Jaguars’ Week 6 victory shows Urban Meyer has not lost locker room

Winning cures everything, and that holds for Jacksonville Jaguars HC Urban Meyer moving forward after beating the Miami Dolphins 23-20 in Week 6 of the 2021 season.

Say what you will about Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer, but he and his team put together a heartfelt performance to achieve their first victory of the season this past Sunday. Efforts such as this from starting running back James Robinson show that this team is still determined to do whatever it takes to win.

After the game, the Jaguars’ head coach spoke to his players and showed that he cares more than just winning football games in Duval County, Florida. Here’s a sneak peek of the team’s locker room after earning their first victory of the season.

External speculation surfaced over whether Meyer had lost the locker room’s support. In addition, some pundits believed that had the Jaguars lost on Sunday versus the Miami Dolphins, Urban, and the team would have parted ways. Ultimately, he gave the Jags organization what they desperately needed after 20 consecutive regular-season losses, a hard-earned win.

Urban Meyer could have resigned by now if he wasn’t committed to the Jaguars organization.

Many of you have seen players and coaches alike quit on an organization—for example, former Atlanta Falcons head coach Bobby Petrino. Like Urban Meyer, Petrino made the jump from the collegiate coaching ranks to the NFL in 2007.

However, after a miserable 3-10 start with the Falcons, the former Louisville Cardinal head coach skipped town by leaving notes on each NFL player’s locker. While Bobby went to extreme lengths of betrayal, Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer could have resigned after both his off-field incident and on-field struggles to include an 0-5 start. Instead, he gave Jacksonville their first victory of the 2021 campaign, which is a great building block for stability moving forward.

The Jaguars need stability at the head coaching position to grow.

The Jacksonville Jaguars organization has been through it all in the past five years in coaching and personnel changes. From an AFC Championship game early in 2018 to now, they have had two different head coaches and have had a different offensive coordinator each season.

While previous regimes held firesales of All-Pro caliber players, the Urban Meyer era is still in its infancy to acquire more difference-makers and will take time to develop. However, with a plethora of talented young players such as franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence, consistency and minimal organization instability will be essential keys moving forward to improving as a football team on the field.

Ultimately, Sunday’s win galvanized the locker room, and it is Urban Meyer’s chance to grow hand in hand with his players as a coach.