When it comes to the man hired to lead the Jacksonville Jaguars, owner Shad Khan won’t make an abrupt decision on coach Urban Meyer who has been in the NFL headlines for all of the wrong reasons lately. Instead, at his 10-year Jags ownership anniversary celebration on Monday night, Khan said he will sit back and assess things as he’s given other coaches the luxury of patience in the past.
“I want to do the right thing for the team. I want to do the right thing for the city,” Khan said, according to ESPN. “That, to me, is way more important than just acting helter-skelter on emotion. I think we have a history of really looking at the facts and then really doing the right thing.
“Gus Bradley was here four years. Doug Marrone was here four years. It was wins and losses and this is a little bit different but, you know, I’m going to reflect on all of that and do what’s the right thing for the team and the right thing for the city.”
Khan made these statements after a report from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero that largely cast Jags coach Urban Meyer as the root of dysfunction within the organization. It went into detail about incidents that Meyer had both with his coaching staff and players.
The most alarming incident mentioned in the report described a meeting where Meyer gathered his staff together and asked them to defend their résumés while calling them “losers.” Meyer denied that, however, after the Jags’ 20-0 loss to the Tennessee Titans.
The report also mentioned an argument that Meyer had with receiver Marvin Jones Jr., who was upset with the criticism that Meyer showed towards the receivers corps. In the report, Pelissero said Jones left the facility, but came back after staff members reached out to him. Meyer also denied this Sunday and told the media that he had a simple discussion with Jones about a report on the receivers instead.
Additionally, the report discussed the Week 13 benching of James Robinson, which Meyer blamed Bernie Parmalee for. However, Pelissero said that the decision to keep Robinson on the sideline was Meyer’s, though he said he doesn’t micromanage personnel decisions and leaves them up to his assistants.
According to the Associated Press, Khan also let it be known that he wasn’t necessarily looking at Meyer’s tenure as a four-year plan and that it was “absolutely a trap I don’t believe falling in.”
“The plan is you need to start winning now and tell me what you need and that’s what we’re going to do,” Khan said. “I feel we have a roster that is far better than winning two games.”
Khan has veered away from firing coaches during the regular season aside from Gus Bradley, who Eugene Frenette of the Florida Times-Union says was let go early at his own request. That said, it was unlikely for Khan to make an early decision involving Meyer, to begin with.
The team, which has especially struggled offensively, has four games starting with a home game against the Houston Texans this Sunday. Following that, they have away games against the New York Jets and New England Patriots, then will have one last game against the Indianapolis Colts which will take place at home on Jan. 9.