Jaguars Head Coach Search: 5 Coaches Who Aren't the Right Option To Replace Marrone
Doug Marrone's tenure as the Jacksonville Jaguars' head coach came to an end on Monday, with owner Shad Khan finally having his patience run out. Khan had given Marrone a chance to turn the team around in 2020, but instead saw his franchise have the worst season in team history.
Now, Khan has the key responsibility of finding the team's next leader on the sidelines. The Jaguars clearly have a fair amount of interest in their head coach opening, but the question is now which way Khan will lean. He has never faced a more important offseason than 2021, and it is clear he knows the magnitude of the decisions currently facing him.
We went through five coaches who made sense for the Jaguars earlier this week. But what about which coaches don't make sense to replace him? We list five with red flags, though only one of the coaches has been connected to the job.
Jason Garrett
This is the most obvious one. Jason Garrett has been connected to the Los Angeles Chargers' open head coaching role, but there is no reason his name should come up in Jacksonville's search for a new head coach. Garrett had a winning record in 10 years as the Cowboys' head coach, going 85-67 (.559%). But his talented teams were known for underperforming despite their stacked rosters. Gifting him with a prime situation like Jacksonville's would be asking for a repeat mistake.
Perhaps if Garrett had a better year coordinating the New York Giants' offense in 2020, our view would be different. But New York's offensive scheme often looked stagnant, unimaginative, and just plain inefficient. The Giants' offense finish ranked No. 26 in offensive DVOA, just one spot ahead of the lowly Jaguars. Garrett has a place in the NFL, but it isn't as a head coach ... especially not as Jacksonville's.
Greg Roman
Greg Roman has been a popular name for a few different head coaching cycles in the past decade. Considering the success San Francisco had in the middle of his tenure, as well as Lamar Jackson's MVP season in Roman's scheme in 2019, this isn't overly surprising. But Roman doesn't quite have the background the Jaguars should be looking for, even if he is an offensive-minded coach.
Roman's offenses have tended to put up a solid amount of points; there has only been one year his offense hasn't finished in the top-12 of points scored. But his passing offenses have been more or less mediocre throughout his career. Jackson's 2019 season was the exception to the rule, but the Ravens had the NFL's best run game to set the passing game up perfectly. Roman is a fine coach, but his strength has always been in building a running game as opposed to fielding a passing attack around his quarterback. The Jaguars should simply shoot higher.
Raheem Morris
Raheem Morris is the one name on this list who has been connected to the Jaguars' open head coaching gig, with Josina Anderson reporting earlier this week that the Jaguars had put in a request to interview the former head coach and long time defensive coordinator. Morris' placement on this list isn't an indictment of his coaching qualifications, but more so due to the fact that it just doesn't seem like the right fit for a team that needs a complete overhaul. Morris is a good coach who helped the Falcons turn into a respectable defense in 2020, but he may not have the high ceiling of Robert Saleh.
Morris is deserving of serious looks from teams and would likely be a strong option at head coach for another team with a void, but the Jaguars need to swing bigger. Morris had a 17-31 record (.354%) in his first run as a head coach with the Buccaneers from 2009-2011, with 10 of those wins coming in 2010. His experience as a head coach is a plus to an extent, but the fact that most of his teams were well below .500 needs to be noted. Morris served the Atlanta Falcons in a number of ways during his tenure as an assistant and eventually as interim head coach, but the Jaguars would be wise to expand their horizon for the most important role on their staff.
Josh McDaniels
Josh McDaniels was reportedly a strong contender when the Jaguars last hired a head coach, but it doesn't appear as if the Jaguars have duplicated that interested so far in 2021. That seems to be the right decision, too, as McDaniels' star appears to have fallen considerably in recent years, or at least since he left the Colts at the altar in 2018. But aside from the fact that McDaniels showed a lack of commitment by spurning the Colts in 2018, there are other red flags in McDaniels' background that should convince the Jaguars to stay away.
After having the 11th-ranked offense in DVOA in 2019, the Patriots had the 23rd-ranked unit in 2020. They had issues at the skill positions and eventually along the offensive line, as well as a big change at quarterback from Tom Brady to Cam Newton, but McDaniels didn't answer the call. While other coordinators are able to make it work with depleted resources, McDaniels appeared to be out of his realm in 2020. For a Jaguars team that badly needs to hit the ground running on offense and throughout the entire organization, a coach who is trending downward like McDaniels doesn't make much sense.
Joe Brady
This one will likely raise a few eyebrows, but hear us out: every team is always looking for the next Sean McVay, but McVay was at least a coordinator for three seasons when he was hired as Los Angeles' head coach. Joe Brady, like McVay, is a young, intelligent, and forward-thinking offensive mind who likely has an incredibly high ceiling as a head coach ... eventually. But as of now, his vast level of inexperience makes him a tough sell, especially for the Jaguars. They can't screw up this hire, so can they really entrust it to someone with as limited a background as Brady?
Brady's work with the LSU Tigers and Joe Burrow in 2019 is well-documented and for good reason. He was a breath of fresh air in Baton Rouge thanks to his advanced passing concepts, and he found some success on a limited Carolina Panthers offense in 2020 as well. But one year of coordinator experience is simply too little to feel confident in handing one of the NFL's top jobs to. Brady will most likely be a good head coach in the future, but the timing simply isn't right between where he is at in his career and what the Jaguars need.
