The Jacksonville Jaguars fell to 2-8 Sunday after losing to the San Francisco 49ers, adding more anguish to a season where expectations that weren’t high have yet to be met. With that has come reports about there being problems within the staff due to Urban Meyer calling out certain assistants, and after Sunday’s loss, the media asked him to address it.
As most would expect, Meyer called the reports “incorrect,” though he did say there is a great deal of transparency between the staff regardless of how the team is playing.
“There’s a report, you said,” Meyer asked a media member. “No, the only report, all due respect, is the report from me? We’re a very transparent staff, and I’m very transparent and have always been. I have high expectations. When someone’s not performing well, yeah, we have hard conversations, but that’s the game of football. So that report is incorrect. Do I have high expectations for position groups? Absolutely. Very high expectations. If it’s not fulfilled, then we have to have a conversation about it.”
Meyer’s statements after Sunday’s loss make a lot of sense as he’s been arguably the most open coach the organization has had when it comes to media interactions. It wouldn’t be surprising if he’s just as transparent with his staff, but the bigger question is whether or not he’s doing it in a way that would rub assistants in the wrong way.
When looking at the Jags’ roster, the group isn’t the most talented and the argument could be made that the front office didn’t do the best job giving their assistants talent. The best way to sum it up is that they acquired a lot of B to C-tier signings at best, which is an approach for a team that just is a player or two away from contention. Instead, this team needed more A-tier signings to help elevate their talent, which is how they got where they are now.
So in a nutshell, the Jags haven’t done the best job of helping out their assistants. At the same time, fans have made the argument that the assistants on the offensive side like coordinator Darrell Bevell aren’t putting what they have in the best position to win. That could be the key talking point of the conversations that Meyer mentioned on Sunday, but ultimately we’ll have to wait until the end of the season to see.
If there is a large degree of staff turnover, it would be a sign that Meyer wasn’t impressed, that is, if he is retained. However, if he continues with the group he has, that would be a sign that his relationship with his current group is at least better than some think.