It’s Khan’s Call, So How

I don’t know if Shad Khan will make a change in the Jaguars management this week. I suspect he will, having given us a hint in his statement after firing Tom Coughlin as Executive Vice President. “I determined earlier this fall that making this move at the conclusion of the 2019 season would be in everyone’s best interests . . .” he said announcing he had relieved Coughlin of his duties earlier than expected. So he’s had change on his mind for a while.

I’ve never liked the change process in sports. But maybe that’s just me. There’s a lot written about how coaches and executives didn’t get the job done and much less written about the family upheaval and all of the other things that change entails.

But it happens every year. In fact, the Monday after the regular season has its own name in the NFL: Black Monday.

We’ve all seen in our own careers when managers are in over their heads, are in the wrong job or have just worn out their welcome. Neither Head Coach Doug Marrone nor General Manager Dave Caldwell fit those descriptions but the decision-making process in the NFL is based on one thing: wins and losses.

And everybody who gets into that profession knows that.

“I truly take responsibility and apologize,” Marrone said in a heart-felt opening statement during a press conference this week. “You want your team to be doing well so people can have some pride and some joy, and we haven’t done that and that’s my job. What I haven’t done a good job [with] is our performance on Sundays.”

What if Khan looks around, maybe can’t get exactly who he wants, and decides that Marrone, without Tom Coughlin looking over his shoulder, is as good a choice as any? And decides that Caldwell’s personnel acumen was better without Coughlin’s input and keeps him as well?

Fans would be in an uproar. But does that matter?

At this point with television revenue paying for virtually all of an NFL team’s expenses, ticket revenue is a small part of a team’s overall income. But it all goes straight to the black on the bottom line.

What factors does Shad Khan use to make a management change? If you look at his businesses, Khan expects results and isn’t afraid to make changes. Of the estimated 40 or so businesses he owns, the Jaguars and his soccer club, Fulham in London, generate the most media attention but aren’t in the top half of his portfolio when it comes to revenue.

His main business, Flex-n-Gate, reports more than 24,000 employees worldwide. According to Forbes, it’s the 49th largest company in America, generating $8.3 billion in revenue this year. So changing management there would be a grinding process based on revenue, culture and profits. Khan would be involved at the top level. Apparently they did have a management change, perhaps at one of his manufacturing plants in Detroit sometime this year. But there’s not a whole lot of press coverage of a change at the top of an automotive parts maker.

At his soccer club, Khan has had nine managers in the last six years, including interim leaders or “caretakers” as they’re called. If things aren’t going right at Craven Cottage, he makes a change. Fulham has three “directors,” including Jaguars President Mark Lamping and Shad’s son Tony is also involved. They’re quick to flip the switch there and while it’s different than the NFL, if you’re not winning on the West End, there’s a quick hook.

Being more patient with his NFL team hasn’t paid off for Shad. He made one quick change after his first season as an owner, moving on from General Manager Gene Smith and Head Coach Mike Mularkey after a dismal 2-14 campaign in 2012. Gene hired Mike after being held over from the Wayne Weaver era. Mularkey didn’t have much of a chance with a sub-standard roster and Blaine Gabbert at quarterback but moreover Shad didn’t like how the team was being run in general.

When he asked about the Jaguars draft in 2012 he said it was like “going into an iron vault” to find out who they were looking at, even though he was the owner. It turned out to be Justin Blackmon who was productive for a couple years before he went off the deep end. But Shad didn’t like the secrecy or the process inside the building. He likes upward transparency. He wants to know what’s going on.

One thing we know about Khan’s decision-making process is that he hires the best. He’s not worried about where you’re based. He’s hired the best lawyers, the best planners, the best construction companies on their production and results. He does his homework.

So when picking a leadership team for the Jaguars, where does Shad go for advice?

He’s popular among the other NFL owners and with the league as well. He leans on their ideas, whether it’s the Cowboy’s Jerry Jones or Commissioner Roger Goodell. Khan is a good listener. Unlike most management decisions he’ll make across the spectrum of his investments, hiring the Head Coach of an NFL team comes under intense scrutiny. And he’ll be the one to make the call.

I once asked George Steinbrenner about hiring and re-hiring Billy Martin so many times. He said that there aren’t a lot of candidates for that job with a winning record. When Khan starts asking around he’ll no doubt talk with Sandy Montag and Jimmy Sexton, the two agents who represent most of the coaches out there, and get some ideas. Bringing in a “young gun” who’s a coordinator is a bit of a crap-shoot. There are hits and misses. Same with hiring a successful college coach. Guys available with a winning record in the NFL is a short list. Mike McCarthy and Ron Rivera are the two most prominent unemployed winners with NFL experience.

