After several weeks and a couple of twists, the Jacksonville Jaguars have completed their coaching staff. Most additions have earned praise. A few others have raised eyebrows, but if there's one that is deserving of more attention is that of offensive coordinator Grant Udinski.
In their search for an offensive coordinator, the Jags appeared to be locked on Los Angeles Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase. However, he withdrew his name from consideration, and they quickly turned their attention to Udinski, who had spent the last three years with the Minnesota Vikings.
While he's lacking experience at the position, Udinski got rave reviews from both inside and outside the Vikings building. For instance, Ben Goessling of the Minnesota Star Tribune recently talked about how he's ready to lead the Jaguars offense.
During an apperance on 1010 XL's Helmets and Heels, Goessling talked about a story he was doing on Udinksi and how quickly the young assistant moved up the coaching ranks.
"So the story on this is kind of funny. I was in Kevin O'Connell's office. This would have been the summer of 23 talking to him for a story, a season preview interview with the coach, the thing that you know most beat writers end up doing," Goessling said. "Grant Udinski, at this point, is still in a little bit of an administrative role, but they've given him some additional duties. And he buzzes in on a walkie-talkie, and O'Connell gets this amused look on his face of, 'Okay, yeah, what are you what are you working on now? Or something like that."
Goesling continued, "He hangs up and who is that? And he says, 'Oh, Grant, you didn't see he's going to be the guy that in 10 years, you guys are all saying, I should be fired, and he should be the head coach, because he's like this, 27 year old at the time. He's brilliant. Administratively, he's got some things to work on. It's probably not his best skill set, but he knows football and his crazy level, and they hired him initially as, like, a chief of staff kind of role."
"And O'Connell said they get talking to him, and it was like interviewing a guy that knows how to build a car from scratch for a job at a car wash. They basically figured out this guy is all football. He was, like, almost a 4.0, student in college, and basically knows football on a level that most assistant coaches, and certainly assistant coaches of that age do not. So they promoted him pretty quickly."
During his stint in Minneapolis, Udinksi routinely got lots of praise for his work with the quarterbacks. Last year in particular, he mentored J.J. McCarthy and worked with him throughout the season to ensure he was up to speed. In Jacksonville, he will do the same for Trevor Lawrence. Below is the full exchange:
Grant Udinski's lack of experience shouldn't be an issue for the Jaguars
Just last year, Goessling wrote a piece on Grant Udinski's ascension through the Vikings ranks, and how the assistant did anything he could to help head coach Kevin O'Connell and the quarterbacks. During his exchange on 1010 XL, he goes into detail about how his availability was a plus.
"I imagine that's a big part of why he got this job because they're probably looking at this for Trevor Lawrence and saying this is something that could be really helpful. His approach has essentially been whatever you need from me. I am there to do it," Goessling said.
"He will typically be on the practice field, and I think one of the days I was trying to talk to him, I waited for probably 45 minutes after practice, because he's almost always out there with Sam Darnold working on something, whether he's coaching him or saying, Okay, you need a pass rusher. Okay, I will, I will pretend to be a defensive end coming at you. You need a receiver. I got you, I'm not catching the ball."
Goessling then shares that when anyone needed something from Kevin O'Connell, he would just channel them to Udinski,
"With JJ McCarthy, it became this summer when McCarthy is asking questions at 11:30 at night, [offensive coordinator] Wes Phillips has got kids. He's trying to get to bed. He'll just say, text grant, he's up, he'll be able to talk to you."
One of Udinksi's red flags has been his age. He's 29, so he's the same age or even younger than some of the players he'll be coaching. But based on the anecdotes Goessling shared, it doesn't seem like age will be an issue. If anything, that could make him even more relatable.
Grant Udinski was a rising star with the Minnesota Vikings, and he'll now get to coach his whole unit. It's too early to tell how things will play out, but it's easy to see why the Jacksonville Jaguars thought he was the right guy for the job.