Column: Jaguars Have Themselves to Blame for Self-Inflicted Damage From Chris Doyle Hire

Hiring Chris Doyle was a clear mistake the Jaguars will struggle to recover from, even amid his short tenure and quick resignation.

Urban Meyer's first controversy with the Jacksonville Jaguars didn't take long to unfold, and the Jaguars and Meyer should realize they have only themselves to blame for it.

The first resignation of the Meyer era came just 29 days after Meyer was hired. After (now former) director of sports performance Chris Doyle was announced as a member of Meyer's staff at noon on Thursday, it took just under 36 hours for the backlash and a barrage of criticism to hound the Jaguars and lead to Doyle's resignation.

"Chris Doyle came to us this evening to submit his resignation and we have accepted. Chris did not want to be a distraction to what we are building in Jacksonville," Meyer said in a statement less than an hour before midnight.

"We are responsible for all aspects of our program and, in retrospect, should have given greater consideration to how his appointment may have affected all involved. We wish him the best as he moves forward in his career."

But even with Doyle's time with the Jaguars ending swiftly, the damage is still done. The Jaguars and Meyer still made a misjudgment and a misfire of epic proportions and did so at a time where the timing couldn't have been worse.

Doyle was the Iowa Hawkeyes' strength and conditioning coach for over 20 years (1999-2019) before he and Iowa entered a "separation agreement" following numerous former players alleging the program had racial disparities, referencing alleged racial remarks and mistreatment by Doyle. Doyle disputed the claims, but it resulted with the end of his tenure at Iowa.

Meyer and the Jaguars hired him -- and defended the hire when pressed about it on Thursday -- despite the allegations and the baggage. Despite several current NFL players speaking out against Doyle just last June. Despite the Jaguars being not even two years removed from the NFLPA crashing down on them for Tom Coughlin's totalitarian actions. Less than one year since the Jaguars led a team march to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office steps hand-in-hand with players, coaches, and community members. 

This was an avoidable blunder on many levels. Just in terms of optics, the Jaguars should have known from the start that the hire would have been met with this kind of ferocity. Either they didn't know that, which is doubtful at best and ignorant at worst, or they didn't care. Either is troubling. 

There is no patting Meyer, the Jaguars, or Doyle on the back for ending things quickly. There is no absolving any party of the mistake that was the hire or the miscalculation into what the reaction would be. There is only self-inflicted damage that never needed to happen. 

Meyer defended the hiring of Doyle Thursday by stating he has known Doyle for two decades and by repeatedly saying he and the team had vetted him. Nowhere in his answers did Meyer indicate if said vetting included talking to any former or current Iowa football players, coaches, or administrators. 

Meyer trusted Doyle enough as a mastermind of sports performance that he welcomed him to his staff following his departure from Iowa. His downfall with the Hawkeyes was public and well-documented, plus still fresh on the minds of many ... but Meyer went through with it anyway, with the blessing of others in the organization according to him.

"I’ve known Chris for close to 20 years. Our relationship goes back to when I was at Utah and he was the number one strength coach. Really, he was doing sports performance before sports performance became a high priority in college sports," Meyer said. "I’ve known him. I’ve studied him. We’ve had a relationship. I vetted him thoroughly along with our general manager [Trent Baalke] and owner [Shad Khan]. [We] feel great about the hire, about his expertise at that position."

Khan shouldn't be forgotten in the fallout of this, either. He said as recently as Jan. 4 that he is taking a larger role in the organization, and Meyer confirmed again that Khan was involved with the hiring process of Doyle when asked about it Thursday.

“Shad was involved with our high-end hires and he was involved [in this one]," Meyer said. 

All of this brings positive momentum the Jaguars had to a halt. It comes fewer than two days after Meyer's long-awaited staff, which should have been a celebratory occasion, was announced. Doyle's resignation and the subsequent announcement took place roughly 12 hours after Meyer stood on Clemson's practice field as presumptive No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence conducted a throwing session that Meyer himself was a part of creating.

It should have been a happy two days for supporters of the Jaguars. Instead, it has been embroiled in controversy as former NFL players and the Fritz Pollard Alliance all slammed the Jaguars and Meyer for hiring Doyle.

“At a time when the NFL has failed to solve its problem with racial hiring practices, it is simply unacceptable to welcome Chris Doyle into the ranks of NFL coaches,” the Fritz Pollard Alliance said Friday.

“Doyle’s departure from the University of Iowa reflected a tenure riddled with poor judgment and mistreatment of Black players. His conduct should be as disqualifying for the NFL as it was for University of Iowa. Urban Meyer’s statement, ‘I’ve known Chris for close to 20 years,’ reflects the good ol’ boy network that is precisely the reason there is such a disparity in employment opportunities for Black coaches.”

The Jaguars had to at first be okay with the backlash of the Doyle hire. They wouldn't have made it otherwise. But not long after it was announced, he is gone. All that is left now is the fact that people inside and outside of the league will remember that for a short time, he was a Jaguar. 

Perhaps this doesn't come back to haunt the Jaguars in any way. Meyer can get past this and build a winning football team, after all. 

But this was a tone-deaf misjudgment by Meyer that, as of now, is the story and the conversation when it comes to the Jaguars. This is a mistake of Meyer's own doing, and one that even Doyle's resignation doesn't fix.