Khan has gone both ways with the Jaguars: Mularkey and Doug Marrone had NFL head-coaching experience. Gus Bradley did not.

What’s he looking for anyway? Gus Bradley could be termed a “players-coach,” trying to empower the players to hold each other accountable. And that didn’t work. Coughlin brought a whole different idea of accountability and aside from an injury-free 2017, that didn’t work either.

Is there a happy medium?

Each year at the “State of the Franchise” we hear Lamping go over the revenue statistics and how the Jaguars are near the bottom of the league each season. They’ve done a lot of things to try to enhance their revenue streams, including sponsors for the London game, but there’s one sure-fire way to bring in more money: win more games.

They’ve had four winning seasons since 2000 and one, in 2017, in the last ten years. Only once in the last nine years have they not suffered double-digit losses. They’ve won their division three times in their 25-year history. We can all agree with Lamping when he says “the fans have outpaced the team” when it comes to buying tickets and going to games based on performance.

This year they lost five straight games by at least 17-points, an NFL record. Compare that to the Chargers who are also 5-10 but nine of their losses have been by one score. Which team would you buy a ticket to watch?

Being a Jaguars fan isn’t easy. So hard in fact it was a running joke on a popular TV sitcom. And it’s not even the team’s record. “They’re not fun to watch,” one fan wrote me this week. “They’re not even entertaining, outside of the occasional (Gardner) ‘Minshew Magic,’” another said.

What Shad will do is anybody’s guess. Having been around him during games I can tell you he’s a real football fan. Combine that with his business success and you can only be certain that he’ll do his homework, spend the time and money, and try to make it right. Outside of that, what happens in the future is anybody’s guess.

Tom Coughlin

Coughlin Complexity Didn’t Work

It was January of 1994 and I was sitting in a temporary trailer outside the exterior hulk of the stadium that is now the home of the Jaguars. It was a full-fledged construction site with puddles everywhere as they were “renovating” the Gator Bowl to bring it up to NFL standards. In truth, it was a total re-build with just part of the west exoskeleton still standing. I was there for my regular, weekly, semi-clandestine meeting with David Seldin, the Jaguars president, to get “background” on what was going on with the franchise.

They were getting close to hiring a head coach, somebody to not only lead he football team but to build the entire organization and set the tone for the expansion franchise. I knew they had talked with Tony Dungy, at the time the Minnesota Vikings Defensive Coordinator. They also had discussions with Lou Holtz and even talked with Jimmy Johnson.

“Do you think you’ll hire somebody established or bring somebody else in,” I asked Seldin, fishing for a clue about where they were with the search.

“I think we’ll make our own star,” Seldin said flatly.

“Then hire Tom Coughlin,” I said from across the table.

Seldin pursed his lips and looked away, his face flushed in an instant.

I knew right then that Coughlin was not only on their radar, but he was their guy. It was only a question of when.

That happened the first week of February Tom was introduced as the Head Coach and General Manager of the Jaguars. He was friendly enough, but didn’t have that easy, casual manner dealing with the media that was the norm around here with Steve Spurrier in Gainesville and Bobby Bowden in Tallahassee.

There was a story going around that Coughlin didn’t listen to the radio on the way to work because it was too “distracting.” At the time I thought that was amusing.

But like a lot of the players, coaches and media that worked for or dealt with Tom I eventually came to understand it. He’s focused, dedicated and totally committed to getting the job done. That doesn’t mean I approved of how he went about it and in fact, we had our share of serious disagreements when it came to his tactics of coaching and dealing with the media.

But I was also privy to a completely different Tom Coughlin. His youngest daughter and my oldest daughter were good friends in high school. So I got to know him as a dad over time. We’d talk about all the things two dads with high school daughters talk about: where they were going, what they were doing together. I was always surprised at his ability to completely transform from an autocratic, unreasonable coach and executive to an engaged, caring and loving father.

There was nothing about Tom Coughlin, the dad that spilled over to Tom Coughlin, the coach.

Eventually that cost him his job. Nobody in Jacksonville liked Tom the coach. Almost nobody knew Tom the dad. He wouldn’t let them. His unparalleled philanthropic work with the Jay Fund failed to soften the harsh public opinion of Tom the coach.

Even after he sat out for a year and worked for the NFL, then taking the job as the head coach of the Giants, without the GM role, he was very much Tom Coughlin the coach without any of Tom Coughlin the dad.

