Disgraced Ex Jaguars HC Urban Meyer gets the top spot in dubious list

The Jacksonville Jaguars have had good coaches throughout their history. Tom Coughlin is without a doubt the best one but Doug Pederson could eventually make a run for the title if he keeps winning. That said, the Jags have also had their fair share of awful coaches, and none was worse than Urban Meyer who turned the team upside down in less than a year. In fact, he was so bad that he has a strong case for the worst NFL head coach ever. Mike Tanier certainly believes he deserves that distinction.

Tanier gave Meyer the top spot in his list of worst head coaches in NFL history, arguing that his awfulness went beyond the football field.

"Meyer combined the worst impulses and actions of all the campus patricians who entered the NFL before him, and managed to come up with one or two new ones (namely, kicking people), in the course of less than a calendar year. There will never be an NFL coach like him again. "

Coming off a 1-15 season in 2020, the Jags were in dire need of a rebuild. In his desperation, owner Shad Khan turned to Urban Meyer, who made a name for himself for turning college programs into powerhouses. Unfortunately, Khan was so eager to bring in someone who was capable of steering the ship in the right direction that he failed to see all the red flags surrounding Meyer.

Wherever Meyer went in college, he would leave under dubious circumstances, whether it was Florida or Ohio State. Maybe Khan was aware of Meyer's baggage but didn't care. Either way, the Jaguars owner didn't put Meyer through the proper vetting process, not knowing he would soon come to regret it.

Right off the bat, Meyer made questionable decisions, hiring Chris Doyle as the team's director of sports performance. Doyle had allegedly abused and disparaged players at Iowa. The decision came under scrutiny and Doyle was given the boot just one day after getting introduced. But that was just the beginning of several incidents Jacksonville experienced during Meyer's stint at the helm.

By training camp, Meyer was already getting sideway looks across the league. The worst was yet to come though. He would get into spats with his handpicked coaching staff, questioning their credentials and bragging about being a winner in college.

Following the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 4, Meyer opted to remain in Ohio instead of flying back with the team so he could watch his grandkids. And by grandkids, he meant going out and dancing improperly with a woman who wasn't his wife Shelley.

If it wasn't enough. Meyer lied about the incident and later recanted his version of the event. Not long after, he would bench running back James Robinson — one of Jacksonville's top players at the time — because he felt like it. However, the straw that broke the camel's back was when Josh Lambo said that Meyer had allegedly kicked him and used expletives to "motivate him" before a football game.

Not only after Lambo's comments became widely known, Urban Meyer was kicked to the curb. And that was it. Less than a year after getting hired to turn the Jaguars around, he was fired. To make matters worse, he never held himself accountable and continuously pointed fingers at everyone but him, even after he was run out of town.

The Jaguars had the worst head coach in NFL history, but there's a silver lining

You know you're the worst coach in NFL history when you rank ahead of Matt Patricia, Adam Gase, and Bobby Petrino. Josh McDaniels recently made a case for dubious distinction but Meyer will most likely keep the title for a long time. On the other hand, as bad as the short-lived Urban Meyer era was, a few positives came out of it.

For starters, Khan realized he had to use a more detailed process to hire a head coach. Also, the Jaguars are coming off back-to-back winning seasons, the first time they achieved the feat since 2004-2005. Sure, they failed to make the playoffs last year but the Jaguars are in good shape, arguably the best they've been in a while.

Make no mistake, Urban Meyer was a dreadful head coach but his failure should remind the Jacksonville Jaguars how low they sunk just a few years ago. If anything, it should motivate them to try to consistently get better. Now, if they could also move on from a certain general manager...

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