After the latest scandal involving the first-year head coach, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan fired head coach Urban Meyer early on Thursday morning. Taking his place in the interim role will be offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, who was a member of Matt Patricia’s Detroit Lions staff last season before Meyer brought him in to develop quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
But after a disastrous first 13 games in 2021, Meyer is gone and this is Bevell’s team, at least for the next four weeks. A recent rule change allowing teams to interview coaching candidates up to two weeks before the end of the regular season almost certainly played a role in expediting a decision on Meyer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Bevell couldn’t be in the running for the full-time position.
It certainly wouldn’t be unprecedented for owner Shad Khan to promote an interim. He fired Gus Bradley with two games to go in 2016, and interim coach Doug Marrone eventually had the “interim” taken out of his title. There are certainly a lot of more exciting options, such as Tampa Bay offensive coordinator and former Jags quarterback Byron Leftwich, but we can’t rule Bevell out as a candidate.
With that in mind, here are three things to know about him.