“Do something to help yourself,” his wife Judy implored Tom early in his tenure with the Giants. “They hate you,” she said of the New York media who had a constant battle with Tom the coach.

Somewhere shortly after that, Coughlin began a transformation; establishing a rapport with his players and at the very least, tolerated the time he spent with the media.

And they won two Super Bowls.

Even when his time with the Giants came to and end,
the players who despised him at the start, penned love letters to Coughlin after his departure

“I respect how he conducted his business and also how passionate he is about his family,” Eli Manning wrote in The Players Tribune. “He loves talking about his wife, his children and grandchildren. Later, when I got married and had children of my own, he taught me about being a good husband, a good father, and a good man.”

Manning got to see the two Tom Coughlin’s early in his career in New York. He described Coughlin as a disciplined “Head Coach” during the season.

“Then all of a sudden, the offseason comes,” he explained. “You see him in the lunch room and he sits down to have lunch with you. He asks about your family and how things are going off the field. He tries to get to know you. He smiles. He laughs.”

“He was one of the most loyal men I would ever meet playing this game.,” said defensive back Antrel Rolle. “He became my guy, and I loved him for that.”

Steve Weatherford, Justin Tuck and Hall of Famer Michael Strahan also talk about love and their feelings for Coughlin.

“You know, there was a time when the very last thing I thought I would ever say to Tom was that I loved him,” Strahan says. “But now, that’s the only word to describe how I feel about the man. It’s love. I’m a part of his family and he’s a part of mine.”

I had read all about this transformation and figured it would continue when he was named the Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the Jaguars. But it didn’t. I don’t know if it was because he was removed from the day-to-day contact with the players from his perch in the front office, or he figured this team needed that “Old School” sort of discipline to get back on track. But over time it didn’t work.

Coughlin handpicked Doug Marrone to be the Head Coach of the Jaguars because Marrone would coach the team the way Tom wanted it to be coached. So when Marrone did something different in this year’s training camp, Coughlin let him know he didn’t approve.

You’d think Marrone might have some resentment, but that wasn’t the case.
“We talked every day. I wouldn’t use those terms that the relationship was strained, because I have so much respect for him and I listen,” Marrone said the day after Coughlin was fired. “To be around someone that has just a great heart, great principles, great family man. I think those are the things that come to my mind.”
Marrone was stuck between his respect for Coughlin (and the fact that he was his boss) and his belief in the NFL Players Association as a player’s advocate when it comes to the hefty fines levied by Coughlin for what he perceived as violations of team rules.

“The calendar and the clock are all set by the football season and the offseason,” is a quote from Coughlin’s book “Earn the Right to Win.”

That’s why the whole situation with fining Dante Fowler for missing non-mandatory rehab during the off-season seems way out of character, especially for the rules-driven Coughlin. Tom knows the rules. He knows the difference between the season and the offseason. He knows players can seek outside rehabilitation options in the off-season. It’s part of the collective bargaining agreement.

But for some reason Coughlin decided his own rules superseded the agreement the players had with the league. As well as I knew him, and for as long as I’d known him, Tom projected a level of hubris in his return to Jacksonville in his role as the EVP that wasn’t working for him or the people around him. And I don’t know why.

When the arbitrator ruled in favor of the Players Association last Monday, giving Fowler back the $700,000 in fines he had paid to the Jaguars it brought to light more than just Coughlin’s re-found autocratic manner. The NFLPA’s memo pointed out that a full 25% of all grievances filed against teams were filed against the Jaguars. It concluded saying players should “consider this when choosing their next team.”

That made Shad Khan’s decision to remove Coughlin from the equation easy, even with just two weeks left in the season. The Jaguars couldn’t compete with the 31 other teams in the free-agent market with that hanging over their head. Khan had already decided to make that move at the end of the year based on the poor performance the team has had since the 2017 AFC Championship game. He says he “reconsidered” after the NFLPA memo and made the move immediately.

Pay no attention to Fowler’s gloating or Ramsey’s childish Twitter postings. They’re both blips on the radar of Jaguars history. The team is better off without either of them, Coughlin’s status notwithstanding.

Although his agent, Sandy Montag, said Tom has “more football left” it was more than likely that at 73-years old, Coughlin was going to retire at the end of this season to spend more time with his family and his ailing wife.
It’s an unceremonious end to this chapter of Coughlin’s career. A career that could culminate with a spot in Canton.
I just keep thinking it didn’t have to happen this way.

