It was already hard to imagine Urban Meyer lasting beyond this season in Duval County. After the latest report on the situation within the Jacksonville Jaguars’ facility, it’s pretty much become a certainty.
I’m not sure how Meyer used to run things at Ohio State, but he clearly has no idea what he’s doing at the NFL level. We’ve already seen key members of the Jags like Trevor Lawrence and James Robinson call out the head coach in the media.
Now, we have this report from the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero detailing just how tense the situation is behind closed doors in Jacksonville.
According to Pelissero, many within the Jags building are growing increasingly frustrated with Meyer’s “hard-charging and sometimes condescending approach.” They’ve also grown tired of seeing their head coach repeatedly deflect blame to the players and assistant coaches when speaking about the team’s shortcomings with the media.
And it gets even worse!
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Over the past two weeks alone, there have been multiple heated moments. One of them involves an argument with highly-respected veteran wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr., who reportedly tried to leave the facility because he became so enraged with Meyer, but was convinced by other members of the staff to stick around.
Via NFL.com:
Receiver Marvin Jones — one of the locker room’s most respected and mild-mannered veterans — became so angry with Meyer’s public and private criticism of the receiver group that he left the facility until other staff members convinced him to come back and had a heated argument with Meyer during practice.
In another instance of Meyer being a complete jerk, he reportedly called his assistant coaches a bunch of losers and challenged them to show their resumes and prove that they were winners like himself:
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.
And finally, there’s more regarding James Robinson’s benching following a fumble during their week 13 contest vs. the Rams:
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. ( Speaking to reporters this week , Lawrence said: “Bottom line is James is one of our best players and he’s got to be on the field and we addressed it, and I feel like we’re in a good spot and the whole team, we’re good.”)
Pelissero also claims that Jags players were venting their frustrations with Meyer to the Rams players after their game. It’s clearly a messy situation in Duval, and while Pelissero does state the owner Shad JKhan has no intentions of making a coaching change (as he has always dreamed of bringing Meyer in), it’s hard to see this relationship working out beyond 2021.
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