Jaguars HC Doug Marrone Prepared to Face the Unknown Nature of His Job Status

Nobody knows what the next week will hold for Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone, but he is appearing to have brought himself to peace with the reality of the circumstances.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In less than a week Black Monday will commence and a number of NFL coaching staffs will be broken up as head coaches are given their pink slips.

Before Monday takes place, a burning question surrounding the Jacksonville Jaguars will need to be answered. Are the Jaguars (5-10) going to partake in the removal of coaches and fire head coach Doug Marrone, or will he be given a fourth season in charge?

From the tone of Marrone’s Tuesday press conference at TIAA Bank Field, it seems as if he is in the dark about his status as everyone else. But one thing is certain: Marrone doesn’t think he has done a good enough job.

“I’m not one of those guys that doesn’t feel disappointment or pain. I do,” Marrone said. “And I think the only thing, rather than getting up here…nobody wants to hear excuses. Nobody wants to hear agendas or [people trying] to save themselves or anything of that nature, so I truly am appreciative of everyone and I’m truly sorry that I let so many people down, that I couldn’t have done a better job.”

This was the same sentiment Marrone has had for much of the Jaguars’ disappointing 2019, especially their recent 1-6 stretch in the last seven games. Marrone frequently places the blame on himself only, and on Tuesday the third-year head coach got introspective when talking about the nature of his job and how much pressure it puts on him, his team, and even his family.

“So, the holidays have always been – I probably haven’t done the best job as a husband and as a dad,” Marrone said. “So, I try to tell the players that it’s easy to say, ‘Don’t bring it home and try to enjoy it,’ but I don’t want my family, my children or anyone really growing up, looking back at their youth and not enjoying the holidays because their dad didn’t do a good job coaching that year."

The somber Marrone has fielded questions about his job status for the last several weeks. Despite leading Jacksonville to a 10-6 record and an AFC Championship game appearance in 2017, he has come under fire after going 10-21 in the last two seasons. As the losses have stacked up, so have the questions about whether Marrone will be leading the locker room in 2020.

This isn’t something Marrone’s players aren’t cognizant of, either. They hear the rumblings about Marrone’s status. They know that after the disaster year 2019 has been, it is all up in the air when it comes to their head coach and the rest of his coaching staff.

“Yeah, that is understood. We go out there and we understand that our play reflects directly on them whether that is fair or not. That is the nature of the game,” wide receiver DJ Chark said Tuesday. “So we don’t want to go out there and sabotage anyone, but that is not really what we are thinking about. We are thinking about enjoying this game. Coach has been there every step of the way for us. He isn’t out there running routes or blocking for us. So we just have to do what we have to do for our teammates and our staff.”

Jacksonville’s locker room has offered endorsements for Marrone to keep his job before and that message has continued into Week 17. Nobody on the roster knows what the future holds, but no player is vocally opposing Marrone returning in 2020.

Marrone has even built such a good relationship with players that rookies who have only known him for a few months have taken note of how veterans respect him and his staff.

“Just being around Calais [Campbell] and Yannick [Ngakoue] and those guys and how they feel so deeply involved with the coaching staff and coach [Todd] Wash, coach [Doug] Marrone, they don’t want to see nobody get fired. They play for them, and that is kind of rubbing off on me too,” rookie defensive end Josh Allen said Tuesday.

“I don’t want to see them go because I know I am going to be here for the next couple of years, and I want to be with the same group.”

But while Marrone’s job status is up in the air, he doesn’t want his team, or anyone else for that matter, to feel sorry for him and to dwell on his future. Many of the players on the team have similar questions about what the future holds for them after Jacksonville concludes its 2019 season against the Indianapolis Colts at home on Sunday.

Marrone wants his players to instead shift their focus to themselves instead of to him. He knows what his job entails. He has been around the game long enough to know that Black Monday comes for everyone eventually.

“For me, I look at it as I understand this business. I understand what my job is… it’s to win games and when you don’t do that, then you’ve got to be able to accept whatever the consequences are,” Marrone said. “Again, it doesn’t go like an inner feeling of, ‘Oh, I didn’t have this,’ or, ’I didn’t have that.’ It goes more to, ‘I let a lot of people down.’ That’s how I look at it.”