Jaguars ST Coordinator Heath Farwell Has Moved On From Final Game With Bills
For Buffalo Bills fans, the final 13 seconds of regulation against the Kansas City Chiefs in last year's AFC Divisional Round loss will be tough to forget for a long time.
But for new Jacksonville Jaguars special teams coordinator Heath Farwell, those 13 seconds aren't given second thought anymore.
"I get that question all the time. To be perfectly honest with you, it’s in the past. I don’t worry about that," Farwell told Jacksonville media at TIAA Bank Field on Thursday when asked if he would have done things different in kicking off to the Chiefs with 13 seconds left.
"Honestly, my answer to that is that’s a question for the Buffalo Bills and Sean McDermott."
Farwell, of course, was Buffalo's special teams coordinator last season when the team made the controversial decision to kick the ball into the end-zone while holding a three-point lead over the Chiefs with 13 seconds left in regulation.
Kicking the ball for a touchback took zero seconds off the clock, while a squib kick could have potentially taken off key seconds for the Chiefs. The Chiefs then picked up gains of 19 and 25 yards through the air before tying the game with a 49-yard field goal.
There have been reports of Farwell and Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott having different stances on the decision to kick the ball off, with Tyler Dunne of Go Long reporting this offseason that it was McDermott who wanted to kick the ball deep.
The Bills went on to lose the game in overtime. Weeks later, Farwell would accept a job with the Jaguars as special teams coordinator under Doug Pederson, becoming Pederson's only coordinator in Jacksonville who is not entering his first year in such a role.
"It’s in the past, I don’t deal with that to be honest with you. That’s part of the way I live my life. It’s going forward and what we’re doing here," Farwell said.
"I’m loving the guys I’m working with here. I have a great appreciation for the players there. I had fantastic players (in Buffalo), still good friends of mine that I talk to all the time. Down here, I’m trying to build something here special. That’s what it’s all about for me. I moved on. I honestly don’t think twice about it."
McDermott said at this year's NFL Scouting Combine that Farwell 'found a situation that worked for him,' with the Bills never officially firing Farwell. Instead, Farwell has found himself in Jacksonville, where he will be asked to lead a special teams unit that struggled mightily last year.
“It’s been great and it goes back to what I talked about. Everyone is bought in. So from working with the o-line on field goal, those guys are all in. From the DBs to the receivers, everyone on the team seems like there’s a group that wants to win," Farwell said.
"I was talking to Logan [Cooke] the other day, we were at a BBQ together, and I was asking him how many wins he had. It was shocking to me, but you see why he’s so hungry to win, why he’s so competitive. The more guys that want to win that care about being around each other, that’s what we want. The best teams are teams that want to be together. The teams that I’ve been around, the teams that I’ve been on, the teams that want to be around each other that care about winning, that’s what this game’s about. And as a former player, that’s what I try to explain to them. When all is said and done, the money isn’t it. It’s about the friendships you make, the camaraderie, that’s the stuff you are going to remember. And I think these guys have leaned in on that. And it means so much to them.”
