How the Jaguars' Leadership Has Changed For the Better

The Jacksonville Jaguars have received middle-of-the-road grades for their work in the off-season despite a major leadership overhaul. All indications since February suggest that GM James Gladstone and HC Liam Coen are absolutely on the same page and are already a cohesive unit, something that hasn't been a thing in Duval for a long time.

Jaguars on SI Beat Writer John Shipley spoke about this subject on a recent podcast.

"So you go from Doug Peterson to Liam Coen, who, yeah, has only been an NFL offense coordinator for two years in his coaching career, but last year in Tampa Bay, significantly improved their offense, and he significantly improved it compared to a guy who got a head coaching job a year before."

"I think ultimately, Liam Coen has a lot to like as an innovator and a play caller and a schemer, much more so than what the issues the Jaguars ran into with Doug Pederson, namely the play calling issue. I don't think it was any secret that pretty much everybody else involved with the franchise wanted Doug Pederson to call plays last year, but he didn't, and it was one of the things that they ultimately didn't win."

"So now you're going to a guy who does want to call plays and who ikes calling plays in Liam Coen. I think what also needs to be factored in here is the fact that, due to those changes at head coaching, GM and even though we haven't seen Liam Coen coach a game yet and haven't seen a James Gladstone built team take the field yet, I think the Jaguars have fixed their biggest problem. Even without those things, there's now synergy. There's cohesiveness."

"When it comes to the leadership of the team's football operations, they haven't had that, I'd say in pretty much the entire time that I've covered this team, and I've covered them since August 2019. Dave Caldwell and Doug Marrone seemed to like each other, but the Coughlin thing in 2019 was all over the place. I didn't get the sense that Marrone, especially, was a big fan of that setup.. Then 2021 with [Urban] Meyer and Trent Baalke."

"Even after Urban was gone, and I'm not going to say Trent Baalke was wrong for clashing with Urban and for not thinking he knew what he was doing, he wasn't wrong. Urban didn't know what he was doing, whatsoever, but they were still a part of that toxic, combative environment."

"Trent Baalke stays on as a general manager, the worry for so many people was, can you really start anew if you're keeping the general manager in place? Because then it's essentially a forced marriage, and that's what it felt like. It became a partnership of convenience. Trent Baalke needed somebody who would work with him, and Doug Pederson needed a team that would give him another chance to be a head coach, because it didn't seem like many teams were knocking on his door."

"So they were the right people for each other at the right time in terms of what each of them needed from the other side. But it was very clear as time would go on, that there was a lack of synergy between the two and a lack of cohesiveness. And I know they tried time and time and again to say they had a great relationship, etc, it just it was very clear that they saw so many things in so many different ways."

"Factoring in that they now seemingly have a head coach and general manager who are talented, and who actually seem to not hate each other, is a very big step in the right direction. "

A solid relationship between James Gladstone and Liam Coen is paramount for this football thing to be effective and successful for the Jacksonville Jaguars. With this as a foundation, the players would be expected to follow suit on the field.

But most of all, the mistakes of the past must be avoided.