Well, now. Who could’ve seen this coming?
Urban Meyer’s tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars has been nothing but a pure, unadulterated mess so far. There’s no other way to describe it at this point. From the Tim Tebow drama to him abandoning his team to go clubbing and dancing with a woman who is not his wife.
It’s just been bad. So why not just add another layer to it, right? Right.
Apparently, the relationship dynamic between not only Meyer, his team, and his coaches is just rapidly devolving with “boiling” tension inside the locker room, reports NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero.
This is bad. Really bad. Let’s take a look at the mess.
So, wait, what's happening?
Urban Meyer has had a number of “run-ins” with players and coaches on his team in recent weeks.
The Jaguars are absolutely terrible at 2-10 and it seems, per Pelissero’s report, Urban is placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of everyone else on the team from the players and the coaching staff.
Wait, he's blaming everyone else?
Yes, according to Pelissero’s reporting. During a staff meeting with his assistant coaches, Meyer reportedly told them about how great of a coach he was and everything he’s accomplished in his career while calling them all “losers.”
“During a staff meeting, Meyer delivered a biting message that he’s a winner and his assistant coaches are losers, according to several people informed of the contents of the meeting, challenging each coach individually to explain when they’ve ever won and forcing them to defend their résumés.”
That’s extremely bad.
Yikes. But you also said players. What about the players?
Well, he’s apparently had a couple of run-ins with players in recent weeks.
There was reportedly a run-in with Marvin Jones — a veteran in the Jaguars’ receiving corps — that got so bad that Jones left a team practice after a disagreement with Meyer. He had to be convinced to come back by teammates and staff members.
There’s also his new beef with running back James Robinson that’s just absolutely wild to read about.
Robinson was mysteriously benched during last week’s blowout loss to the Rams. Here’s why.
“Contrary to his public statements that it was injury-related, Meyer ordered Robinson’s benching after an opening-drive fumble in last week’s 37-7 road loss to the Rams, then had running backs coach Bernie Parmalee stop Robinson from re-entering the game, insisting Carlos Hyde (who played for Meyer at Ohio State) stay in. Only after Lawrence questioned Meyer on the sideline about Robinson’s absence was Robinson allowed to return late in the second quarter.”
Man. That’s not OK.
Wow. That's extremely bad.
So bad that even Trevor Lawrence had to step in and say something about it. Last week when addressing reporters, the rookie QB said Robinson needs to be playing.
https://twitter.com/Demetrius82/status/1468678933369565192?s=20
“Bottom line is James is one of our best players and he’s gotta be on the field, and we addressed it, and I feel like we’re in a good spot”
You absolutely never want to put a rookie quarterback in this spot. But, apparently, Meyer has done it.
It's really that bad, huh?
It really is. It’s bad enough that Jaguars players have reportedly been telling players on other teams that Meyer doesn’t “treat them like adults.”
These are professional athletes. That is never ever ever going to fly with them. And it totally shouldn’t. They’re better than that.
Meyer's job has to be on the line at this point, right?
After all this, you’d think that’d be a natural progression. But it doesn’t seem that we’ve gotten to that point yet.
Amid everything that happened earlier in the season, Jaguars’ owner Shad Khan said he still had faith in Meyer to do the job. That faith has obviously not waned enough over the course of this 2-10 season for the team to move on from him.
It seems reasonable to doubt the Jaguars would do it here, even after all this new drama bubbles to the surface.
Why wouldn't they just move on?
We don’t know the specific details of Meyer’s contract with the Jaguars, but you have to imagine that it’s not inexpensive.
He was reportedly asking for $12 million to coach in the NFL. And, while he isn’t getting that, it’s probably not too far away from that. He’s also likely signed on for multiple years.
So the Jaguars would be paying some portion of that contract, at the very least, just for him to go away. And they’d also have to hire a new coach. They’d essentially be paying two coaches at one time.
Khan has the money to do that, sure. But no billionaire is in the business of creating an unnecessary expense. That’s just what it is.
They’re stuck. Meyer is there for the long haul. And everyone saw this coming but the Jaguars, apparently. So, honestly, it’s hard to feel bad for them.
Good luck, Jags fans. You’re going to need it.