Fans Love And Hate Their Jaguars

During my television career, whenever line producers or news directors wanted to steal time from the sportscast for more weather or a story about a cat with cute spots on its face, I’d try to explain why we needed the two and a half minutes they were allotting to cover the sports news of the day.

Rarely would I be successful holding onto the time, but occasionally I’d ask them a simple question: “What other thing are you covering today are people wiling to get in a fistfight about?” A steamy stare, followed by a “Get out of my office” usually followed. But it’s true, people are passionate about sports on so many levels it’s hard to describe to somebody who doesn’t get it.

That’s why the volume of frustration seemed to boil over this week with Jaguars fans, all having an opinion and wanting to tell anybody who was within earshot. My phone has been buzzing a whirring all week with friends asking the same thing: “What’s up with the Jaguars?”

Long ago I learned when fans asked me my opinion about something specific, actually they wanted to tell me what they thought. Which has been fun over the years, especially when their emotions spill over.

I’ve laughed many times when my friend, we’ll call him “Wooly,” has said to me, “I hate it when you don’t get swept up in the emotion of disdain.”

Fans can have that kind of reaction to bad performances or perceived slights by “their” team. Reporters, on the other hand, are supposed to try and give a critical look at things, taking the emotions out and being “professional observers.” We’re given the luxury of going into locker rooms and attending press conferences to see and hear the nuance and tone of what’s said, how questions are asked and whatever mood is pervasive throughout an organization.

I’ve solicited opinions from fans I know about the Jaguars this week and they probably reflect some of your feelings as well. These are season ticket buying, game-attending fans. So they’re into it. I also tried to take emotion out of each situation as it was presented to me. Names have been changed here to protect the innocent.

“The fact could not be clearer that this coach cannot get this team ready for game day,” Wooly said to me after last week’s shellacking by the Chargers. “Right now they’re the worst team in the league. Come on, who’s playing worse?”

That was a refrain I heard often this week as fans threw their hands up in the air and seemed resigned to another rebuilding “How long to we have to go through this ‘Groundhog Day’ scenario?” I was asked.

While Tom Coughlin handpicked Doug Marrone to coach this team, Coughlin also has been responsible for who’s on this roster.

That’s why when Marrone said, “These are our players” in response to a question last Sunday night, my ears perked up. Coughlin used that term in 1995 in a response to a question during the second half of the season seven game losing streak that year. It’s “coach speak” for “We need better guys but they’re not out there walking up and down the street.” Marrone is the first to know that the Jaguars are outmanned due to injury and some personnel decisions that haven’t worked on both sides of the ball in the last couple of years.

“I was sitting at the game going though all of the emotions I could have,” my friend known as the “Ghost of Chuck” said. “How can we get to be this bad? Must be coaching! I said fire everybody but then I said, ‘Wait, I’m tired; I don’t want to start over! “

That’s pretty close to the full spectrum of emotions and solutions I heard this week “You gotta clean house!” was near the top of the list.

Cleaning house for Owner Shad Khan would have to start with the entire management team. Coughlin is the VP of Football Operations and for all of his success early on with the franchise, fans are angry with him right now.

“What makes you think they’re going to draft the right people?” “Ghost” said he tells his friends as his voice rose. “I compare it to other teams, Buffalo, Cleveland, they’ve done that for decades. Most of the franchises aren’t very good at selecting players. We hold ourselves accountable for not taking Russell Wilson or Lamar Jackson or other stars but plenty of other teams passed on them as well.”

“It’s easy to assess from my seat what the symptoms are but I don’t know what the problem is,” long-suffering fan “True Blue” said. “There’s a culture issue with this team. They could adopt the Patriots Way, ruthlessly getting rid of guys who are on the outside of the lines. Look at the Pats, they’re getting the last or the second to last draft pick every year and still winning.”

“Who’s responsible for the culture?” I asked. “Players or coaches”

“My frustration is with the lack of leadership and maturity,” ‘Blue’ added. “Especially on defense. Stupid penalties. They seem to be undisciplined and unmotivated.”

That was a big rallying cry this week among fans, but taking the temperature of the team walking through the locker room and talking to players after last Sunday’s beating, they still are motivated. The locker room isn’t fractured. They’re not faking it.

But the undisciplined accusation is borne out in fact: the Jaguars are the most penalized team in the league. Is that coaching or players just not adhering to basic football fundamentals?

