Jaguars news: Josh McDaniels tries to give Urban Meyer a run for worst NFL coach ever
• The Jaguars also kicked horrible HC to the curb 2 years ago
• Both were pretty bad but which one was worse?
The Las Vegas Raiders fired head coach Josh McDaniels, along with general manager Dave Zigler) at 12:00 a.m. PT/3:00 a.m. AM for vastly underachieving. Nearly two years ago, the Jacksonville Jaguars also kicked Urban Meyer to the curb very late at night.
While there's no doubt both McDaniels and Meyer left their respective teams in shambles, both were dreadful for different reasons, which begs the question, who was the worst of the two?
The case for Jaguars HC Urban Meyer as the worst ever
Meyer was dubbed a program builder in college, winning national championships with Florida and Ohio State. This luster prompted Jaguars owner Shad Khan to aggressively court Meyer without looking at all his baggage and red flags. To nobody's surprise, Meyer's tenure was a resounding disaster. When Meyer brought in Chris Doyle — known for allegedly abusing players and making racist remarks — to his coaching staff, that should've been a sign of things to come.
During his brief stint in Jacksonville, Meyer motivated his players and staff by routinely threatening them. The embattled head coach was routinely in the news for the wrong reasons. He benched running back James Robinson for no reason and got into a heated argument with veteran Marvin Jones Jr. Just recently, safety Andrew Wingard talked about the time Meyer called him on the phone and demanded he apologize for calling him a rookie head coach.
Meyer was equally bad off the field. Following a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday Night Football, he decided not to fly back with the team and stay in Ohio to "spend time with his grandkids." It turns out he went out and was caught on tape getting frisky a woman who wasn't his wife Shelley. The straw that broke the camel's back was when Josh Lambo claimed Meyer kicked him during warm-ups and used expletives to demand he made his kicks.
Not long after Lambo's comments, the Jaguars fired Urban Meyer. And just like the Raiders with Josh McDaniels, they waited until midnight to part ways with the head coach. Looking back, it's possible that the organization would've shrugged Meyer's poor behavior under the carpet if he were winning, but he wasn't. He mustered a measly two wins in 13 games and there weren't any signs Jacksonville was going to turn the corner.
It took the Jaguars a while to recover from the Urban Meyer debacle but they've gotten back on track under Doug Pederson's ship. They made the playoffs and won the AFC South last year and their 6-2 record is currently tied with the Kansas City Chiefs for the best in the league, so it's fair to say that things have turned out to be fine for the Jags.