The Jaguars are at an all-time low.
Never mind their 2020 season where they lost 15 straight games after winning in Week 1. Their 2021 season is arguably their worst in franchise history.
That says something when you take into account that this is a team that constantly struggled to win games.
In theory, Urban Meyer was expected to turn things around, but the team was left in worse shape than it was when he inherited it.
Even with Meyer gone, the organization is still in dysfunction, leading to hundreds, if not thousands, of Jaguars fans changing their social media profile pictures to the clown emoji with team owner Shad Khan’s signature mustache. They started replying to every Jags post or live feed with countless clown emojis. They even donned clown costumes when the Jags hosted the Colts in Week 18.
“I mean, I don’t know what they’re talking about very much, but I do understand the frustration that they have,” said interim head coach Darrell Bevell. “There’s a level of frustration here within the building. The players are frustrated, we’re frustrated with what’s going on, and we want it to be better as well.”
Forget about them beating the Colts. Forget about Trevor Lawrence’s solid performance. What Jags fans were trying to do was to persuade Khan to fire general manager Trent Baalke, whose reputation and mistakes were under the microscope since NFL Network reported that Baalke would come back in 2022 and help with the team’s coaching search.
It’s problematic because Baalke’s resume included three consecutive NFC Championship Game appearances with the 49ers, from 2011 to 2013, and reports that he was a problem behind the scenes when working with former NFL head coaches, which included Meyer (2021), Jim Harbaugh (2011-14), Jim Tomsula (2015), and Chip Kelly (2016).
When Baalke took over the Jaguars, he inherited a team that had the 1st overall pick (Lawrence), five of the first 65 selections in the Draft, and about $100 million in salary cap. Somehow, he made the Jags even worse and a bigger laughingstock in the league than it has been during Khan’s dysfunctional tenure.
It was just four years ago when the Jags were in the AFC Championship Game, blowing a 10-point 4th quarter lead, losing to the Patriots in that game.
Now their playoff appearance feels like ancient history, because the Jags have gone 14-50 ever since. Included in that record is a 20-game losing streak spanning from Week 2 of the 2020 season before its end in Week 6 of the 2021 season, a 17-game skid on the road, and a 16-game skid against NFC teams.
Now here they are in search of a new head coach since the Urban Meyer experiment failed miserably. Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, and Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich all reportedly declined to interview with the Jags during the final two weeks of the regular season, which leaves many people wondering if Baalke’s presence is a problem.
Chances are, it likely is.
Even Myles Jack acknowledged the dysfunction within the franchise and how it had a negative effect on the players, leading to them often making mistakes:
There’s not one person in particular, but it’s just kind of been a thing where we shoot ourselves in the foot, you know what I mean? Like we’ll be getting a drive and then maybe we don’t get a stop on third down or maybe the offense has a hiccup and may sit back and second along like we just can’t beat ourselves. And I’d say that this disorganization that dysfunction leads to us beating ourselves.
When on the field, the Jags can’t seem to get out of their own way, from busted coverages, too many men on the field penalties, turnovers, and dropped passes.
Of course, Jack is not going to mention any specific game, nor is he going to call out any particular coach. He is a professional football player, but he is also a human being. Just like anyone else in a toxic environment, he was going to see a drop in production.
He had to be in a work environment where players were not treated like human beings and Meyer questioned his own staff’s credentials.
Even so, Meyer’s actions contradicted his own words, as he was looking for a way out and was not even holding himself accountable.
It’s part of the reasoning why the perceptions of the Jags are at an all-time low, even lower than the debacles surrounding Tom Coughlin and Jalen Ramsey. Meyer’s tenure on and off the field irked players, coaches, agents, and scouts not only within the Jags but around the NFL.
The Jags had to do damage control following the firing of Coughlin, and they’re going to have to do that same damage control after the disaster that is Meyer’s tenure.
The NFLPA even warned free agents against signing with the Jags during Coughlin’s tenure, and one focus of the 2020 offseason was for Doug Marrone and Dave Caldwell to fix the image. They did what they could, but it was chucked out the window because of Meyer.
This can certainly get worse, and that’s saying a lot considering how bleak their current situation is. The top concern is Trevor Lawrence and how he is taking all the turmoil. How it can impact his development is one thing, but how the Jags have created dysfunction impacts Lawrence’s desire to be the focal point of the rebuild is far from the top concern.
