Distanced Learning: Doug Marrone Lays out Plans for Jaguars' Virtual Offseason

When football historians look back on the 2020 offseason, they will remark how far it was from a typical NFL cooling period. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, every NFL club has had to throw out all of their plans for how to conduct an offseason program, instead being forced to develop virtual programs on the fly.

For Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone, a self-admitted creature of habit who has coached in the NFL or at the collegiate level since 1992, going virtual with his players will be a first-time experience. Making it even more of a pressing situation is the fact that Marrone is fighting for his job in 2020, and the team will be implementing a new offensive playbook under recently hired offensive coordinator Jay Gruden.

"It’s going to be important for us. Offensively, there have been a lot of things that have changed, whether it’s terminology or different types of concepts. There have been some changes there," Marrone told local media in a video conference on Thursday. "On defense, we’re looking to make some changes to help ourselves going into this next season."

How are the Jaguars going to attack the new offseason, one in which Marrone won't be able to meet with any of his players or coaches in person? For starters, the program will begin on April 27, a few days following the conclusion of the NFL Draft.

"We started to get ready – the NFL came out and said we have a four-week period to get three weeks of work done," Marrone said. "We could either start on April 20 or April 27. We’re going to start our program on April 27. Right now, we’re going through the process and making sure everyone has correct numbers, correct email addresses, things of that nature. Making sure our players are in good shape."

A big part of the virtual offseason will be teaching players new aspects of the offensive and defensive playbooks via filmed videos. Luckily for the Jaguars, Marrone said this is an area the team has experience in.

"We’re going to be able to film a lot of the installations. That’s something that we’ve done before. We used to film them in-house," Marrone said. "That way, if we did pick a player up, not necessarily later in the year but later in training camp or even later in the year, we’ve always had that stuff – that library – that we’re able to show the players to kind of make up for what the foundation of the system that we have are. We’re doing that right now. We started that a couple of weeks ago, getting everything ready."

Aside from teaching the Jaguars' roster via videos, Marrone said the Jaguars will also send the players workouts they can do on their own. Players are allowed to do their own training, Marrone said, which is a far cry from the players lifting weights at TIAA Bank Field together.

With that said, the Jaguars will ensure the players have all of the equipment they need to get themselves in shape or maintain the shape many of them are currently in. And as Marrone noted, it isn't like the Jaguars are the only ones going through this.

"We’re all going through the same thing. I feel like it’s an equal playing field," Marrone said.

But with the Jaguars roster low on veterans and about to get even younger considering they hold 12 draft picks in next Thursday's draft, it will be a challenge for the Jaguars to get their young players up to speed, an issue they may not have faced in past years.

"I think, for me, what I feel like the biggest challenge is knowing that we’ll be a young football team with young guys," Marrone said. "I really like the mindset of the younger guys that we drafted last year with Jawaan Taylor, Josh Allen, (Gardner) Minshew (II), all of those guys. DJ (Chark Jr.) the year before, those guys have really done a good job of knowing where they are.

"The challenge is going to be when we have these young guys and what I’m still working on is how do you create that chemistry that you would normally have if you were here Phase 1 and Phase 2, get to know your teammates. Now all of a sudden there’s a certain type of a bond when you go out there and do it. Those are the big challenges."

This offseason will be nothing like any offseason Marrone and his staff have ever experienced before. While they are in the same boat as every other team during the COVID-19 pandemic, they will have to be cognizant of out of the box solutions and having an open mind.

Marrone may be a creature of habit, but he is also a reasonable and forward-thinking person. He isn't afraid of change, which should help him now that he is forced to embrace a dramatic overhaul of football operations.

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