Is Mularkey a vastly different approach from Jack Del Rio?  Yes.  Is he vastly different from Tom Coughlin?  No.  Coughlin and Mularkey have far more in common – especially in wanting to instill discipline in their teams – than either of them have with the Jack “players’ coach” Del Rio.  All three men have something in common though: poor first seasons.

It’s amazing what a change of scenery can do for you.  Source: US-Presswire

Coughlin had a very tough assignment when he was brought in to coach an expansion team.  The talent was there, yet questionable, and it is tough to build and organization from scratch.  When building from scratch, you need that discipline and order.  Coughlin provided that.  He built a culture of winning in one of the NFL’s youngest teams.  That culture took time to develop.  For him, it was one season.  The Jags were 4-12 (franchise worst) in 1995.  The next season they made it to the AFC Championship and the playoffs the three years following.

Del Rio, coming off of a few bad seasons to end Coughlin’s tenure, was a good departure from the discipline of the Coughlin era.  He was more lax, relied on personality and played to the attitude of his football team.  Del Rio’s Jaguars reflected the personnel of the team more than they reflected the coach.  Del Rio inherited a 6-10 team and seemingly made it worse.  The Jags were 5-11 in Del Rio’s first season before having four .500 or better seasons over the next four years.  Del Rio ultimately faded down the stretch and opened the door for Mularkey.

Mularkey is not starting by building his own foundation, he is starting by building off a poor foundation laid by his predecessor (and his boss).  Mularkey is trying to instill discipline and order to a team left in turmoil.  What he is trying to do is a departure from the approach of Del Rio, he most winning coach in Jaguars history.  Mularkey’s team is still learning that process.  This season promises to be the worst in Jaguars history, but, like his predecessors, Mularkey is going to struggle his first year.

Yeah, the Jags may not win another game.  2-14 could very well be the Jaguars’ fate.  But he development of a team is more than just players learning their positions.  It’s also about culture.  While the team is getting resultes, it’s easy to change a culture.  Otherwise there will be growing pains.  The penalties and discontent in Jacksonville are a reflection of growing pains, not Mularkey.  Is Mularkey the cause?  Yes.  Will this continue?  No.  Like all growth, things will settle down. The key is to keep his team hungry.  The Jaguars still have buy-in, they are just getting tired of not seeing results.

Whether Mularkey is in Jacksonville next year or not, keep in mind that the task he took on is much more than simply improving a football team: he’s changing a culture.

Is changing a culture worth giving the guy another year or should we move on and hope for a guy who can get results in year one?  You know my opinion, let’s hear yours.

- Luke N. Sims

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You can also find me on Twitter @LukeNSims

Last year the Jaguars used a fullback on 48.3% of snaps (511 of 1058).  Greg Jones was in on 38.71% of all offensive snaps last season.  Brock Bolen and Montell Owens were used to a much lesser extent.  Kuharsky makes the case that the teams in the AFC South need to move away from the antiquated offenses that they field.  Everyone behind the Texans focuses more on the run game, and even though the Texans use the fullback position more than anyone else in the division they have a very versatile threat in the backfield in James Casey.

With a new head coach, albeit one who is committed to the run and the fullback position, will the Jaguars continue to use the fullback as much as they did in the Jack Del Rio era?

The Mularkey and Bob Bratkowski led offense is going to be more focused on options and getting the offensive attack to be more balanced than it has been in the past.  This should lead to more passing to the backs.  I would imagine that Jones will have to show that he is better at catching the ball than Bolen in order to keep his job.  The blocking of fullbacks in Jaguars teams is highly valued and shouldn’t be overlooked. However, a need for more receiving options to help Blaine Gabbert can’t be overlooked.

It will be interesting to see the future of the position on the team after the first year of Mularkey’s time as head coach.  It makes me worry that maybe Jones won’t be with the team much longer with his larger salary, aging body, and the movement toward the passing game.  But if someone can integrate it will, my money’s on Mularkey.

- Luke N. Sims

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In order to keep this discussion more relevant to the modern Jaguars era, we will place an emphasis on the more recent years for the Jaguars rather than delving into the early days of the franchise.

The table showing the passing offense and the rushing offense over the last few years is pretty helpful in looking at the absolute lack of progress that was made under Jack Del Rio.  While the offense had some good seasons – oh the glory days of 2007 – there was no marked progress by the passing game, and the rushing offense wasn’t good enough to make the necessary contribution to win games consistently.

I like that the Jaguars hover around 2,000 yards of running in a season.  I think the amount shows a commitment to the run, which was one of the selling factors to me when I decided to start rooting for the Jags.  But the absolutely pedestrian numbers in the passing game shift the balance of the offense too far to the ground.  In the NFL a team is not necessarily balanced when the play calling is about 50/50.  For a team to eat up more yards and have a more effective offense, the play calling of a balanced offense seems to tend toward 60/40 in favor of the pass.  This is not necessarily true if you are the Saints, Packers, or Patriots.

Ok, I'm going to be honest, I didn't think Leftwich could even run....Source: Fernando Medina-US PRESSWIRE

The Jaguars have a tendency to lean heavy on the run, even when the passing offense is doing decently well.  In five of the seven years sampled, the Jags ran more run plays than they did passing plays.  A shift toward the pass occurred after the 2007 season when Garrard and Gray put up excellent numbers (28 touchdowns and 3rd most yards in our seven year sample).  The shift toward airing the bal out was not as effective as anticipated, however, and resulted in less offensive scoring despite gaining more yards.

The Jags have leaned run for a long time now.  It isn’t a bad strategy when the backfield is loaded with talent like Freddy T and MJD.  However, at some point an outside mind has to notice that the offense has been too reliant on the run and has grown stagnant over the most recent period of time.

That man appears to be Mike Mularkey and he is bringing a supporting cast with him in Bob Bratkowski and Jerry Sullivan that should help to reverse the Jaguars one-dimensional trend from recent years.  It isn’t that the team can’t throw the ball, it’s just that they aren’t as good as other teams.  Sure there needs to be better talent behind center, but sometimes an emphasis and increased repetition in games will lead to faster and stronger game-day development.

Some better receivers should help too.

- Luke N. Sims

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You can also find me on Twitter @LukeNSims