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If Jacksonville Jaguars' Shad Khan fires his coach and GM, can he pick right leaders?
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- If Jacksonville Jaguars' Shad Khan fires his coach and GM, can he pick right leaders?
Three hours after the Jacksonville Jaguars ' horribly underachieving season concluded Sunday with a 26-23 overtime loss to the Indianapolis Colts , their nightmare was long from over.
In addition to coaches and players wondering what owner Shad Khan might do about potentially changing the leadership structure, the Jaguars were stuck at the Indianapolis airport.
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Not only was it "fitting," to use coach Doug Pederson's words , that they lost an NFL-record 10th one-score game this season. But their plane being delayed leaving for home due to cold, snowy conditions was another sign that the gut punches never seemed to stop for the 2024 Jaguars.
Now Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan is on the clock , and it's up to him to do whatever is necessary to ensure a massively underachieving season like this never happens again.
Whatever happens with Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke, it would be owner malpractice to opt for nothing, to run it back next season with the same leadership structure and coaching staff.
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 05: Doug Pederson looks on during a press conference introducing him as the new Head Coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars alongside Shad Khan, Owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Trent Baalke, General Manager of the Jacksonville Jaguars, at TIAA Bank Stadium on February 05, 2022 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
That would make for a hard sell to entice Jaguars suite buyers to return in 2025, or to retain season-ticket holders and attract new ones.
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Which way will Khan go?
But until the fates of Pederson and Baalke are decided, many will wonder if the exceedingly patient Khan could maintain status quo, as he did after Gus Bradley delivered 4-12, 3-13 and 5-11 in his first three seasons (2013-15). Or bringing back Doug Marrone in 2020 after 5-11 and 6-10.
Khan's response, which was expected to come sometime Sunday night, may well have ripple effects on Jacksonville's franchise for the next 3-5 years, maybe longer.
Some kind of substantial change is painfully needed . Preferably, it's parting ways with both head coach Doug Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke, though you can never rule out Khan pink-slipping one and keeping the other.
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No matter the fallout, there better be some serious repercussions if the Jaguars expect to energize the fan base with optimism for 2025.
I'm not sure Khan would hire an executive vice-president to be the organization czar, like Tom Coughlin was in 2017 and most of '18. However, it wouldn't be a bad option to consider because this franchise needs a serious wakeup call.
One thing is indisputable: the Jaguars need to hit the reset button and it's Khan's job to find the right path toward doing that.
Retaining both Pederson and Baalke would be almost cowardly, and the fans would rightfully take it like a slap in the face.
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Jaguars can't shed losing DNA
Not since Coughlin ruled this franchise with a dictatorial style from 1995-2002 have the Jaguars enjoyed a quality run or had a true alpha-dog coach/GM, though not every successful NFL boss operates with that mindset.
But every head coach and GM for the past two decades has either been too soft, or unable to push the right buttons, to elevate the Jaguars into sustained winning.
Jack Del Rio (2003-11) had that toughness as an NFL linebacker, but as a head coach, he tended to be wishy-washy. Del Rio built quality defenses under coordinator Mike Smith, but his offenses were terribly inconsistent.
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The franchise bottomed out under Mike Mularkey (2012) and his successor, Bradley. Then Doug Marrone (2017-20) had one outlier playoff season in his first year, with Coughlin as front-office czar, only to see it disintegrate from that point on.
GMs James "Shack" Harris, Gene Smith and Dave Caldwell were fine people. They just made too many questionable decisions in the draft or free agency to warrant keeping their job.
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Baalke has some alpha dog in him, but he has never won over a skeptical Jaguars' fan base, which maintained a negative perception toward him since he was part of the Urban Meyer fiasco in 2021.
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Still, the Jaguars' 26-44 record with him in charge suggests the talent acquisition is suspect because Jacksonville falls way short of being a consistent playoff contender, the standard Khan aspires for his franchise.
Staying the course would be cowardly
What three years under Pederson and five years under Baalke (one as assistant GM in 2020) has revealed is the Jaguars remain an organization not quite buttoned up.
There's an inescapable feeling in the building and on the field that something is always amiss.
The Jaguars have played the worst kind of complementary football all season, rarely having the offense and defense simultaneously executing together. The defense under first-year coordinator Ryan Nielsen has been an abject failure, one of the worst in team history.
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Since Khan took ownership in January 2012, the Jaguars haven't been able to shed a losing DNA. His 67-150 record (.309) is the second-worst among 69 owners in that position for a decade or longer.
The only owner with an inferior win percentage is the late Hugh Culverhouse (82-197-1, .294), who had the disadvantage of starting his woeful Tampa Bay Buccaneers ' tenure with a 1976 expansion team that lost its first 26 games.
The common denominator with the Jaguars under Khan is they, too, were pitiful from the get-go. But here it is, 13 seasons in, and this team still can't get off the losing train.
It appeared hiring a Super Bowl-winning coach in Pederson was going to change things after he went 18-12 in his first 30 games. But the Jaguars have gone 5-18 since then, albeit some prolonged injuries to key starters factor into that.
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So with Pederson's team trending in the wrong direction over a lengthy period, how can Khan justify staying the course with his primary football conductors?
Khan's problem is picking right leaders
One potential advantage of Khan hiring an EVP, if that person must conduct a coach or GM search, is it'd put someone with an extensive football background in charge of making a monumental franchise-altering decision.
If the Jaguars move on from Peterson, Baalke or both, Khan's track record shows he could use some input from an NFL executive type on identifying the right leaders to get this franchise on a winning track.
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Looking at the coaches employed by Khan — only the second owner in NFL history, along with the New Orleans Saints ' John Mecon Jr., to have his first five coaches sport losing records — it makes you wonder when the 74-year-old billionaire is going to get it right.
Back on Friday, when Pederson was asked about the uncertainty of his job status and trying not to let it affect his loved ones, part of what he said was this: "If this is the last run, then I can look back and say, 'It's a great run.' "
Well, that's true to a certain extent. Pederson has had an impressive NFL career when you consider the 30-plus years total as a journeyman backup quarterback, assistant coach and head coach of a Super Bowl-winning team in 2017 with the Philadelphia Eagles .
But by no means should the word "great" be attached to his time with the Jaguars. It's fair to say it was pretty darn good for a season and a half, then the bottom fell out.
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Now it's time for Khan to admit the tag team of Pederson and Baalke just hasn't worked out and move on.
The problem is this: Khan's success off the field as a businessman hasn't translated over to football. He can't seem to pick the right leaders.
But he better try again to get it right with a new coach and GM. Otherwise, he will have to live with the wrath of Jaguars' fans that are tired of the status quo of losing.
Gfrenette@jacksonville.com : (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @genefrenette
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars must find right leaders to change losing DNA
