Things have not gone well for the Jaguars this year. Urban Meyer failed to make it through his first year as an NFL head coach, No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence has the second-worst QB rating among qualified passers, and the club has mustered just two wins against 11 losses. The good news, as Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes, is that the Jacksonville head coaching job is considered a desirable one, and many candidates who are expected to be hot commodities in the upcoming coaching cycle are anxious to secure an interview with owner Shad Khan.
That is largely because of Lawrence, who is still considered a generational talent despite his rookie struggles. Former Eagles HC Doug Pederson is reportedly interested in the post, and Patriots OC Josh McDaniels and Bills OC Brian Daboll might also be attractive options for Khan given their recent work with young signal-callers. One way or another, Khan should not have any difficulty luring a top candidate to Duval, though he obviously needs to get this hire right.
Here are several other coaching-related items:
- Jaguars interim HC Darrell Bevell will have a chance to have the interim tag removed and interview for the permanent head coaching gig. He does have Lawrence’s support, but his candidacy will depend on how the team’s offense performs down the stretch. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com expects Ravens DC Don Martindale — the architect of the Jags’ Joe Cullen-led defense — to be in the mix as well (Twitter link).
- We recently heard that the Texans are expected to retain head coach David Culley for 2022, but GM Nick Caserio is at least considering his options, per La Canfora. Culley, a 66-year-old coach who had spent his entire career as an assistant, was the most surprising hire of the 2021 cycle, but as Houston was (and is) in the midst of a complete rebuild, the club was perhaps looking for more of a caretaker than anything else. Caserio is rumored to have his eye on one unnamed candidate for the next phase of the rebuild, and it’s not difficult to connect the dots to McDaniels. The Houston HC job may not attract many in-demand candidates for 2022, which means that Culley could get one more year at the helm. However, if McDaniels does not land his own head coaching post in the coming months, he and Caserio could reunite in Texas in 2023.
- No surprises here, but La Canfora, in the same Culley piece linked above, says many assistants on Bears HC Matt Nagy‘s staff are operating under the assumption that they will need to find new employment at season’s end. It has been assumed that Nagy will be terminated after the season is over, though La Canfora leaves open the possibility that Nagy could get his walking papers before then so that Chicago can get a head start on the interview process.
Can’t think of ONE reason why the Bears should wait until the end of the season to fire Nagy AND Pace.
I mean, we’re the Bears, so I guess that’s a reason in and of itself
The more pressing move is the Pace firing imo. They both need to be gone this year for sure, but Pace needs to go now now because otherwise how can the Bears get a headstart on the coach hiring when they don’t even know who the GM is going to be? Maybe they could do a simultaneous hiring as part of a collaboration/package deal type thing, but if George and Ted are leading that they’ll flub it for sure. Fire Pace, get your structure figured out, hire the football guys, then let them pick the head coach. This should be obvious, but this is the Bears we’re talking about, so most likely they’ll screw it up and the top candidates will be off the board before they’re actually in the position to make a head coach hire.
Pace is going to be side shifted in the organization. He might get to interview his boss, though.
Yeah there seems to be some smoke about that kind of thing. I think that would be a mistake. If he wants to accept a clear demotion (ie a scouting role or player personnel role) where he has no real decisionmaking authority I would be okay with that. But there also seems to be some talk that he could replace Ted Phillips (ie he gets a promotion) and get to hire a GM who handles the day to day. That would be a disaster–a clear example of failing upwards.
Believe he wild only get the Director of Pro Personell position. As much as people want to blame Phillips, he supposedly doesn’t have or shouldn’t have anything to do with the football side of it. What they need to do is hire a football czar and have him in charge of all football operations. Wouldn’t surprise me to see Ted retire soon since the acquisition of land for a stadium is the coup de grace of his tenure. The new finance guy whether it’s Havel or someone else should report to the football czar. Doubt it matters in the long run when the team sells to new owners and they will sell most of the kids want money not a football franchise.
Well we are always looking for new ways to fail.
Ted has to go also and to restructure the whole front office unfortunately takes time. You have to find a football minded President who should be able to hire his GM. And that GM should be able to hire his head coach.
Two pronged attack, get the football czar and bring in a coach a maybe bring a GM who has the trust of both. Finance side shouldn’t effect the football side.
Denver needs to make a change, the 7-6 record doesn’t tell the story.
Yeah…after losing their entire linebacking corps and multiple other starters across the board, Fangio actually has the Broncos within some sort of striking distance of the playoffs. Denver needs a new offensive coordinator and QB coach more than it needs a new head coach.
The only problem with the Jags job is Shad is an incompetent owner.
I’m probably too cynical but I think the majority of owners are incompetent. That they allow Goodell to be their commissioner supports that notion. They all are business people who unlike owners in past decades have no football acumen. A few owners are smart enough to put people in the front office who have some football sense and can do the important thinking…but those are in the minority.
You aren’t in the football as a sole way of doing business time anymore. It’s all going to end up as part of a bigger corporation in the long term.
It’s SO WEIRD..the media told me Jacksonville would immediately be contenders, and their golden boy Lawrence would immediately play to his HoF future now that evil Urb is no longer holding them down. Someone must have forgotten to tell the Texans..yes, THOSE Texans..
Swept (or will be swept) by the Texans this year, says enough.
If you’re already running a similar style of defense as Martindale under Joe Cullen, I don’t really see the point of making that hire.
Rather, I would target someone like Daboll or Bienemy to work with Lawrence, as both coordinators have done well with Allen and Mahomes, respectively
If Pederson wants to coach again after a year off any team would be crazy not to hire him