Ex Jaguars HC Urban Meyer not ready to concede he did a horrible job

The Jacksonville Jaguars thought Urban Meyer was going to help them right the ship after years of underwhelming results. Instead, he left the Jags in worst shape than they were when he was hired. While Meyer will be remembered as one of the worst head coaches in NFL history, he’s not ready to accept he did a horrible job during his short stint in Jacksonville.

Meyer made an appearance on the All Things Covered Podcast and told hosts Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden he had no plans of coaching after leaving Ohio State in 2018 but the Jaguars job was appealing enough to convince him to return to the sidelines.

“I got approached by a few teams and this team really appealed to me”, Meyer said. “Trevor Lawrence, who might be a Hall of Famer, he’s that good. Obviously, it didn’t go well, and I had no plans of doing that. It just happened”.

The closest Meyer came to accepting his tenure with the Jaguars was a disaster was when he said he wishes he would’ve done some things differently. However, he didn’t go into specifics, so it’s hard to tell which specific things he was referring to.

Meyer’s stint with the Jags got off to a bad start, hiring Chris Doyle as the team’s director of sports performance. That was the first of many questionable incidents he had before the Jaguars decided they had enough and kicked him to the curb. Here’s Meyer’s exchange with McFadden and Peterson. He starts talking about the Jags at the 18:00 mark.

The Jacksonville Jaguars thrived once Urban Meyer was given the boot

Meyer’s lack of accountability is not surprising. After all, he hasn’t taken responsibility for the many missteps he’s had during his coaching career and he might never do it. But the truth is that it doesn’t matter. Doug Pederson has done an excellent job of removing whatever stench his predecessor left and turned the Jags into a playoff team in his first season at the helm.

Players that underperformed under Meyer went on to have bounce-back seasons in 2022 and won’t hesitate to praise Pederson. Whether it’s safety Andrew Wingard or cornerback Shaquille Griffin, you will be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t think the Jags are in better shape with Pederson at the helm.

In the end, things worked out just fine for the Jaguars. They’re coming off their first playoff trip since 2017 and they have a head coach to make sure they’ll return in the future. Whatever happened when Urban Meyer was the head coach is no longer relevant.