Report: 2-10 Jaguars Experiencing Dysfunction Between Staff Members, Players
The Jacksonville Jaguars are experiencing quite the season, though it has yet to be one filled with wins, with the Urban Meyer-led team instead seeing more headlines than victories.
The latest story to come out of Jacksonville on Meyer's so-far rocky first year in the NFL is directly from NFL Network, with reporter Tom Pelissero reporting several moments of dysfunction within the walls of TIAA Bank Field.
"But sources say Meyer's repeated public comments shifting blame to players and coaches amid the team's 2-10 season have exacerbated frustration in the building with his hard-charging and sometimes condescending approach -- a style that many observers believed wouldn't work in the NFL even before the Jaguars hired him", Pelissero wrote.
Meyer has frequently shifted the blame in his first year as the Jaguars head coach, at least when speaking to the media publically. The most significant occurrence of this has been three different times this season where Meyer has deferred to either offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell or running backs coach Bernie Parmalee when it comes to the running back rotation.
Meyer for two weeks in a row told reporters to ask Bevell or Parmalee questions concerning the team's running back rotation and the role of James Robinson after fumbles. Instead of taking ownership of the situation and delivering a clear answer or message when it came to Robinson's benching, Meyer pointed to injuries, his assistant coaches, and then finally fumbles when it came Robinson's playing time.
While the Robinsin mishandling has become the central story for the Jaguars this week, Pelissero went on to report that much more has taken place during the Jaguars' four-game losing streak than that alone.
In the past two weeks alone, sources say:
- Receiver Marvin Jones -- one of the locker room's most respected and mild-mannered veterans -- became so angry with Meyer's public and private criticism of the receiver group that he left the facility until other staff members convinced him to come back and had a heated argument with Meyer during practice.
- During a staff meeting, Meyer delivered a biting message that he's a winner and his assistant coaches are losers, according to several people informed of the contents of the meeting, challenging each coach individually to explain when they've ever won and forcing them to defend their résumés.
-Contrary to his public statements that it was injury-related, Meyer ordered Robinson's benching after an opening-drive fumble in last week's 37-7 road loss to the Rams, then had running backs coach Bernie Parmalee stop Robinson from re-entering the game, insisting Carlos Hyde (who played for Meyer at Ohio State) stay in. Only after Lawrence questioned Meyer on the sideline about Robinson's absence was Robinson allowed to return late in the second quarter. (Speaking to reporters this week, Lawrence said: "Bottom line is James is one of our best players and he's got to be on the field and we addressed it, and I feel like we're in a good spot and the whole team, we're good.")
-Several Jaguars players vented their frustration to Rams players after that game, sources say, reiterating a common complaint that Meyer -- who had no prior NFL experience -- doesn't treat them like adults.
The Jaguars have had players throw words of support behind Meyer and the culture he has instilled throughout the season but the recent losing streak has seen Meyer shift more and more blame to players and coaches when speaking to local media. The disconnect between Meyer, his staff, and players was clear when Robinson talked to Action Sports Jax last Monday, while Trevor Lawrence himself stated that he used his voice to weigh in on the Robinson matter, a show of leadership from the rookie quarterback but also an example of a fractured team.
Coaches specifically have become a main talking point as the losses have piled up, with Meyer taking questions this week on whether several assistants would remain with the team past this year.
Tight ends coach Tyler Bowen has reportedly agreed to become the offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech while defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi has been tied to new Florida Gators coach Billy Napier and his growing staff.
“Tyler Bowen, nothing has been decided and after the season we will have those conversations. I am getting phone calls about our staff, that has happened many times. I met with Tosh yesterday and there is no substance to anything," Meyer said on Friday.
"Does that mean he does not get [conversations]? Really good football coaches get conversations. I never stood in the way of [an assistant coach] being a head coach or a coordinator. That is something that is pretty good stuff. Tyler Bowen has been really good for us, but also our focus is on the five weeks and doing the very best we can for our players. Anything after that, we will make those decisions at that time.”
The Jaguars have improved from their 1-15 record a year ago but have been a massive disappointment on the field in Meyer's first season. The 2-10 Jaguars are currently last place in the AFC South and have now sustained losing streaks of both five and four games, never winning two games in a row over the first 12 weeks.
Couple this with Meyer's off-hands approach in the public, mistakes he has made along the way such as the Chris Doyle hire and his incident with a younger woman at a Columbus bar after Week 4, and it has been a bumpy first year for Meyer.
Meyer was hired in January to lead the Jaguars out of the cellar of the NFL but instead only more questions about the franchise's ability to function have been raised since his hire.
Perhaps most prominent among all of those questions is the question of whether Meyer is the same coach that owner Shad Khan thought he was hiring -- the detailed, focused, micromanager head coach from Florida and Ohio State who didn't leave a stone unturned. As Meyer noted this week, his approach has changed on that front in recent years, making his staff all the more important.
“Yeah, I just evaluated myself as my career went along and I wasn’t as productive in the things I needed to be productive. Worrying about which foot the three-technique is stepping with," Meyer said on Wednesday.
"When there’s so much, I just reevaluated myself and the last half of my career at Ohio State, I didn’t micromanage everything because it’s also hard to sleep at night when you don’t ... And coaches, that’s their responsibility, it’s not my responsibility, it’s their responsibility. I hire a bunch of good people, coach the fundamentals as hard as possible, let them do their jobs and a lot of times I get in the way of that, I notice too.”
“I regret a lot of things, but it’s not time now to do that. It’s time to try to get the best effort we can the next five games and then reevaluate everything.”
