Shad Khan should have interviewed and hired Byron Leftwich last year

Urban Meyer must have made a great sales pitch to Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan earlier this year. That’s the only reasonable way to explain how he became the Jags’ head coach. Especially, when you take into account that he got the job over Arthur Smith, Robert Saleh, Eric Bieniemy, and Raheem Morris, all of whom interviewed for the opening.

One candidate the Jaguars should have interviewed but didn’t was Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and if they had, there’s a good chance he would have been hired and the team would look significantly different right now.

Leftwich is currently one of the NFL’s top offensive minds. After he hung up the cleats, he joined Bruce Arians’ staff with the Arizona Cardinals. He moved his way up and became the offensive coordinator when the Cards fired Mike McCoy. Later, Leftwich would follow Arians to Tampa Bay. Together, they have overseen a pretty productive offense over the last three years.

The Bucs currently have the top-ranked offense in the NFL and Leftwich’s input in it is a big reason why. Having Tom Brady, and a well-rounded wide receiver corps make Leftwich’s job easier but he isn’t a one-year wonder and his success goes beyond the talent he’s got at hand. He’s been good at what he does since before Tampa Bay signed Brady.

In his last year with the Buccaneers, Jameis Winston completed 60.7 percent of his passes for 5,109 yards with 33 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. Who was the offensive coordinator at the tie? You guessed it, Leftwich. Such a high number of interceptions doesn’t look great on paper, but that has more to do with Winston’s tendencies as a signal-caller and less with Leftwich.

That’s precisely why Leftwich will most likely be a hot candidate in the next hiring cycle. Here’s why Khan should have interviewed him last year.