handoff between Belichick and McDaniels with the rest of the structure around the head coach remaining intact would make for an easier transition. Same could be said with Steve Belichick or Jerod Mayo. But someone like O’Brien is almost guaranteed to come with some baggage, as what he put together in Houston isn’t nearly as egregious as what Urban Meyer did in Jacksonville, but the owner did support O’Brien for seven years through it all. That, and the defense was really good.
Even if someone like O’Brien ended up in New England, this isn’t Fisher Price “My First NFL Team.” Patriots fans can rest assured knowing the Krafts would not let a situation like that of Meyer get as out of hand to the point that it did.
Here are three more aspects of the Jacksonville Jaguars to keep an eye on this Sunday...
Mittah Bevell
Jaguars interim head coach Darrell Bevell has been through the ringer in the NFL. Offensive coordinators serving under defensive-minded head coaches have to deal with the head coach imposing whatever their own philosophies are onto the offense – and defensive-minded head coaches often make up the ranks of some of the most Jurassic-minded coaches in the NFL.
Bevell has served under two of them: Pete Carroll in Seattle and Matt Patricia in Detroit. Say what you want about Carroll as a defensive mind and a leader of men, but his offensive philosophies are absolutely garbage in the modern NFL. For a team to have Russell Wilson and, in the last few seasons, some of the lesser offensive lines the league has seen with not much of a defense to play complementary football, Carroll’s insistence on running the ball as much as he did (one of the lower run-pass splits in the league year after year) is staggering. The same can be said about Patricia, who famously insisted on a 50/50 run/pass split for no reason other than the numbers looking good?
Meyer is offensive-minded, but he and general manager Trent Baalke have worked hand in hand to undermine the play action-first mentality of Bevell’s play-calling, which was on full display in his stint as interim head coach with the Lions following Patricia’s firing. It will be interesting to see how Bevell does with Lawrence over the next couple weeks, but it’s unlikely he’ll have a real chance at being the next head coach of the Jaguars.
The Other One
Taven Bryan. Josh Allen. K’Lavon Chaisson. The Jaguars have spent premium draft picks on their defensive line every year until this past draft. We’ve seen this method of drafting pan out a few times, most notably with the Buccaneers, who believe it or not had a good defense for a couple seasons prior to Tom Brady’s arrival, as well as the 49ers during their run to the Super Bowl in 2019.
It’s yet to really pan out for the Jaguars. Allen is on the cusp of being a superstar but the unit as a whole is bottom ten in most categories – not shocking due to how poorly coached they are. But the sheer amount of talent in the group sometimes puts it together for a game at a time, namely earlier this season when they held the Bills to only six points. It's difficult to see this happening against the Patriots, but never say ever.
Homegrown
One department in which the Jaguars, and just about every other team in the NFL, have out-drafted the Patriots is wide receiver. What’s especially notable for Jacksonville is that they consistently hit on these players outside of the first round, even going back to Allen Robinson and Dede Westbrook (if Westbrook is a “hit”). D.J. Chark, who has been on injured reserve for most of this season, was a second-round pick, and Laviska Sheanult was also a second-round pick, but in last year’s draft. Even finding gems like Gardner Minshew and undrafted free agent James Robinson are notable for Jacksonville. One may say these examples are not much, but the current homegrown skill position players of the Patriots isn’t much to show for.