Jaguars Make Decision on Their Head Coach’s Future

Doug Marrone appeared to be a dead man walking heading into Week 17. Reports of the Jacksonville Jaguars informing Marrone of his imminent firing prior to last Sunday’s kickoff circulated pregame. While owner Shad Khan adamantly refuted those reports, not many expect Marrone to make it through the weekend and remain the head coach of the Jaguars, let alone to Black Monday, but that’s what happened.

While many believed Khan was just pushing the inevitable, the Jaguars owner and fellow Jacksonville front brass had different ideas.

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Doug Marrone Retained as Jaguars Head Coach

In Week 17, the final week of the NFL season, the Jaguars fought and clawed for their coach by defeating their division rivals, the Indianapolis Colts, handily to the tune of 38-20. Quarterback Gardner Minshew tossed three touchdowns, and the Jags defense showed glimpses of the not so long ago glory days. That performance was great to see from a Jaguars perspective, however, it apparently had no weight on Shad Khan’s ultimate decision to retain their head coach Doug Marrone.

In a statement acquired by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Khan goes into detail about his decision to keep his staff intact for 2020.

“While our discussions will remain confidential, the decision I am making to keep our staff intact for 2020 has nothing to do with our victory on Sunday and everything to do with my positive meetings with Dave, Doug, the coordinators and our players, as well as my belief that this is not the time to consider an overhaul of our organization.”

Marrone has endured a rocky three-plus seasons at the helm of the Jaguars. He served as an interim head coach for the team back in 2016, taking over in Week 15 for the then-fired head man Gus Bradley. Following that season, Marrone would be named the team’s head coach on an official basis. Over the next three seasons, Marrone would compile a record of 21-27.

Marrone has coached the Jags to only one winning season in his time with the organization. Back in 2017, Jacksonville endured one of their most memorable seasons in franchise history, going 10-6 and falling just inches short of making their first-ever Super Bowl appearance.

However, that one bright season seems to be a bit of an outlier on an otherwise underwhelming coaching resume for Marrone in the pros. The former Syracuse University head coach has served as the lead man for two different NFL franchises over a total of five seasons. Over that span, he’s accumulated a .451 winning percentage while compiling a grand total of just two winning seasons, one with the Jags and one with the Buffalo Bills.

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This Jaguars Team Shows Promise 

The Jaguars have fallen off hard since their near Super Bowl run back in 2017. Their once-elite defense has dwindled away, either due to age, early retirement, or trades. Offensively, they paid former Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles big money to come to Duval in hopes that he could sprinkle his winning magic on the Jaguars. Instead, he proceeded to be outplayed by a sixth-round rookie.

With that said, Jacksonville has a number of solid puzzle pieces to help kickstart the team’s success. Whether Gardner Minshew will prove to be a legitimate starting quarterback in the NFL is still unknown. However, he’s shown enough promise and moxie to be worth the opportunity to showcase his skillset over a 16-game span.

In the backfield, Leonard Fournette is coming off his best season as a pro, and taking his game to new heights, hauling in 76-receptions and disproving the belief that he was just a one-trick pony. 

Speaking of receptions, wideout DJ Chark burst onto the scene in his second NFL season, eclipsing 1,000 receiving yards.

Defensively, familiar faces such as Calais Campbell, Myles Jack, AJ Bouye, and Yannick Ngakoue (maybe not for long) still roam Duval County.

Big names aside, 2020 will serve as a put up or shut up season for Marrone in Jacksonville, as his job is officially on life-support.

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