Gus Bradley - Pro Football Rumors

Jaguars Fire Gus Bradley

December 18th, 2016 at 5:05pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s fourth quarter comeback by the Texans cost the Jaguars more than a win. It also cost head coach Gus Bradley his job. The Jaguars have announced that they’ve relieved Bradley of his duties as head coach. Owner Shad Khan released a statement on the team’s website:

“I thanked Gus Bradley today for his commitment to the Jacksonville Jaguars over the past four seasons. As anyone close to our team knows, Gus gave his staff and players literally everything he had. Our players competed for Gus and I know they have great respect for him, as do I.

Gus also represented the Jaguars, the Jacksonville community and the NFL in nothing less than a first-class manner as our head coach. That counts for a lot. It is unfortunately evident that we must make a change. I thought it would be best to do it immediately after today’s result so Gus can step away, relax and regroup with his family during the Christmas and holiday season.

Dave Caldwell agreed and will now be charged with exploring all options to hire the best head coach possible to lead what I feel is an extremely talented team and reward a very loyal and patient fan base in Jacksonville.”

Bradley was considered an excellent signing by the franchise following his success in Seattle from 2009 through 2012. Serving as the team’s defensive coordinator, Bradley’s defenses improved during each of his four seasons. During his final season in Seattle, his squad allowed only 15.3 points per game, which was the best mark in the NFL.

“He’s got a brilliant football mind,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said at the time (via ESPN.com). “He’s got a way of reaching people and touching people and getting the best out of them, coaches and players alike. He’s got everything that you’re looking for.”

Unfortunately, that “brilliant football mind” didn’t translate to wins on the field. In his three-plus seasons with the Jaguars, Bradley compiled a 14-48 record. His .226 winning percent is the second-lowest mark in league history. This will be the second major change on the Jaguars coaching staff this season, as the team fired offensive coordinator Greg Olson back in October.

Fortunately for the Jaguars, it appears that Bradley is the only casualty at this time. Based on Khan’s statement, it appears that general manager Dave Caldwell will retain his job. The team hasn’t won more than five games since Caldwell was hired in early 2013, but the team has had some success in the draft. Blake Bortles, Allen Robinson, Aaron Colvin, Telvin Smith, Dante Fowler, Jalen Ramsey, and Myles Jack are among Caldwell’s selections.

ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter tweets that Caldwell is planning on announcing an interim head coach during tomorrow’s press conference. Both Jason La Canfora and PFT’s Mike Florio point to offensive line coach Doug Marrone as a natural fill-in. Marrone led the Bills to a 15-17 record between the 2013 and 2014 season.

Coaching Notes: Quinn, Belichick, Bradley

October 29th, 2016 at 9:55am CST by Ben Levine

Every team in the league could zero in on a specific position that needs an upgrade. However, most coaches, including Falcons head coach Dan Quinn, would prefer to roll with their own guys. With the Falcons sitting at 4-3, fans could surely find areas of the team to nitpick. Nonetheless, Quinn is content on moving forward with his current squad.

“I feel like we have a very competitive group,” Quinn told ESPN.com’s Vaughn McClure. “So, for us, we love the guys we have. Fortunately for us, the thing that I’m excited [about] — you guys know this, but I don’t get a chance to talk about it enough — is our practice squad. I feel like this is a group in waiting that we’ve got some guys that are anxious to go. We’ve moved some of them up already… There’s a number of guys, if called upon, would be ready. That’s why maybe I feel like I love the depth that we have with some of the guys. We’re already developing some guys right through it. That’s the preferred way.”

Let’s take a look at some more coaching notes from around the NFL…

McClure wonders if the Falcons may be inclined to change their opinion if Dwight Freeney‘s injury proves to be more serious than originally thought. Meanwhile, the writer suggests the team could look to deal some of their players, including cornerback Jalen Collins, for future draft picks.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick is typically active on the trade front, and the team even managed to pull off a pair of deals earlier this week. However, the head coach acknowledged that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to pull off these swaps. “I mean, you know, there are a lot of teams that don’t … they seem kind of reluctant to trade — this time of year, especially,” Belichick told Phil Perry of CSNNE.com.
Jaguars coach Gus Bradley provided an emphatic “no” when asked if his team’s 2-5 start could lead to changes on the coaching staff. However, Ryan O’Halloran of Jacksonville.com notes that the head coach didn’t necessarily endorse any of his fellow coaches, including offensive coordinator Greg Olson.
Some Jaguars players recognize that their coaches may be on the hot seat following a slow start to the season. “Gus will always take the blame as the coach,” wideout Allen Hurns told O’Halloran. “We’ve got to win. I’m worried [about him]. Everybody feels strongly about Gus. You try not to listen to it or let it get to you, but it is kind of impossible now. Hopefully, they’ll stick it out with him but we’ve got to find something to get this going.”