Even though Lawrence’s rookie season has been a tough one, he is still the team’s most important member. How he takes all the Jags’ issues is important. If they go further into rock bottom, that would mean the team loses its grip on Lawrence if he sees they are not the right franchise for his NFL career.
It’s also fair to wonder if Meyer had more power about the roster than Baalke. The early premise for the Meyer regime was for him to have final say on all matters. But it didn’t seem that in the offseason, he was calling every shot.
However, his influence was on a number of moves, such as signing Carlos Hyde and drafting Rudy Ford and Travis Etienne.
Baalke’s influence was as utmost.
Meyer is to blame for how unprepared the Jags were and for the bad culture he built on the roster, but both are to blame when it comes to the roster issues.
The best-case scenario is that Baalke’s presence doesn’t do anything to deter the top head coaching candidates.
It still remains to be seen if Baalke will stay, but the best-case scenario is that Baalke’s reputation doesn’t keep away qualified coaches from joining the Jags, which is very concerning.
Better coaching alone should get them a few wins, but Baalke’s lack of desire to spend in free agency and his strategy to draft players who are not really Day 1 ready is a legit concern that they are not likely to turn things around quickly.
Shad Khan believes in continuity and thinks Baalke deserves a chance to have a say in picking a head coach who can decide his fate. The hiring of Meyer was Khan’s doing and, in many aspects, one can assume that Baalke had Meyer forced upon him.
It doesn’t make sense that Caldwell gets a pass because Coughlin made the decisions, but Baalke gets a pass because Meyer made the decisions.
If Khan is about money, there is no way he should waste payroll on people who don’t make decisions while supposedly being in a role to make decisions.
The Jags have been doing things backwards for the entirety of Khan’s tenure as the team’s owner, whether it be keeping Gene Smith on his board of trustees to the Caldwell/Coughlin era and then the Meyer/Baalke era.
Forget the fluke playoff appearance in 2017, the Jags have not been able to have a stable organization for most of Khan’s ownership, and there always seems to be a scapegoat for what is an entire organizational problem.
Here, Meyer appears to be the scapegoat, albeit a well-deserved one, while Baalke was benefitting from his ineptness. This is the same exact scenario with Caldwell/Coughlin and with Caldwell/Gus Bradley.
Which is why Myles Jack said that after the season ended, he planned to speak to Khan and what they would need in a new head coach.
“It was basically, like you know, finish out the year strong and do what you need to do,” said Jack. “So yeah, when you do have an opportunity to speak to him, I definitely will be one of the first people to say that for sure if that question [about what they need in the next coach] comes about.”
When asked about one of the attributes he would want to see in the Jags’ next head coach, Jack said he wants someone who is dedicated to winning football games.
“We just need No. 1, a leader of men,” said Jack. “Somebody, when they say something, it holds weight. Like is everything detailed, you can tell like it is a finished product. No. 2, it’s got to be somebody who is just about ball. You know what I mean? It’s about winning. We just got to win. All that player-friendly and he’s a nice coach, we don’t really care about that.”
“It’s definitely not a situation you would want to be in, but I mean it is obviously part of me because nobody knows what’s going to happen,” Jack added. “It’s going to be a new coach and nobody knows position wise in anything. It could be a whole new group of new people in here and you may or may not fit their scheme.”
Inside linebacker Damien Wilson said that regardless of who their next coach will be, they need to get better at everything, especially on defense.
“Without a doubt it was a tough season,” said Wilson. “As far as something that went wrong, I don’t think it’s just one thing that you can put your finger on. It’s like a collection of things. Sometimes us as a defense let the offense down or special teams let the defense down. But we’ve got to be greedy; we want to get better at everything.”
But who knows if their new head coach will instantly fix things?
One can even say that no matter who their next coach is, they would still be at an unwinnable situation considering that Baalke’s “value approach” to free agency delivered more mediocrity to the worst roster in the league. It doesn’t help that in the 2021 Draft, when the Jags had five of the first 65 picks, they landed more backups than starters.
Khan tried changing the direction in several different ways, but it was never with a complete cleanup of the house.
What could it hurt trying something new after nine seasons of double-digit losses in 10 years?
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