“If they’re going out there, not making mistakes and playing hard, people will put up with that,” Blue added. “It boils down to selfishness; It turns me off. I don’t have any interest in taking three and a half hours out of my Sunday and support that. It’s great to have a hometown team but it’s been a tough run.”

My friend “Big Beef” is a suite holder and says he’ll continue to buy in every year. But for the first time ever he and his guests left in the third quarter of last week’s game.

“I was so disappointed,’ he said. “The fans deserve better.
I come back from out of town to go to the games but at some point they’ve got to repay the people for their loyalty. These last three games are inexcusable.”

“Beef” has clearly been successful in his business life managing people and making big decisions. He wonders why the Jaguars brass can’t seem to get the best out of some top players who flourish elsewhere.

“I don’t know enough about football to know what’s wrong but there’s something the matter with that team,” Beef added. “I was thinking when I left Sunday that ‘Thank God I don’t have enough money to own a football team because I’d be irate.’”

Because of all the losing, some fans’ interest has faded. With one game left at home over the holidays between Christmas and New Years, the Jaguars brass already knew it would be a tough sell for fans unless the game against the Colts meant something in the AFC South or the playoffs. It doesn’t. But these four fans are planning to be there.

Why?

“Ghost” put it best.

“Look how great it is to have a team in town, so don’t be apathetic. It gives us a sense of community. It’s an entertainment piece that the city needs to have and embrace. People here embraced the players like they do in Buffalo and Cleveland. The players like living here. It’s an important part of who we are.”

Hmmm. Sports fans.

Bortles to Minshew and In Between. What Happened

Just two years ago the Jaguars were one play away from the Super Bowl. Since then, they’ve won nine of their last twenty-eight games. Nine.

How did they get here so quickly?

In his post-game press conference after the loss to New England in the AFC Championship game, Head Coach Doug Marrone was spot on when he said, “You don’t just pick up where you left off. You have to start all over again.” He was right. And the Jaguars haven’t been able to recreate what happened in 2017 either in their culture or their performance.

But why? Because they’re a very different team than they were just two years ago.

The league is very sophisticated; everybody knows what everybody else is doing. You can say Marrone has to go or that the locker room has gone tone deaf to his message after three years, but professional football is about the players on the field. Very few schemes or coaches have tipped the outcome. It’s the players on the field, their talent and their execution that makes the difference.

You know the play every team in the NFL runs where the QB sticks the ball in the running back’s gut, pulls it out, fakes to the wide receiver who has motioned through the backfield and then pitches it to the tight end who’s dragging the other way across on the inside of the line? Do the Jaguars even have that play? Are they running a lot of motion and deception to put pressure on the defense? No, they’re not.

Because they’re not built to do that.

They’re built to have a power running game, and throw the ball downfield. But they’re not doing that because their personnel aren’t up to the task at this point. It’s also a team that looks like one that could be built to win in the league fifteen or twenty years ago.

Are you going to beat Kansas City, Baltimore, Seattle and other creative teams like the Rams with this current game plan scoring seventeen or twenty-four points a game?

Obviously not.

Marrone inadvertently hit on at least one of the answers this week.

“You say, ‘I know that a percentage of the time, they’re going to be in this or that,’ but it’s just the personnel,” he said when asked about the Jaguars struggling. “That’s the big thing. You can run the same scheme on 32 teams, but you’re not going to have the same type of results, it’s going to be the personnel, but the problem is that you say,’ Hey, is my cat better than your cat?’”
And that’s where the Jaguars have fallen so quickly in less than two seasons. They’re a very different team with different personnel, than they were in 2017.

On defense they have at least six new starters, yet Defensive Coordinator Todd Wash is still running the same “gap control” scheme. It’s why the Jaguars have given up so many long runs this year where it looks like there’s nobody there. Paul Posluszny, Malik Jackson, Telvin Smith, Jalen Ramsey, Barry Church and Tashaun Gipson are all gone.

Poz retired and the Jaguars miss him as the “thumper” in the middle who was rarely out of position and when that “gap” opened, he stepped in there and filled it. His replacement, Myles Jack, it a phenomenal athlete but too often is swept up on the flow of a play. He isn’t that guy like Poz, or Lonnie Martz or Tom McManus before him, who would just stand there in the hole and say, ‘OK, come on.’ It would be hard to come close to quantifying how much they miss Poz’s leadership and locker room presence.

Jackson didn’t like the way he as being used and left when his contract was up. Telvin has some kind of personal issues that had him leave football altogether. Ramsey played well that year but was a disruptive force and wanted out. This year’s safety combo might be better athletes than Church and Gipson, but those two were where they were supposed to be and slowed some people down. Church’s lapse of judgment in London cost him a spot on the team and they let Gipson walk as a free agent.

