Doug Marrone second least likely to succeed among new coaching hires, according to Gregg Rosenthal
By Daniel Lago
The Jacksonville Jaguars are hoping minimal changes to the coaching staff will be enough to succeed, but that doesn’t seem likely.
Gus Bradley ended his tenure as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars cemented as statistically the worst coach in the history of the NFL. Working from that fact, it’s somewhat understandable that the Jacksonville organization, namely owner Shad Khan, has levied the blame for the team’s pathetic results over the last few years on the much maligned Bradley.
Even if he hasn’t publicly stated it, Khan’s message from his actions are clear: he thinks the team has a good roster and some good talent evaluators, but Bradley really was that bad.
Hopefully he’s right, because promoting Doug Marrone to head coach from his interim tag doesn’t seem to indicate much change heading into 2017. Marrone is keeping both the offensive and defensive coordinator, and it would be surprising if Blake Bortles wasn’t the starting quarterback in week 1.
With so little changing, it’s not surprising to see Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com rank the hiring of Marrone so low.
"5) Doug Marrone, Jacksonville Jaguars: Marrone’s strange departure from Buffalo two years ago didn’t reflect well on either side. His track record with the Bills sent similarly mixed signals. While the Bills went 9-7 in Marrone’s second season, that was largely due to defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz’s excellent group. Marrone’s offense was below average in both of his seasons in Buffalo, although his quarterbacks were EJ Manuel and Kyle Orton. Even Marrone’s tactics were inconsistent. His Bills moved away from an extreme run-heavy approach in his second season.More from Jacksonville Jaguars NewsJacksonville Jaguars should welcome Derrick Henry into the kingdomJaguars Rumors: Trent Baalke seems to be getting respect nowJaguars News: This division rival might be making a big moveFormer Jacksonville Jaguars S Johnathan Cyprien: “New Profession, Same Standards”Jacksonville Jaguars TE Evan Engram officially gets the franchise tag: 3 takeawaysThat’s a long-winded way of saying Marrone’s first stint as a head coach shouldn’t get Jaguars fans excited or scare them away. He’ll have the same offensive coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett, that he had in Buffalo. The Jaguars will have the same defensive coordinator, Todd Wash, as they did in 2016. (That’s likely to the chagrin of cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who said he wanted a “complete change” of the team’s scheme and staff.)Promoting Marrone (who was an assistant in Jacksonville the past two seasons) and retaining Wash supports my theory that the Jaguars didn’t want to shake up their current staff. They doubled down on the Blake Bortles era under general manager David Caldwell. Marrone has some talent to work with, but he might not have a long timeline to turn things around before new executive VP Tom Coughlin makes a clean sweep of the organization."
From the outside, it definitely appears as though the Jaguars are banking on some significant “addition by subtraction” via the dismissal of Bradley. While there is a lot to like about Marrone and his qualifications to be a head coach in a vacuum, it is hard to be bullish on his chances to right the ship given the recent track record of the team and the now-present culture that condoned losing.