Tag: Jacksonville Jaguar

Report: Jags expected to hire 49ers executive Ethan Waugh as their assistant GM

Waugh worked with Baalke during his time in SF, but has also worked with their current GM John Lynch and has helped the team make two postseason trips in the last three years.

As stated by their owner Shad Khan in February, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ scouting department will be getting larger. On Thursday, ESPN’s Nick Wagoner reported that the team has offered San Francisco 49ers executive Ethan Waugh an opportunity to become their assistant general manager.

The deal isn’t done yet, but Waugh is expected to take the offer unless any hiccups occur in the negotiations.

This offseason marked Waugh’s 18th with the 49ers. However, he held his most recent title as the 49ers’ vice president of player personnel since June of last season, so his time with the role was short-lived.

Before acquiring that role, he was the 49ers’ director of college scouting and football systems for three years. According to the 49ers’ official site, his job at that time was to oversee the college scouting staff and the daily operations of the department.

The role he held before that was as the 49ers’ senior player personnel coordinator from 2015-17. The three seasons before that, he was their senior personnel assistant from 2012-14 and was their midwest regional scout from 2008-11.

Waugh’s initial role with the team before the aforementioned scouting titles was as a personnel assistant. Of course, with him being with the 49ers as long as he has, he worked with current Jags general manager Trent Baalke from 2005-16.

During the introductory press conference for new coach Doug Pederson, Khan said the Jags had plans to add an executive vice president of football operations and someone to work under Baalke. However, they put the plans for an EVP on hold, but they now have someone to work under Baalke on the way in Waugh.

Baalke’s time in San Francisco ended disastrously when looking at his struggles to win there his last few seasons, and Waugh was there during that time. However, he’s also played some sort of role in the 49ers’ resurgence under current general manager John Lynch and is coming from a scouting department that has added notables Fred Warner, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle since Baalke’s departure.

 

Bill O’Brien to interview with Jags on Thursday

The Jags interviewed Darrell Bevell on Tuesday and will now interview Bill O’Brien on Thursday.

The Jacksonville Jaguars coaching search is entering its third week as the team does its due diligence to find someone to guide Trevor Lawrence’s career. They already spoke to Jags interim coach Darrell Bevell and have others set to be interviewed before the week is over.

Among the people they will interview is Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, who the Jags are familiar with from his time with the Houston Texans. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, that interview will take place on Thursday.

O’Brien is a candidate with a good deal of experience on both the college and pro side of the game. However, his professional career started with the New England Patriots under Bill Belichick in 2007 where he was an offensive assistant. He then worked his way up to roles as a receivers coach and quarterbacks coach, eventually becoming their offensive coordinator.

After his tenure in New England, O’Brien was a head coach for Penn State for two seasons. He replaced Joe Paterno just as Penn State was rocked by sanctions because of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. He guided the team to a 15-9 record in the process before landing  a job with the Houston Texans as their head coach.

O’Brien spent seven seasons with the Texans and went 52-48 in the process. However, as Rapoport mentioned, he struggled when taking on the team’s general manager duties while trying to coach at the same time. In the process, he made what some Texans fans viewed as the most questionable trade in franchise history by sending receiver DeAndre Hopkins to Arizona for a fourth-round pick.

In addition to trading Hopkins, O’Brien had a heated exchange with another one of the Texans’ best players in J.J. Watt that resulted in him “losing the team” during his last season, according to ESPN. These incidents and other factors seemed to play into the Texans’ decision to fire him before the 2020 season ended, but he’s since bounced back by having success at Alabama and leading Bryce Young and Co. to the National Championship.

While the Khans appear willing to hear O’Brien out with the chance to interview for another shot in the NFL, the potential hiring of O’Brien is one that comes with a lot of skepticism. Despite his success on the college level, there are concerns about the fact that both he and Trent Baalke have been a part of dysfunctional situations in their careers.

49ers vs. Jaguars: 3 things to know about Week 11’s game

Week 11’s game between the 49ers and Jags could potentially be a good one as both teams are in desperate need of more wins.

