This was a blown slam dunk on a wide open breakaway.
On Thursday night the Jacksonville Jaguars announced that Doug Pederson will become their next head coach, and it’s ... fine. Pederson is a good hire, and under any other circumstances you could probably celebrate it for being a solid move. However, that doesn’t change the fundamental truth that the Jaguars were presented with a wide open, breakaway slam dunk, and still completely botched it.
Naturally we’re talking about Byron Leftwich. One of the hottest coaching commodities on the market, who looked like a stone cold lock to become the Jaguars coach. Leftwich checked every single box the team could ever want. He had a track record of proven success, experience as offensive coordinator of the Buccaneers, a young approach for an organization so often mired in old thinking, and he was beloved by the fan base.
The best part: The feeling was mutual. Leftwich was ready to come to Jacksonville and help turn the Jaguars around, and the only hangup was GM Trent Baalke. If Leftwich is everything the team could want and need, Baalke is the opposite. Fans have been wanting him gone since the moment he was hired, and he has a track record of being a death knell to coaches. Leftwich’s major demand was Baalke be replaced by Adrian Wilson, up-and-coming executive from the Arizona Cardinals, currently serving as their vice president of pro personnel. The duo would have formed a unique, youthful, ex-player braintrust set to finally take the Jaguars into the 21st century — but owner Shad Khan was unwilling to meet the demand, so Leftwich withdrew his name from consideration.
It’s why we circle back to the Pederson hire being “fine.” It could be a whole lot worse, but it doesn’t inspire much excitement.
It’s been suggested that Leftwich having “demands” turned the Jaguars off, but this is pretty ridiculous. He wasn’t asking for complete control, or some giant slush fund to re-work the entire football operation. Leftwich simply wanted a general manager he felt he could mesh with, and who he believed could help him bring success to the Jaguars. What’s wrong with that? Also, keep in mind that Leftwich has been slowly working his way up to be in a position to finally get a head coaching job, and he didn’t want to be sacrificed at the altar of Baalke’s incompetence.
Trent Baalke has fired four coaches in his last four seasons as GM, which means he's employed more coaches in four seasons than the Steelers have since the merger.
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) February 4, 2022
The only logical answer is that this was an ego play from Khan. The owner didn’t want to be told what to do by a prospective head coach, which is his prerogative, but it doesn’t mean the Jaguars are a better team for it. Then you couple this with the claim from Cris Carter than Urban Meyer wanted to bring him on as an advisor in 2021, but Baalke said he “didn’t see the value,” and killed the deal. Obviously Meyer was an atrocious hire, but Carter’s knowledge unquestionably would have helped the Jaguars win more games — but to Baalke, that had no value.
This is the modus operandi of Baalke. He’s established himself as a micromanager who wants all the praise when there’s success, and none of the blame when things go wrong. As a general manager he’s desperate to be seen as a football genius, and when a coach gets too much credit for success he injects himself more into football operations to get some shine, rather than step back and do his job while riding the wave of success. The adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t apply to Baalke, who had mammoth success with Jim Harbaugh in San Francisco, but micromanaged the team into oblivion, and alienated Harbaugh in the process. Then, believing his method was the real secret sauce, hired Jim Tomsula, then Chip Kelly — failing both times before being fired.
Who can blame Leftwich for not wanting to be part of that mess?
Sure, there’s every chance a Baalke/Pederson duo will have success in the NFL. Pederson is a proven commodity, and a solid coach — but there will always be the question of what could have been. The possibility of marrying Trevor Lawrence with a youthful football vision could have made the Jaguars one of the most exciting teams to watch as they developed in 2022 and beyond. Instead they’re back to being largely forgettable.
This was an unprecedented chance for the NFL’s worst team to land the league’s hottest coaching prospect, and they blew it. It’s just that simple.
