From Grant Gordon of nfl.com :
The Jacksonville Jaguars are on the clock for the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, they’re searching for a new general manager and now they’re looking for a new head coach.
Following a one-win 2020 campaign, Doug Marrone has been fired as Jacksonville Jaguars head coach, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported. The team later made the news official.
“I am committed and determined to deliver winning football to the City of Jacksonville,” Jaguars owner Shad Khan said in a statement. “Realizing that goal requires a fresh start throughout our football operations, and with that in mind I spoke this morning with Doug Marrone to express my gratitude for his hard work over the past four seasons as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“I’ll always appreciate Doug’s passion, grit and class, and I’m confident he will enjoy success in the next chapter of his career. As the search for our new general manager continues, now the quest begins to find a head coach who shares my ambition for the Jacksonville Jaguars and our fans, whose loyalty and faith are overdue to be rewarded.”
Seemingly on the hot seat for the better part of the last two seasons, Marrone’s tenure in Duval has concluded after a 1-15 season that ushered him out with a 23-43 record over four-plus seasons.
Marrone, 56, took over as an interim coach for the final two games of the 2016 season and helmed a surprising 2017 march to the AFC Championship Game after being hired full-time.
Since then, though, victories have been difficult to find, a franchise quarterback has eluded the Jaguars and a cast of all-star defenders — Jalen Ramsey, Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue, among them — have departed Duval. So too, now, has Marrone.
Amazingly, when including the pair of postseason wins during the 2017 campaign, Marrone’s win total over the last three seasons equaled that one successful campaign’s 12 victories.
While the aforementioned defensive departures garnered much ado, the failure to find or find confidence with a franchise QB plagued Marrone’s tenure.
Despite having a surprisingly successful rookie season — at least statistically — in 2019, Gardner Minshew competed for starts in 2020 with Mike Glennon and rookie Jake Luton, each of them notching at least three starts. They joined Blake Bortles, Nick Foles and Cody Kessler in the Jaguars’ never-ending QB carousel under Marrone.
Even before Marrone’s expected dismissal, successors names were bandied about, among them former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and current Ohio State coach Ryan Day.
Regardless of who takes on the role as the new Jacksonville head coach, it will be one of a great many changes for Khan’s franchise, which has made the playoffs just once since 2008.
The team moved on from general manager Dave Caldwell earlier this season and never appeared to view Minshew as a potential franchise quarterback.
Now, with the No. 1 overall pick, the Jaguars will enter the 2021 season with a new quarterback, a new general manager and, now officially, a new head coach.