Gus Bradley’s Job Secure Through 2016?

October 26th, 2016 at 8:08pm CST by Sam Robinson

Jaguars owner Shad Khan addressed the team earlier this week in an attempt to address Jacksonville’s futility in what was described, via Mike DiRocco of ESPN.com, as a non-confrontational address.

However, another takeaway that appears to have emerged from the meeting: Gus Bradley‘s job could well be safe throughout the season. Due to an organizational philosophy under Khan that steers clear of in-season coach changes, the embattled fourth-year leader looks to have the rest of this season to stake his claim to the Jags’ job, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (Facebook link).

Rapoport adds a change could be made after the season if this spiral continues, and the Jags are coming off another embarrassing defeat, a 33-16 loss to the Raiders that saw multiple defensive starters get ejected and another penalized for a racial slur. The Jags are 14-40 under Bradley and 16-54 in Khan’s four-plus seasons as the owner, the first of which a 2-14 campaign in 2012 under Mike Mularkey‘s sideline leadership. Khan fired Mularkey and then-GM Gene Smith following the ’12 slate.

Khan asked several unspecified players their opinion of why the team is struggling, per DiRocco, and inquired what he could do to help the effort. Jacksonville is now 2-4 after receiving a decent amount of preseason hype.

“He said, ‘Hey, what can I do to help? Why have we gotten off to a slow start? What we can do to turn it around?’” a Jags source said, via Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union. “A lot of guys got up and talked, players and coaches and he sat back and listened. It was good. He didn’t make a bad thing worse.”

The former Seahawks DC would certainly be a Black Monday candidate at this rate regardless of the support Khan is showing presently.

Extra Points: Osweiler, Jags, 49ers, Bolts

October 24th, 2016 at 10:08pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Before the Broncos and Texans squared off Monday, Denver cornerback Aqib Talib revealed that the club’s players harbor resentment over quarterback Brock Osweiler‘s offseason departure. Osweiler joined the Texans on a four-year, $72MM deal in free agency after it appeared he would take over the Broncos’ offense from the retired Peyton Manning. “We believed in him,” said Talib (via ESPN.com). “We thought he was going to be our QB. We feel like he reneged on us.” Osweiler’s exit has so far gone swimmingly for the the reigning Super Bowl champion Broncos, who have gotten quality production from signal-caller Trevor Siemian at a minimal cost. Meanwhile, the high-priced Osweiler has been among the NFL’s worst starters in 2016.

Latest On Jaguars HC Gus Bradley

October 2nd, 2016 at 8:49am CST by Dallas Robinson

The Jaguars are not expected to fire head coach Gus Bradley even if the Jaguars lose to the Colts in London today, multiple team sources tell Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com. However, if Jacksonville continues to struggle throughout the season, the club’s ownership could revisit the situation.

Jaguars owner Shad Kahn has been “unfailing loyal” to both Bradley and general manager Dave Caldwell, according to La Canfora, and though several head coaches have been relieved of their duties following a sojourn to London in recent years, that doesn’t figure to be the case with Bradley. But if Jacksonville doesn’t show improvement as the campaign progresses, “drastic” moves could be on the horizon.

If Bradley were to be let go at some point, assistant head coach Doug Marrone would likely take over the top job, reports La Canfora. Marrone is the only member of the Jaguars’ coaching staff with head coaching experience, having led the Bills from 2013-2014. Jacksonville’s coordinators — Greg Olson (offense) and Todd Wash (defense) — have been limited to play-calling at the NFL level.

Bradley, 50, was hired as the Jaguars’ head coach prior to the 2013 season, and hasn’t delivered results in his three-plus years with the club. The former Seahawks defensive coordinator has posted a 12-39 record during his tenure, and is danger of starting 0-4 on the season if his club loses to the Colts today. In January, Bradley signed an extension through 2017, but the contract presumably wouldn’t dissuade Jacksonville ownership from making a change.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Extra Points: Coaches, Bell, Boykin

June 10th, 2016 at 8:32pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Here’s the latest from around the NFL:

Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports examined the job security of each NFL head coach entering the season. In La Canfora’s estimation, Rex Ryan (Bills), Gus Bradley (Jaguars), Jim Caldwell (Lions), Mike McCoy (Chargers), Marvin Lewis (Bengals), Bill O’Brien (Texans) and Jason Garrett (Cowboys) are the least secure coaches going into this year. Of that group, two (Lewis and O’Brien) were at the helm of playoff teams last season. Ryan has only been in Buffalo for a year, making him the shortest-tenured member of the septet.
Free agent running back Joique Bell told SiriusXM NFL Radio (audio link) on Friday that a few teams are interested in signing him. Bell added that he hopes to join his next team in July. The 29-year-old, who stated last week that he has “two or three offers on the table,” has been on the market since the Lions cut him in February.
One of Bell’s fellow free agents, cornerback Brandon Boykin, surprisingly can’t find work this offseason. One possible reason is a report that he has a degenerative hip problem – a rumor that Boykin blames Steelers defensive backs coach Carnell Lake for starting. Lake had a chance Thursday to walk back comments he made last week about Boykin’s hip, but he opted against doing so, as Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. “I made some comments that I had at fantasy camp and I’m not going to go back on that,” said Lake. “I wish Boykin all the best; he helped us when we needed him, and I wish him the best in his career.”

