This Jaguars coaching search has seen two top candidates — Ben Johnson and Liam Coen — bow out. With Trent Baalke’s presence again rumored to be causing issues in a coaching search, Shad Khan has changed course. 
Despite keeping the GM on to lead the search, Khan is firing Baalke, according to a team announcement. Baalke stayed on for five years in Jacksonville, moving to the GM role in his second offseason with the team. Although he looked to have survived after Doug Pederson‘s firing, the veteran exec is out.
“Following several discussions with Trent Baalke this week, we both arrived at the conclusion that it is in our mutual best interests to respectfully separate, effective immediately,” a statement from Khan reads in part. “Trent leaves us with my deepest appreciation for his efforts over the past five seasons. Ethan Waugh will serve as interim general manager and play an important role, with others, as we continue the process of interviewing candidates to serve as our new head coach.”
Baalke’s job security was a talking point during the campaign, one for which Khan held very high expectations. The Jags finished jut 4-13, though, creating an expectation that he would simply clean house in advance of the 2025 campaign. Pederson was dismissed on Black Monday, but many were surprised to see Baalke remain in place. On the other hand, Bovada’s Josina Anderson and The Athletic’s Dianna Russini note Khan was believed to be willing to still make a GM change this late in the hiring cycle under the right circumstances.
Baalke was viewed as a potential deterrent for the top head coaching candidates, and the fact Johnson and Coen have both elected not to take the job in Duval County is certainly an indication that proved to be true. In any case, those two (along with Mike Vrabel and Aaron Glenn) are off the market while the Jags prepare to take a different approach to their coaching search. Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and former Jets head coach Robert Saleh recently scheduled in-person interviews for the position.
In the aftermath of firing Pederson, Khan offered another vote of confidence in Baalke. The 60-year-old had GM experience prior to his Jacksonville arrival as a result of his time with the 49ers. Baalke served as San Francisco’s VP of player personnel in 2010 before a six-year run as general manager. He notably won a power struggle with head coach Jim Harbaugh during that time following the team’s run to Super Bowl XLVII. His Jags spell did not feature a repeat of that success.
During the four years with Baalke in place as GM, the Jaguars managed one playoff appearance and twice won fewer than five games. The fact he was authorized to make long-term commitments to the likes of Trevor Lawrence, Josh Hines-Allen and Walker Little suggested he still had runway to continue in his current position. Instead, Khan will pivot to new GM; Ian Rapoport of NFL Network confirms a head coach will likely be in place before a front office hire is made given the timing of this situation (video link). Rapoport adds coaches whose teams are still playing could be on Jacksonville’s radar, meaning the HC move may not be strictly down to Graham and Saleh.
Two of the NFL’s general manager vacancies have already been filled, with the Titans and Raiders landing new personnel to lead their respective front offices. The Jets do not have a new GM at the moment, but it appears Lance Newmark is on track to land that position. The Jaguars’ next general manager will likely report directly to Khan, with the same being true of the new head coach. Once that tandem is in place, it will be interesting to see what direction the franchise moves in since Lawrence’s presence will no doubt eliminate the option of a long-term rebuild.
Waugh spent time alongside Baalke in San Francisco, so it came as little surprise when he was hired to take on assistant general manager duties with Jacksonville in 2022. Waugh (who has a background in player personnel departments) will now have a role in the Jaguars’ search for a new general manager, something Khan will also be heavily involved in. A organizational setup will be in place in time for next season, but the means by which it will have been put together will no doubt remain a point of scrutiny for the franchise moving forward.
Sam Robinson contributed to this post.
LMAO guess nobody wanted the HC job
I love that the owner basically had to be literally told what to do by the rest of the potential candidates.
I worry for Jags fans with an owner like that.
L bozo
About time
lol. Took them long enough. I guess they needed all the top coaching candidates to turn their noses up at the job for them to take the hint.
lol
I guess Khan finally realizes that nobody wants to work under Baalke. They might have had a shot at Johnson or Coen if this move was made a month ago
If Khan had replaced Baalke with Belichick, who’s to say they wouldn’t have had the same candidates declining job offers?
Coen yes, Johnson no.
Roach GM couldn’t survive this time
As Tanya Tucker said: “Well it’s a little too late to do the right thing now.”
Wonder if Jags would like to hire Saleh as head coach but he wanted nothing to do with Baalke. Saleh worked in SF organization immediately after Baalke was released and would have had insight into that disastrous reign.
Saleh, Johnson, Coen…writing was on the wall.
A little late Shad Con
He’s going to make his son the coach. Lmao
Welcome Robert Salah….
Doug Pederson on line 1
Well, that solves one big problem. Number two problem, the big boys are already signed or have commitments to teams. We’re down to second tier coaches and guys on their third or fourth chances.
Having these bad teams like the Jaguars, Raiders, and Browns in your division must make things easier to not worry too much about those two games every year.
Shad Khan must have gotten my memo about firing Baalke if he has any hopes of getting anybody to take that HC job.
Here is from earlier this morning
3 finger split • 4 hours ago
Memo to Shad Kahn,
Until you get rid of Baalke nobody worth a damn is interested in coaching your team.
Signed,
Everyone
Owner seems to be clueless. He wasted close to a month keeping Baalke around.
This whole saga is Cowboys-esque ineptitude by Shad & the Jags
Would have been nice to do this right after the season ended. But better late than never.
Kahn would have been a nice side kick to Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther.
Too Late – JoJo
What a joke. Makes it so dang hard to be a fan of the organization. They came to the right decision… just a month too late to miss out on some of their top targets for HC. Should’ve happened on Black Monday.
I like his whole “Saddam’s not using it anymore so I will” look.