NOVEMBER 18: Sunday’s lopsided loss has, as expected, left Pederson’s job status very much in the air. If a change on the sidelines is to take place, Bill Belichick remains a potential candidate to take over by the start of the 2025 season. On that note, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reports a partnership between Belichick and Baalke would be “highly unlikely.” How Khan proceeds over the immediate and medium-term future will certainly be worth watching closely regardless of whether or not a Belichick pursuit takes place.
NOVEMBER 17: Reports from earlier this week indicated that an in-season shakeup of the Jaguars’ power structure may be in store should Jacksonville suffer a blowout loss at the hands of the Lions in Week 11. In addition to head coach Doug Pederson, Jags general manager Trent Baalke could also lose his job if the Jags are outclassed by Detroit, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com confirms.
Owner Shad Khan publicly backed both Pederson and Baalke earlier this year, and he reportedly prefers to wait until the end of the season to pull the trigger on a coaching and/or front office overhaul. However, there is a very good chance that the 2-8 Jaguars, who are being quarterbacked by Mac Jones while Trevor Lawrence nurses a shoulder injury, will indeed lose in lopsided fashion to the 8-1 Lions, and Rapoport says the sense inside the Jaguars’ facility is that some sort of change is inevitable.
When addressing his team during training camp this summer, Khan made a statement that is aging more poorly with each passing day, noting that this year’s iteration of the Jaguars is the best in franchise history. Assuming he truly felt that way – and per Rapoport, rival clubs acknowledge Jacksonville sports a talented roster – then it would seem that Baalke, as the chief architect of that roster, would at least have a chance to remain in his position in 2025.
Indeed, when Pederson’s seat began to heat up in September, it was suggested that Baalke was on firmer footing than the head coach. On the other hand, the team’s fall over the last calendar year – the 2023 Jags won eight of their first 11 games and then lost five of their final six to miss the postseason – could be too dramatic for any of its top power brokers to survive.
Baalke, 60, served as the 49ers’ GM from 2011-2016, and during that time, San Francisco boasted 35 Pro Bowl selections and made a Super Bowl appearance. After head coach Jim Harbaugh departed at the end of the 2014 season, however, the Niners’ fortunes went south. The coaches that Baalke hired to replace Harbaugh, Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly, were one-and-dones, and the team went a combined 7-25 over the 2015-16 seasons. That led to Baalke’s ouster, and he spent the next several years as a football operations consultant for the NFL.
Baalke became the Jaguars’ director of player personnel in February 2020, was named interim GM upon Dave Caldwell’s firing in November of that year, and had his interim tag removed at the conclusion of the 2020 campaign. Even so, Baalke’s status as GM was believed to be turning off certain coaches during what became a long-running HC search in the 2022 coaching cycle, and the team interviewed longtime Vikings GM Rick Spielman for a non-GM position (but one that would have outranked Baalke). Although the Spielman hire never came to pass, rumblings about Baalke’s standing within the organization were still surfacing at the end of the 2022 season, the first year of the Pederson era.
While it has been reported that the relationship between Pederson and Baalke has become strained, Rapoport says that there is no in-fighting between the personnel department and the coaching staff at the moment. Members of both parties acknowledge that the club’s failure is a collective effort, and there is a “pall” and a “doom” hanging over the building as staffers brace for at least one ax to fall in short order.
Is there any active GM with a worse career drafting record than Baalke?
Trent is like that loser dude in a relationship who has no job, no house, no car, plays Call of Duty all day, and cheats repeatedly yet somehow his girlfriend won’t leave him. The fact he has a job at all says everything about the Jags.
Trent Baalke does not know and realize athletic ability. Khan should reflect on the Baalke / Harbaugh relationship. Harbaugh is a winning coach, because he played the game. Harbaugh understands every position and what type of player can fill the position. Baalke has not been successful in the NFL, and he will not succeed with the Jaguars.
He’s not great in the draft. And he has had trouble getting along with multiple head coaches when he’s in the power chair.
Like all bad orgs, the issues point back to the owner.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Bye Felicia
“If” they are outclassed?
Makes sense, the only better time to fire him other than today would be yesterday
Baalke shouldn’t even get a job as a janitor let alone somewhere running a football team
I disagree. Baalke has a lot of value to a football team in an oversight role. Just have him give his advice in a scenario, and then do the exact opposite.
Think Belichick goes to Jax.
