The Urban Meyer experiment is over in Jacksonville. Only 13 games into his 5 year contract with the Jaguars, owner Shad Khan mercifully put an end to one of the more disastrous hirings in recent NFL history.
With a 2-11 record, and being outscored by 160pts to date by their opponents (3rd worst mark in the league trailing only the Texans and Jets) Khan had finally seen enough. In a prepared statement the Jags owner remarked “After deliberation over many weeks and a thorough analysis of the entirety of Urban’s tenure with our team, I am bitterly disappointed to arrive at the conclusion that an immediate change is imperative for everyone…I informed Urban of the change this evening. As I stated in October, regaining our trust and respect was essential. Regrettably, it did not happen…In the spirit of closure and recharging our players, staff and fan base, I will not comment further until some point following the conclusion of the NFL season.”
In the interim, Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell will serve as head coach of the Jaguars. Meyer’s tenure in Jacksonville got off to a rocky start almost immediately. His first mis-step was hiring a strength and conditioning coordinator who had been accused of making racist remarks towards black players. He was then fined $100,000 personally and Jacksonville was fined $200,000 for excessive contact during OTA’s in June. In August the NFLPA opened up an investigation surrounding Meyer after he admitted that a player’s vaccination status was something he considered when making final roster cuts. Then there was the infamous bar video where Meyer was seen getting cozy with a woman who was clearly not his wife, and subsequent lame duck “apology” which was widely panned by players and media alike.
All the while, the losses continued to pile up, as the Jags looked disorganized on the field and were routinely on the wrong side of lopsided scores. Even prized number 1 draft pick Trevor Lawrence, regarded by many as a “can’t miss generational prospect” struggled under Meyer to the tune of 9TDs and 14INTs through his first 13 NFL games. Highlighting the offensive woes is the fact that Lawrence has only 1 passing touchdown in his last 6 games.
Couple this with feuds with James Robinson, whose agent had some not so cryptic tweets regarding Meyer following Robinson’s light usage and benching in recent weeks, and reports that Marvin Jones Jr. had to be persuaded to even return to the facility and suddenly Khan found himself doing damage control in the month of December. Finally reports began leaking that Meyer regularly challenged assistant coaches to prove their worth, called them “losers” and constantly berated everyone from players to team personnel in front of others.
The final straw appeared to be when ex-Jags kicker Josh Lambo accused Meyer of kicking him during pre-game warm ups, a claim that Meyer vehemently denies. While no one will question Meyer’s collegiate success (he amassed a 187-32 college record and won 3 National Titles), to call his NFL stint anything less than a disaster would be sugarcoating it.
When the Jaguars initially hired Meyer in January, they chose him over the likes of Eric Bienemy, Robert Saleh, Raheem Morris, and Arthur Smith. Now it appears as though Khan and the Jacksonville front office will have to repeat the process all over again this offseason.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner