Marvin Jones Jr. discusses differences in Jaguars past and current regime

The Jacksonville Jaguars are 2-5 following their disappointing loss to the New York Giants in Week 7. However, they’re many ways in which they’re better than their 2021 counterpart. For starters, Trevor Lawrence, a potential franchise quarterback, has taken several steps forward in his development, and Urban Meyer, the man that ruined his rookie campaign, is no longer running the show.

Wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr., who’s been part of the past and current regimes recently had a sitdown with NFL writer Michael Silver and talked about Meyer’s negative impact and toxic culture. The former Cal Golden Bear says that he and other Jaguars were originally thrilled about Meyer’s arrival but the luster quickly faded after he showed his true colors. In fact, he knew things weren’t going to work two weeks into training camp.

“We had almost 100 percent attendance in April, which is rarely done in the NFL”, Jones said. “We were kind of progressing, everyone was kind of feeling it, and then once camp came in, we were here every day and the grind came, and then certain people started showing their kind of true colors but I had to be around the second week of camp”.

Jones goes on to say that it wasn’t just one thing but rather discrepancies between Meyer’s words and actions.

“I wouldn’t say it was anything he said. Just the vibes in the meetings, he said one thing and it wouldn’t be true. Look everybody in the league, we all have phones, we can all fact-check. Just be real. That’s one of the big things, I’m gonna be wonderful not the number one thing, everybody knows in any business and anything is somebody that’s transparent, somebody that’s real, that actually tells the truth because especially in this age, you can look up everything and see if it was right or not. I think there was a little bit of that. That’s when it started to get rocky”, Jones said.

On the other hand, Jones says that Doug Pederson understands players, how they’re supposed to practice, and how to carry themselves both on and off the field. In Jones’ eyes, a coach that does that will automatically get respect. Here’s the whole exchange with Silver, where he also talks about his stint with the Detroit Lions.

The Urban Meyer hire was always going to backfire in the Jaguars’ face

Look, Marvin Jones is too honorable to throw people under the bus, even someone as despicable as Meyer. As a matter of fact, they had a confrontation last year and Jones’ downplayed it. Moreover, he doesn’t gain much by exposing his former coaches’ dirt.

While the Meyer hire was welcomed with skepticism, Jones, as anybody should, gave him the benefit of the doubt. But he showed front the get-go that he wasn’t fit to coach an NFL team. For example, he hired Chris Doyle as his director of sports performance. Doyle had a history of mistreating and abusing players, so he’s not the kind of person you want to run an athletic department.

Meyer didn’t seem to care and Doyle ended up resigning after the backlash his hiring rightfully produced. That was just one of many poor decisions Meyer did during his failed stint in Jacksonville with the most infamous one most likely being the time he was caught dancing improperly with a woman that wasn’t his wife.

Jones is pretty good on the football field but he’s also well-respected around the league and if anyone is qualified to talk about good and bad NFL teams, it’s him. Despite the fact that they have a losing record, Jones knows these aren’t your same old Jaguars. Whether he’ll be around when they finally turn the corner, that’s hard to tell, as he’s set to become a free agent in 2023.