JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The firing of Urban Meyer is just the latest of several black eyes the Jacksonville Jaguars have had to heal from over the history of the franchise.
The team’s on-the-field performance has been underwhelming with Shad Khan at the helm, who celebrated 10 years as owner this week.
How do the Jaguars bring the embarrassment and the losing to a halt? News4JAX on Thursday spoke with former Jaguars placekicker Josh Scobee and sports analyst Frank Frangie — who both agreed that the most prominent problem the Jaguars have is their team culture.
Scobee said the Jaguars are unfortunately at their lowest of lows, after a disastrous season under Meyer’s leadership.
“The management and ownership really need to sit down and come up with a better plan because the plan right now is not working,” Scobee said.
Scobee said he’s been holding his tongue over the last 13 weeks regarding Meyer’s many missteps, including OTA (organized team activities) violations, the viral bar video, reportedly calling assistant coaches losers and reportedly getting into a heated argument with receiver Marvin Jones.
Scobee said Meyer’s firing didn’t come as a surprise to him, but he was shocked to hear that Meyer is accused of kicking former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo.
“Every kicker has dealt with coaches talking down to them, berating them after a missed kick in a game, but I’ve honestly never heard of a coach, especially physically, I wouldn’t say assaulting, but physically coming in contact with a kicker or another player, and obviously that’s inappropriate and shouldn’t be tolerated,” Scobee said.
Scobee said he doubts Khan will issue sweeping terminations of staff because the Jaguars just recently did that. But he and Frangie said showing Meyer the exit door was a great first step.
“He was gone after 13 games, and nobody thought it was the wrong decision,” Frangie said. “Everyone figured this was the right time and the right thing to do. When that happens, it can excite your fanbase. Fans like change. But they had gotten very frustrated.”
According to analysts, the Jaguars’ biggest challenge moving forward will be undoing the damage as quickly as possible and creating a better culture and framework in the locker room and on the field that will attract stars rather than run them away.
“Jalen Ramsey wanted out. Dante Fowler wanted out. Yannick Ngakoue didn’t want to do a deal with them. That’s culture. They have to bring in the right guy to create the right culture. I thought that was going to be Urban, and it wasn’t. The other thing is they’ve got to bring in someone who will develop the quarterback. They’ve got a prize possession in Trevor Lawrence,” Frangie said.
Frangie went on to say he wouldn’t be surprised if the Jaguars break their losing streak and win against the Houston Texans this weekend. He also said he does not think Meyer will ever coach again in the NFL, and even coaching for a college team right now is highly questionable.