How The Jags Won Gus Bradley
By Luke Sims
Winning a head coach is the first step toward winning games for the Jacksonville Jaguars. For the second time in as many weeks the Jaguars have managed to snag a top level candidate out from under the nose of another team. For the GM position, it was taking Dave Caldwell away from the New York Jets. For Gus Bradley, it was taking him away from the Philadelphia Eagles.
For this we have two coaches to thank: Rex Ryan and Chip Kelly. We, Jaguar Nation, owe you a debt of gratitude.
By all accounts, the Eagles and Bradley were going to reach a deal at some point on the day of his second interview. Instead, he came back home and the Eagles were able to lure Kelly away from Oregon. In a quiet move, the Jaguars continued their plans of interviewing Bradley on Wednesday, and then it all came into place. Bradley, Caldwell, and Shad Khan made too good of a team for any of them to turn away from. The 12 hour interview they had together speaks volumes about coming together for a team and shaping a vision for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Jags, late in the head coaching search, were thought to be holding out for San Francisco 49ers OC Greg Roman. The news was quiet and, compared to teams like the Eagles, the number of interviewed candidates was not as high. Yet quality coaches like Bradley continued to stand out. With the Eagles out of contention as of yesterday, Bradley and the Jaguars made a perfect match.
We are happy to have Bradley and his top-tier defensive mind coming to Jacksonville. He will be the second defense focused head coach (third if we count interim head coach Mel Tucker) for the Jaguars. He’s got a big rebuild in front of him, but, then again, there was a lot of work to be done when he got to Seattle too. And now the Seahawks could be a perennial playoff team.
What do you think of the Bradley hire? It wasn’t what everyone expected and he’s the only defensive minded head coach hired thus far.
– Luke N. Sims
Feel free to leave comments on here or visit us at Facebook or Twitter!
You can also find me on Twitter @LukeNSims