Gus Bradley’s body of work does not warrant another season
By Luke Sims
Gus Bradley, head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, has been told he will return for the 2016 season, extending his tenure with the Jags to four seasons.
When it was announced that Gus Bradley would be returning to the Jacksonville Jaguars for 2016, some fans were less than pleased. The young, first-time head coach has not had a stellar record in his first few seasons with the Jags and some question his ability to ever get the Jags to relevance.
The fact of the matter is that as of the time of this writing, Gus Bradley is just 12-25 in three seasons. That’s an historically bad number for any head coach. Ever.
Now, I’m a big fan of preaching stability. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens are the gold standard when it comes to hiring a coach and sticking with him for better or for worse and those two franchises have been damn near indestructible over the last few decades. It has built a strong franchise.
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That’s exactly what owner Shad Khan is looking to do with the Jaguars, providing the franchise with an extended period of stability under general manager Dave Caldwell and head coach Gus Bradley. That’s an admirable goal.
But does Bradley deserve it?
Based objectively on his wins and losses, which are the ultimate judge of things in the NFL, it’s tough to say that Bradley deserves to finish out his contract. 2016 could be much of the same from the first-time coach.
As we all look at the actions of Shad Khan to keep Bradley around, we need to weigh the value that stability has for the franchise against the value of Bradley as the head coach. For some of us, it’d be shocking to see him turn the Jags into contenders. For others, it seems he’s almost there.
In my mind, his body of work – regardless of his boundless spirit and excellent upbeat attitude – doesn’t warrant remaining with the Jags through 2016. That said, if it provides stability, that may just be what the Jaguars need.