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Jacksonville Jaguars: Doug Marrone deserves to be head coach, right now

By Luke Sims

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The Jacksonville Jaguars have a brain trust in their coaching staff and it may not include the team’s current head coach.

During the 2015 offseason, the Jacksonville Jaguars brought in Doug Marrone (former head coach of the Buffalo Bills) to be the offensive line coach, Nathaniel Hackett (former offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills) to be their quarterbacks coach, and Greg Olson (young quarterback whisperer) to be the offensive coordinator.

The offense seems to be the only part of the team showing any improvement and those three are a big part of it.

Meanwhile, the defense modeled after the Seattle Seahawks is rapidly collapsing under head coach Gus Bradley (former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator) and his old friend Bob Babich (former Chicago Bears defensive coordinator). In the third year of the massive rebuild, Bradley’s whole team was supposed to be “built” but even his specialty hasn’t formed up yet.

After the Week 6 loss to the Houston Texans, it’s clear that something has to change. Polling the fan base immediately after the game indicates that the desire for change is immediate and it starts at the top. There are coaching issues holding the young team back, not letting the talent really push the team forward.

Of all the people available to step into a vacancy (there’s no indication that there will be one at this time), Doug Marrone seems the most logical choice. If the Jags fire Gus Bradley at some point in the near future, it should be to give Marrone a chance to show what he can do.

Marrone was creating quite a team with the Bills before stepping down as head coach following the 2014 season. His former team, not helmed by Rex Ryan, is turning out to be pretty impressive and I think some of the credit should be given to Marrone for that. He was just 15-17 in two seasons with the Bills, but that mark is much better than what Gus Bradley (8-30) has given the Jaguars to this point.

A while ago I speculated that Marrone may be looking to replace Bradley at some point. Now seems as good of a time as any for the head coach turned offensive line coach to step up. Keeping his eyes on the top spot, a move to Marrone would not be as disruptive as many other coaching changes.

In fact, it could be highly positive.

Marrone still has that offensive brain trust to keep Blake Bortles and the offense on track and he’ll be able to make the adjustments on defense (goodbye, Babich) that need to be done to fit the personnel the team has and demand a defense that holds the opposing offense accountable and is held accountable by the head coach.

What do you think? Is it time to see what Doug Marrone can do?

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