The Jacksonville Jaguars heartbreakingly fell to the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, but have to quickly put that past them this week. The reason for that is because they have a confident San Francisco 49ers group coming to Jacksonville with their minds set on acquiring a record of .500.

When looking at the history of both teams, there aren’t a lot of meetings that have occurred between the two, but it could be an entertaining matchup between two hungry teams.

Here are some things to know as we close in on Sunday’s battle:

Raiders TE Darren Waller says he’s willing to mentor Tim Tebow if needed

Darren Waller knows all about the transition to tight end, which is why he wouldn’t mind helping Tim Tebow learn the position.

New Jacksonville Jaguars addition Tim Tebow didn’t get to attend the league’s recent tight end summit due to being a late preseason signing, but it appears he has many veterans willing to help him learn his new position. Among them is Las Vegas Raiders star Darren Waller, who made a transition to tight end himself (from receiver) once he was drafted out of Georgia Tech.

“If [Tebow] thinks he can learn from me, then I’d love to help him and help make his transition smoother,” Waller said. “I tried to find any information I could from watching guys play or asking people when I moved. So I’d love to continue to pass that on and help him be a better player.”

The Jags made the decision to sign Tebow on May 20 and it came with a lot of backlash. However, things have simmered down since and it’s good to see other tight ends in the NFL willing to help the former quarterback out.

Tebow’s chances to make the roster don’t seem great, but practice squad could be an option for him as reporters have said he doesn’t look completely out of place for a newcomer at the position. With training camp coming up, fans will probably get a closer look at him for themselves as the Jags and the NFL ramp things up to prepare for the regular season.

Jaguars sign FB Bruce Miller, waive Connor Slomka

The Jags are adding a veteran fullback in Bruce Miller, who hasn’t played since the 2016 preseason.

The Jacksonville Jaguars made a few transactions Saturday by adding veteran fullback Bruce Miller and waiving undrafted rookie fullback Connor Slomka. The swap of the two players kept the Jags’ roster at 80 players as they head into a new phase of training camp that will include padded practices Monday.

Like Slomka, Miller will be the lone fullback on the Jags’ roster. This is worth noting because the Jags haven’t utilized a true fullback since their 2017 season when they had Tommy Bohanon.

Miller was drafted out of Central Florida by a Trent Baalke led front office with the San Francisco 49ers back in the 2011 NFL Draft (as the 211th overall pick). As many are aware, Baalke is now with the Jags front office as their director of player personnel. Still, many fans have found it alarming that Miller hasn’t played since the 2016 preseason and will be the oldest player on the team at 33 years-of-age.

The reason behind the abrupt stop to Miller’s career was an incident where he was arrested by the San Francisco Police Department and charged with assault on two men. Per the report explaining his arrest, Miller got into a physical altercation with a 70-year-old man and his 29-year-old son at a Marriott Hotel after being intoxicated and trying to enter the elderly man’s room.

The father was reportedly punched by Miller, which resulted in both going to the hospital and Miller eventually being arrested after being examined. Miller  pleaded not guilty, and with the Jags signing him, it’s possible he was exonerated of the charges from the incident, which happened just under four years ago.

With 47 starts to his name, Miller will enter his tenure with the Jags with 28 career carries for 62 yards as a rusher and 76 receptions for 734 receiving yards and three touchdowns through the air. Those stats seem to indicate that he was a superb lead blocker with good ball skills, something Marrone spoke on this week to the media when asked about Slomka.

“Now, if it’s that type of player, you’ve got to ask yourself, what are we getting out of that player from the standpoint of the passing game? What are we getting out of that player from a standpoint of special teams? Connor has that ability, he’s tough, he can run well, he does have some ball skills.” Marrone said this past Thursday.

“The other thing you look at is okay, you understand that goal line, short yardage, or maybe some situations you’re going to have to bring someone over and those snaps during the year, when you look at it from a percentage standpoint, are low.”