Report: Doug Marrone 'Likely' Gone as Jaguars Coach After Season
A report from NFL Network's Mike Garafolo on Tuesday indicates some sweeping changes may be in store for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Garafolo spoke on NFL Network's NFL Now show to deliver a report on the job status of Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone as the team enters its final four games. The Jaguars are 4-8 after losing four consecutive games and are a combined 9-19 since the 2018 season begun.
Garafolo indicated that while it is unknown if Marrone is fired during the season, it is "likely" that he is replaced after the season ends.
"If you're asking me if it is going to be before Week 17, I honestly have no idea. It is going to depend on what happens in these next couple of games here," Garafolo said. "I think everyone is looking at this situation saying its a likely coaching change in Jacksonville.
"That is going to be something that as we get into the offseason, into the immediate offseason, that you are expecting the change to happen in Jacksonville," Garafolo continued.
Garafolo said that the Jaguars' current regime is "hopeful" they can play out the final four games of the season as they try to climb to 8-8, and Marrone's best shot to stay in Jacksonville may be if Gardner Minshew II can catch lightning in a bottle for the second time this season.
"But [Tom] Coughlin is talking like they want to play this thing out; they are hopeful they will be able to play these final four games out," Garafolo said.
"And maybe, if you are a head coach in this situation, if you can get your owner to see hey, I got a quarterback, in this case [Gardner] Minshew that I can work with a little bit, that is your best shot at job security, so I am sure that is what Marrone is hoping for."
Garafolo also touched on the situation between Minshew and Nick Foles, a day after Marrone announced that Minshew would be the team's starting quarterback over Foles moving forward. Foles was benched at halftime of the team's Week 13 loss after turning the ball over three times in his first three possessions, and Minshew entered the game to start the third quarter.
"This is not the first time he has had to deal with an awkward situation in his career," Garafolo said about Foles. "We know very well what happened after the Super Bowl in Philadelphia, and he handled that extremely well - the ups and downs that were that entire season. So I don't think you are going to have a problem at all there."
"But you obviously have a frustrated Nick Foles, who did not play a whole lot of football this year for the Jacksonville Jaguars."
Garafolo pointed to Marrone's statements on Monday that Minshew gives the team a better chance to win due to his mobility behind what is at times a shaky offensive line, and said the quarterback change ultimate creates a question about what the Jaguars' direction is after this season.
"Doug Marrone's statement yesterday was 'We have to get better around Nick. No. 1, we haven't been good enough around him, and No. 2, Minshew can scramble a little bit,'" Garafolo said. "Well, Minshew has had ball security issues of his own this year. 12 fumbles, seven of which were lost. So this is an overall question about the Jaguars' direction going into 2020."
Garafolo did not speak much about the futures of team executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin or general manager Dave Caldwell.
"I know Tom Coughlin is talking about these final four games, and yeah, we shall see, maybe they go on some kind of run and it convinces Shad Khan to stick with the regime currently in place," he said. "But this a bigger issue of what the Jaguars want to do at the quarterback position and how to surround the quarterback."
Jacksonville hired Coughlin to run its front office in 2017 after Caldwell served as the lone personnel decision-maker form 2013-2016. Marrone was also hired as head coach in 2017;
Jacksonville went 10-6 and made the AFC Championship in the first year of the current regime, but has had back-to-back disappointing seasons since as massive contracts handed out to Blake Bortles and Foles have backfired.
