Ex Jaguars HC Urban Meyer's comments about Joe Burrow should surprise nobody

The Jacksonville Jaguars went 1-15 in 2020 but they managed to sink even lower after hiring Urban Meyer as their head coach the following year. Throughout his short stint with the Jags, Meyer consistently found ways to make the news for the wrong reasons, often making puzzling comments about Jacksonville or their opponents. Phoenix Cardinals anyone?

Even after stepping away from football, Meyer is still a trending topic. Most recently, for his inability to realize how great Joe Burrow would be. Before becoming a superstar at LSU, Burrow was a backup at Ohio State. Meyer — the Buckeyes coach at the time — didn't mince words when he evaluated his on-field performance and called him a "D2 quarterback". He also told Burrown that "you throw like a girl".

Burrow ended up transferring to LSU after hardly getting playing time. The decision paid off as he went on to become the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft and one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL right now.

Meanwhile, Meyer left Jacksonville with a tarnished reputation for consistently lying and failing to put his players in a position to succeed. The fact that the Jags won just two games with him at the helm and he never held himself accountable for his questionable decision-making made it easy for owner Shad Khan to move on from him just 11 months after hiring him, which was 11 too many in retrospect.

Just recently, Asher Grodman reminded everyone how bad Meyer was and made fun of him when the Jaguars made a video release of their 2023 schedule announcement, calling him a joke that didn't fly with the team, literally.

The Jaguars have rebounded from the short-lived Urban Meyer era

Meyer didn't imagine the work coaches need to put in to consistently win games, often delegating work to his staff. Then again, Khan isn't free of blame and deserves criticism for going after him without doing due diligence. The silver lining is that Khan learned that he needed to be more involved when making crucial decisions such as hiring a head coach.

Also, Khan deserves credit for landing Doug Pederson when he had several candidates to choose from. Similarly, the Jaguars have immensely raised their standards, and won't settle for anything but the best.

Maybe Trevor Lawrence would be even better if Meyer hadn't hindered his development and put his rookie season to waste. However, the Jags should be thrilled about the growth he made under Pederson last year. Similarly, many players that underperformed in 2021 bounced back last year, and that's what the organization must be focused on ahead of the 2023 season.

You have probably heard that you must hit rock bottom to realize how much you've fallen. The silver lining of hiring Meyer is that the Jaguars realize they had to put in the work to become a good football team. Looking back, they're thrilled they moved from Meyer after less than a year. Similarly, Joe Burrow is surely glad he left Ohio State and joined a program that believed in him.