With Black Monday occurring just a few days ago, there are currently several teams making personnel decisions but the Jacksonville Jaguars, to the surprise of some, aren’t one of them. After meeting with various personnel members throughout the week and coach Doug Marrone and general manager Dave Caldwell on Tuesday, owner Shad Khan made the decision not to make any changes to his staff. However, with another double-digit loss season occurring, Marrone may not be as willing to overlook his staff’s shortcomings as ownership was.
In the process of meeting with the media Tuesday, Marrone revealed that he’d be meeting with his staff and making evaluations when the team returns around Jan. 13, and some have speculated that could mean another slight shake-up within the coaching staff.
Coach Doug Marrone said he plans to evaluate his staff in the next few weeks
— John Reid (@JohnReid64) December 31, 2019
Upon looking at where Marrone could make changes, the first position that comes to mind is the defensive coordinator position, which is currently held by Todd Wash. The Jags’ 2019 season was especially a rough one for him as his unit finished the season as the No. 24 ranked team in yards allowed (375.4 YPG average) and the No. 28 ranked rushing defense (139.3 YPG average). While some of his struggles were due to losing several key players in Telvin Smith, Marcell Dareus, and Myles Jack, it’s been painfully clear over the last two seasons that Wash isn’t the best at making adjustments. Some fans also felt that his success from 2017 was due to the plethora of talent the Jags had and not his coaching abilities as he struggled after the departures of players like Malik Jackson and Tashaun Gipson and could never regather himself.
Another position where Marrone may consider a change is at the offensive line coaching position where he brought in George Warhop, a former coach of his as a player, just last season. Warhop’s group got off to a decent start in the first half of the season as the Jags were able to go 4-4 and Leonard Fournette was able to record two games with over 107 yards rushing and one with over 220 yards rushing. However, after that, the unit looked very below average as the running lanes were hard to come by and the Jags had multiple games where they couldn’t score more than 12 points.
It’s absolutely no doubt that Marrone understands he’s fortunate to still have his job after how 2019 went down. For that reason, fans can’t help but wonder how unimpressed he was with the jobs Wash and Warhop did in 2019, even with the injuries that plagued the team. That said, if there is a change made, it wouldn’t be shocking to see both assistants replace though it also shouldn’t be ruled out that both could be retained.