On offense the pass catching group was Allen Hurns, Marqise Lee and Marcedes Lewis. They cut Hurns in somewhat of a salary cap move, Lee has been hurt and even though he had something left, they let Lewis walk. Another guy whose locker room presence is immeasurable. He’s still getting it done in Green Bay.

Although D.J. Chark might be an emerging star, the current group isn’t a productive upgrade.

Up front Cam Robinson played well as a rookie at left tackle. Free agent signing Andrew Norwell, signed to replace Omameh at left guard, hasn’t panned out. Norwell has been ordinary at best. I still think Brandon Linder would be a better guard than he is at center. A.J. Cann is a smart, tough and mobile player, but he might not be big enough for what the Jaguars are trying to do at guard. Jeremy Parnell was serviceable at right tackle. His replacement, Jawaan Taylor, could end up being a fixture there but the Jaguars are going through the growing pains that happen when you put a rookie in the starting lineup.

While the salary cap dictates that you can’t keep everybody, the Jaguars decision-making about who to keep and who to let walk hasn’t worked they way they expected.

To start, you can look at the decision to let Allen Robinson to become a free agent. I know he was hurt at the beginning of 2017 but wouldn’t they like to have him back?

Trading Dante Fowler and letting Aaron Colvin become a free agent are understandable. Fowler’s a goofball and Colvin wanted starter’s money.

Selecting Taven Bryan in the first round, a pick make out of hubris and not need, didn’t make the Jaguars any better. They had other positions that begged to be addressed.

Having made the decision to stick with Blake Bortles at quarterback at the time, they needed to get him some help with guys running and catching the ball and besides drafting Leonard Fournette, that didn’t happen.

So when Marrone asked that rhetorical question, ’Hey, is my cat better than your cat?’” Right now, the answer is no.

Minshew Foles and A Mistake

Watching the New Orleans Saints the other night I saw former Jaguars offensive lineman Patrick Omameh starting at left tackle in front of Drew Brees. Omameh is a solid backup who was making his first start ever at left tackle. It’s a tough job to begin with but having your first start out there on national television is no picnic. The announcers said Brees told them he was planning to “help Patrick and those guys up front out” by getting rid of the ball quicker and slightly altering the game plan with shorter routes and quick passes.

That’s where Jaguars Offensive Coordinator John DiFillipo and Quarterback Nick Foles failed last week against Tampa Bay. They knew the only thing the Bucs can really do is get after the quarterback so the plan should have included shorter routes and getting rid of the ball in 2 ½ seconds. Five step drop, pat and throw. Not a reset back there because at 3 ½ seconds Foles is going to the ground. Add into the equation how the current Jaguars offensive line is struggling, and you’re down 25-0 at halftime.

Crossing routes, quick dumps and flares in the flat to the running backs will be part of the offensive game plan with Gardner Minshew in at quarterback for the Jaguars. With Nick Foles, it was all downfield. That left him with no place to go with the ball quickly based on what was happening in front of him on the offensive line, and that’s a mistake. Putting Minshew back in at quarterback is the right call based on the current state of efficiency and imagination, or lack thereof, in the Jaguars offense.

This week the Jaguars VP of Football Operations Tom Coughlin said, “It won’t be easy for Nick but he’ll do what he can to help Gardner in these last four games. There will be another summer and another season for Nick Foles.”

While that statement has some ambiguity in it, one interpretation could be that Foles is coming back to compete for the starting job again in 2020. He’s a pure pocket passer and if the Jaguars offensive line is revamped to control the line of scrimmage, at least in pass blocking, he’d be the right guy as the starter.

Is Minshew a full-time starter in the NFL long into the future? The jury is still out on that but he has the moxie for the position. His arm is fine and the development for him looks like what Seattle did with Russell Wilson. They revamped their offense to get the most out of Wilson’s skills. Remember, when Wilson was drafted, the job was Tom Flynn’s, just acquired as a free agent. But Wilson was so good in camp, the Seahawks decided to change everything. And it worked.

Would the Jaguars be willing or able to do that? With the current front office it would be doubtful. Head Coach Doug Marrone would have to find an offensive coordinator to come up with a new scheme centered on Minshew.

That’s if any of those current decision makers are still around.

By the way, prop bets already being taken for the 2020 season by Sports Betting Dime have Foles as a solid favorite to be the Jaguars starter next year.