Jacksonville Jaguars extend contracts of EVP Tom Coughlin, GM Dave Caldwell, HC Doug Marrone

After their most successful season in 15+ years, the Jacksonville Jaguars have decided to double down on their leadership structure with new contracts.

Despite some fairly low expectations nationally heading into the 2017 regular season, there was belief internally that the Jaguars could make some noise in the NFL.

12 wins and an AFC championship game appearance later, the new leadership in Jacksonville was right.

New head coach Doug Marrone and new executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin came and in immediately shaped a winning culture that had been missing under Gus Bradley and it paid off big time.

As a result, the Jaguars have decided to ride this train for a few more years.

The retention of Dave Caldwell as a GM was a bit of a polarizing move last season since he essentially condoned Gus Bradley’s horrific coaching for 3+ years, but it was inarguable that he made the roster more talented over his tenure. It’s now clear he’s assembled a high end roster, despite missing at the quarterback position in a larger sense.

Jaguars owner Shad Khan released the following statement on the moves:

"“The decision to extend the contracts of Tom, Dave and Doug isn’t so much a reward for last season, which no doubt was impressive, as it is to recognize their importance to our football team this coming season and for years to follow,” …“We’re past celebrating the accomplishments of our division title and playoff run, and now it’s time to take the next step.  We need the right leadership firmly in place to make that happen, and it’s good to know we’ll have that with Tom, Dave and Doug secure in their roles with the Jacksonville Jaguars.”"

This isn’t wholly unexpected, but it’s interesting to see if this new found long-term job security will affect how the front office and coaching staff approaches the quarterback position this offseason.

If anything, this might make the braintrust more willing to draft a developmental passer and bring Bortles back for one more year. I think that should have been the plan regardless, but this is a good sign if you’re in the “draft a QB” camp.

Regardless of the QB position, this is a well deserved extension for all parties. The Jaguars haven’t had a winning season in over a decade and they made a heck of a turnaround after a 3 win season.