Bad division, TLaw still has potential, talented roster and the defense needs a lot of work so he could be a fit there
Then be prepared for “4-13 Forever”.
Baalke’s career accomplishment was driving Harbaugh out of SF and replacing him with Sweaty Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly. Getting fired by the worst franchise in the NFL would be a fitting cap to this clown’s resume.
They may not make it until the end of this game.
this might be the worst jags tm in franchise history
clean house. draft Travis Hunter #1. and pray
Baalke is not able to see athletic ability, and who is best to know an athlete than a Head Coach, and there lies the problem. Baalke has a history of power struggles that spreads to the players. Recall the 49ers and Harbaugh. Khan must move on from Baalke if jaguars are to succeed.
Dude wasted a 6th round pick on Mac Jones who is the worst QB to run out on to the field any week he actually plays.
In all fairness, we don’t know how Trent Baalke (Jac) and Doug Peterson (Phi) had Mac Jones rated in the draft. They both could have very easy had the 2021 Pro Bowl QB and 2nd OROY rated very high and believe that a 6th rounder for an insurance policy at QB is a steal. They might fully even believe that the production drop for Mac Jones was do to the Patriots loss of Josh McDaniel’s to Las Vegas.
Yeah, and I don’t know if anyone actually watched the Lions/Jags all the way through, but Jones was definitely not the problem for the Jags. He actually fought the best he could in my opinion. Other than Brian Thomas and Evan Engram, none of the other Jaguars from the offensive line on down helped at all. The team really looked completely defeated early, minus those three-and eventually Engram got shut down, too.
Baalke ran Jim Harbaugh outta San Francisco and has other negative accomplishments such as choosing Travon Walker 1st overall. He needs to go along with Pederson whom the players have quit on obviously !
Why would BB go to Jacksonville? Makes no sense. Meddling owner who volunteers his team to go to London once or twice a year. Got to be hard on their already beat to heck bodies and now they’re going to be playing in Gainesville at UF for a year or two while renovations are being done on the Gator Bowl (or whatever they call it now). BB will not want the responsibility of being saddled with all that and The Incredible Human Mustache as an owner.
I think a selling feature for Belichick is that Khan may give him a personnel decision role like he had in New England. I can’t imagine a lot of teams would do that. If Belichick wants more power, Jacksonville might be the place to get it.
Nobody in the NFL wants to bring in a 70-something coach whose teams are best known for cheating and spying.
I wasn’t aware Jim Harbaugh was 70 years old 🙂
Well…….
The Raiders did just hired Norvel Turner at the young age of 72 as a Senior Advisor.
Let’s not forget that after “Them Boys” had their Super Bowl runs, Dallas was stripped of cap space for illegal cap and rules manipulation. That fine of cap space was equally distributed amongst the other teams, and even Jimmy Johnson has admitted that he videotaped signals the exact same way Bellichick did on his way to his own 2 Superbowl titles with the Cowboys.
It’s also a weak division, which matters much more than most other coaches or fans could consider. I also am leaning towards no for the answer, but for a different reason. While the team would be fairly to rebuild-it’s an already in flux and new coach wouldn’t have to redo a grounded system already-the time that it would take for Belichick to redress the whole franchise would be too much for a 73/74 year old man. I mean, how many years do we think that he has left?
Also, I don’t think Khan is as bad a meddler. If anything, he’s too patient with his coaches at times. Poor judgement? Absolutely. Meddler? Not sure. I could see Belichick there, some part of my instinct says that it’s possible, and we all know that Khan has been beyond desperate for a reliable coach for years, but the age component might be too much to overcome.
Good point about all the overseas football. Doesn’t seem to help a team at all. Looks like reading about the Jaguar in the 2020’s will be like reading about the Browns in the 2010’s. A neverending story of defeats and own goals, substance abuse and contract disputes. Painful, uninspiring.
Jaguars fans (if there are any left), save yourself while you can. Choose another franchise.
Brandon Scherff was born the year Washington last won a championship so that might be a good choice 🙂
At least there are the Joe Gibbs, John Riggins, Art Monk, Dexter Manley, Darrel Green years to look back at with pleasure.
The Redskins have never been as grim a trip for fans as those 2010’s Browns with first draft pick, single wins season after season. It was a literal nightmare, and I’m not a Browns fan and only had to observe from a distance.
Tough years ahead for Jags fans.
He holds his breath when he swipes his Jags ID to enter facility everyday … only a matter of time “Denied.”