AFC Notes: Raiders, Walford, Cook, Jaguars

May 4th, 2016 at 7:54pm CST by Zachary Links

Here’s a look at the AFC:

Raiders tight end Clive Walford suffered a knee injury in an ATV accident earlier this offseason, as Mike Garafolo and Peter Schrager of FOX Sports write. Walford will miss spring practices and is expected to be back during training camp. The 2015 third-round pick gave everyone in the Oakland front office a big scare at first, but the injury is not as bad as many believed at the outset, Adam Caplan of ESPN.com tweets. Over his last 12 games last season, Walford caught 27 passes for 329 yards and three touchdowns. Prior to that, Walford had a bit of a slow start thanks to a bothersome hamstring.
Two NFL general managers partially blamed Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio for Connor Cook‘s slide in the draft, according to Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link). The MSU coach limits scouts’ access during practice which arguably made it more difficult for NFL teams to get a good sense of what the quarterback had to offer. Scouts particularly wanted to get a glance at how Cook interacts with his teammates and when they couldn’t see that in practice, they were forced to go off of hearsay. That slide probably benefitted the Raiders, who managed to draft Cook in the fourth round.
Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell says that this isn’t necessarily a make-or-break year for coach Gus Bradley, even though the team’s owner is expecting a winning season. “I think, for us, we’ve always targeted year four and year five in this building of this team,” Caldwell said on NFL Network (transcript from Mike DiRocco of ESPN.com). “We wanted to make good, safe, sound decisions and build a foundation for the first three years, and then take a little bit of risk this year going into year four. You saw that with the Myles [Jack] pick and some of our free-agent acquisitions, and we’re making a push for it. Coach Bradley and his staff, they do a great job and I think we just have to show improvement, continue to show improvement. I don’t know what that looks like in the wins and loss columns, but I expect good things and our best football is ahead of us.”

Sunday Roundup: T. Johnson, Long, 49ers

February 21st, 2016 at 12:42pm CST by Rory Parks

We recently heard the the Rams are considering using the transition tag on cornerback Trumaine Johnson, who is eligible for unrestricted free agency in just over two weeks. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com discusses why a team would consider the transition tag–which does not net a team any compensation when the tagged player signs elsewhere–when a slightly more expensive franchise tag would virtually assure the team of retaining the tagged player. As Florio writes, “Some may be doing it just to see what the player’s value is, knowing that if it’s too high they’ll let him walk. Others possibly don’t want the franchise tender to lay the foundation for a long-term deal.”

Florio, citing a league source, says that if Johnson does get the transition tag, he will not sign the transition tender. Instead, he will actively seek an offer sheet from another team, just as Alex Mack did in 2014 and Charles Clay did last season.

Now let’s take a look at some more notes from around the league:

Sheil Kapadia of ESPN.com takes a look at whether the Seahawks will pursue recently-released DE Chris Long, who has 8.5 sacks in 15 career games against Seattle as a member of the division-rival Rams. Long’s age and injury history suggest that he’s probably in line for a relatively modest deal, and given that the Seahawks are always on the lookout for pass rushing help, Kapadia suggests that Long could be a fit.
Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com says the 49ers‘ No. 1 priority this offseason is resolving the Colin Kaepernick dilemma, and he sets forth four ways in which the team could find that resolution. Right now, indications are that Kaepernick would like to resume his career elsewhere, and if San Francisco wants to move on as well, the 49ers can give Kaepernick permission to seek a trade and work out a restructured contract with another team before a trade is finalized. Alternatively, the two sides could work out a settlement in which the team releases him and is not on the hook for the $11.9MM he is owed in 2016.
The Jaguars do not plan on filling the vacancy that was left when they promoted Todd Wash from defensive line coach to defensive coordinator, according to Ryan O’Halloran of The Florida Times-Union. Instead, Wash will continue to coach the team’s defensive lineman, and head coach Gus Bradley downplayed any notion that his first-time coordinator would be stretched too thin.
D. Orlando Ledbetter of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution provides his ranking of the Falcons‘ top 12 unrestricted free agents. Given that O’Brien Schofield tops the list, it is clear that the Falcons’ pending free agents are comprised primarily of role players and reserves.
Jesse James, selected in the fifth round of last year’s draft, will get the first chance to replace the recently-retired Heath Miller as the Steelers‘ No. 1 tight end, as Mark Kaboly of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. After being inactive for the first eight games of the regular season, James saw limited action in the next ten, including the playoffs. The Steelers will likely add a tight end in free agency to complement James and high-upside practice squad player Xavier Grimble, even though the free agent class of tight ends is fairly weak. Ben Watson, who met with Pittsburgh during training camp a few years ago, is perhaps the best fit for the Steelers.

