The Jacksonville Jaguars find themselves staring down another regime change as they finish playing out the string on the 2024 season.
Doug Pederson was hired during the 2022 coaching cycle to save the franchise, and his tenure got off to a promising start. After winning four combined games from the 2020-21, the Jaguars won nine games in 2022, and entered November of 2023 with an 8-3 record.
Things have spiraled since that point, with a myriad of injuries, poor onfield play and questionable roster construction sending Jacksonville back to the bottom of the NFL. According to NFL writer Bill Barnwell of ESPN, the Jags are still paying the price for the coaching staff that preceded the Pederson era.
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Barnwell recently called Jacksonville’s decision to hire Urban Meyer as head coach in 2021 as the franchise’s worst mistake since 2020. Here was Barnwell’s full take:
There are so many moments from the Meyer era that could be considered embarrassing decisions and situations in their own right. The Chris Doyle hire. Signing Tim Tebow to play tight end. Abandoning the team plane so he could go to his bar in Ohio, at which point he was filmed in close contact with someone who wasn’t his wife. An impossibly awkward handshake with Mike Vrabel. Talking about the expanded role on defense for a player who had been on the field for zero snaps. His reported unfamiliarity with Aaron Donald and Deebo Samuel. Oh, and allegedly kicking his own kicker, which finally led to the Jaguars firing him.
Meyer went 2-11, wasted a year of Trevor Lawrence’s rookie contract and set the franchise back well beyond where it was when he arrived. Doug Pederson took over as coach, and it’s a small miracle that he got the Jags to the playoffs the following season at 9-8. While Jags fans are understandably frustrated with what has happened since, even the lowlights of the Pederson era feel like Vince Lombardi in comparison to Meyer’s abbreviated run.
Embarrassing is the right word for Meyer’s tenure in Jacksonville, and there’s no question his dumpster-fire campaign in 2021 set the franchise back significantly. The team reportedly signed him for roughly $9 million per year only to cut ties just 13 games into his first season. It doesn’t get uglier than that.
We’re now three years removed from that debacle, though, so the blame now falls squarely on owner Shad Khan and GM Trent Baalke.
Jacksonville had the No. 1 overall pick again in 2022, and the team picked Travon Walker over Aidan Hutchinson. Walker is a fine player, but he’s far from the franchise-altering pass rusher that Hutchinson has been for the Detroit Lions.
Baalke has been underwhelming at best since taking control of Jacksonville’s roster. He’s had a whopping 10 picks inside the top-100, including four in the first round, since the 2022 league year, but the roster remains weak and lacks depth across the board. Recent free agent signings, like Arik Armstead and Gabe Davis, haven’t helped his cause.
As disastrous as the Urban Meyer experience was, the team should be fully recovered by now. By the time the Jaguars are making their third top-five draft pick in five years this April, new leadership needs to be in charge if things are going to change for the better anytime soon.
