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.
Shad Khan needs to look at what Byron Leftwich is doing in Tampa Bay.
Imagine how much Trevor Lawrence would benefit from having Leftwich overseeing his development. Meyer didn’t have a plan to bring him along and the former Clemson Tiger’s growth has been hindered as a result. Meanwhile, Brady is flourishing at 44 years young under the tutelage of Leftwich.
Keep in mind that Leftwich runs the Buccaneers’ offensive meetings, affording head coach Bruce Arians the chance to focus on other facets of the team’s preparation. Furthermore, Leftwich calls the play on the field, so even though he doesn’t have any head-coaching experience, he knows how to run a team.
Jaguars legend Jimmy Smith also endorses Leftwich as the next head coach in Jacksonville. The former NFL wide receiver recently spoke to TMZ and said that Leftwich is the right man to lead the Jags, “when I think about our next coach, that’s the guy”.
"That’s a guy that at this stage right now that we’re here for the franchise, you need a guy who’s gonna love the city and love the fans and love the franchise. I can’t think of another guy better than Byron Leftwich."
There’s also the fact Leftwich was drafted seventh overall by the Jaguars in 2003. Although he didn’t become a star, he knows how a locker room operates and is well-acquainted with the city of Jacksonville. Other than the lack of experience, there are no holes in his resume and he needs to start somewhere, why not do it where he started his NFL career?
Shad Khan had a chance to interview Leftwich but chose Urban Meyer instead.
You could make the case Khan had already made up his mind he wanted to hire Meyer and nobody should blame him. After all, he won everywhere he had gone and was one of the winningest head coaches in college football. Having said that, the Jaguars’ owner should have paid attention to the red flags that followed him throughout his career.
Back at Florida, players were arrested at a high rate and allegedly had them cover failed drug tests as injuries. Then, there was the infamous Circle of Trust, a group of players Meyer cuddled and favored during his tenure as the head coach of the Gators.
Things weren’t much better at Ohio State, where Meyer knew of assistant Zach Smith’s history of domestic abuse and didn’t do anything about it. The controversy didn’t stop when the head coach made the leap to the pros and from the very beginning, he began to make a series of dubious choices, including the hire of Chris Doyle to lead their sports performance.
Looking back, Khan misjudged Meyer’s character and didn’t vet him the way he should have. On the contrary, Leftwich is well-respected around the league record and you will often hear his peers speak highly of him. He’s one of the NFL’s rising stars among the head coaching ranks and he could have been the Jaguars head coach earlier this year.
Shad Khan will have another chance to interview Leftwich as soon as Monday and if he is everything Meyer was supposed to be but wasn’t he shouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger and sign him.