AFC Notes: Brady, Broncos, Jaguars

January 24th, 2016 at 8:09pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Tom Brady‘s season ended on a sour note Sunday when the Patriots dropped a 20-18 decision to Denver in the AFC title game. Now the 38-year-old will once again turn his focus to the Deflategate scandal that dominated headlines last offseason. As ESPN’s Mike Reiss writes, the NFL’s appeal regarding Judge Richard Berman’s Sept. 3 reversal of Brady’s four-game suspension will take place on March 3. If the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rules in favor of the league, Brady might have to sit out the early portion of the 2016 season.

More from the AFC, including a note on the conference champions:

Broncos safety Darian Stewart suffered a sprained MCL on Sunday, reports Troy Renck of The Denver Post (Twitter link). Stewart says he’s fine, though. “Hell yeah I will be ready for the Super Bowl,” he told Renck.
Despite signing a contract extension through 2017 this week, Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley is facing a make-or-break 2016 campaign, opines Gene Frenette of the Florida Times-Union. Jags players and prospective free agents are aware that Bradley is on the hot seat, according to Frenette, who believes the 49-year-old must win at least eight games next season in order to return in ’17. The Bradley-led Jags have gone 12-36 in three years. Despite only winning five games this season, a career best for Bradley, the team does finally appear to be trending upward.
Before Bradley promoted ex-defensive line coach Todd Wash to D-coordinator this week, Wash had to sit in on interviews Bradley conducted with other candidates. That made Wash “uncomfortable,” he told reporters (link via Hays Carlyon of the Florida Times-Union). “In the back of your mind, it’s human nature, you want to be the defensive coordinator,” he added.

Sunday Roundup: Manning, 49ers, Norman

January 24th, 2016 at 12:42pm CST by Rory Parks

In a few hours, we will know which teams will be heading to San Francisco for Super Bowl 50. In the meantime, let’s dive into some news and notes from around the league:

Although the story has largely fallen out of mainstream coverage, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports tweets that the NFL is still reviewing the HGH allegations surrounding Broncos QB Peyton Manning and that the matter is not yet resolved.
Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that new 49ers head coach Chip Kelly has been very noncommittal in his comments regarding Colin Kaepernick, suggesting that Kelly is less excited about the prospect of having Kaepernick run his offense than one might think. It is especially strange that Kelly claimed he could not discuss how Kaepernick might fit into his offense because it was against NFL offseason rules, when in fact it is not against league rules to discuss a player who is under contract. Of course, Kelly’s comments could just be a reflection of his guarded, introverted personality, but the lack of enthusiasm is still somewhat surprising.
The 49ers are still looking for a new defensive coordinator, and per Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (via Twitter), the team is interested in former Browns DC Jim O’Neil. Former Browns head coach Mike Pettine has said he wants to take the 2016 season off.
Panthers CB Josh Norman, an impending free agent, is set to cash in on his terrific 2015 campaign, and as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (article via Conor Orr of NFL.com) observes, Norman will likely seek a contract in the Richard Sherman/Patrick Peterson neighborhood (both of whom recently signed deals with more than $40MM in guarantees). The Panthers could, of course, put the franchise tag on Norman–at a value of $13-14MM–but Carolina should have around $20MM in cap space and does not have many other high priority free agents to worry about.
Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that the Steelers must improve their secondary in the offseason, but the problem is that they have few internal options that they can reasonably rely upon. The team may be forced to open its checkbook, and Bouchette thinks it would be wise for the Steelers to re-sign Brandon Boykin. He also names Eric Weddle as an intriguing possibility.
According to Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union, one of the reasons the Jaguars handed a one-year extension to head coach Gus Bradley was to avoid a situation like the one Chuck Pagano recently faced in Indianapolis. Pagano’s expiring contract, of course, created a season-long distraction that Jacksonville hopes to avoid.
Jordan Raanan of NJ.com compared the Giants‘ roster to those of the four conference finalists, and in so doing, he discovered the biggest problem that the team faced in 2015 and may continue to face moving forward. Although the Giants do not have enough homegrown talent, and although they need to get more production from their first-round draft picks, the most significant concern the team faced relative to the league’s more successful franchises is that it did not get enough production from its highest-paid players. Big Blue got nothing, or next to nothing, from three of its highest-paid players–Victor Cruz, Will Beatty, and Jason Pierre-Paul–which will make for some interesting decisions in the offseason.