Written by Gregg Rosenthal at NFL.com
The Jacksonville Jaguars didn’t have to look far for their next coach, and looked deep into its organizational past for another massive hire on Monday.
Doug Marrone, who finished the 2016 season as the Jaguars interim head coach, has accepted the team’s full-time head coaching job, a source informed of the situation told NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport on Monday.
The team later made the announcement official.
The team also hired Tom Coughlin, their first head coach, as the team’s executive vice president. They also extended general manager Dave Caldwell’s contract. All three contracts will run through 2019.
“I have confidence that one day soon we’ll look back on today’s news as the moment that inspired and ultimately established the Jacksonville Jaguars as a football team that wins, week to week and season to season,” Jaguars owner Shad Khan said in a statement. “I am honored to welcome Tom Coughlin back to Jacksonville, where winning was customary under his leadership. I know he expects the same in his return to head our football operations, and that’s good news for us and Jaguars fans everywhere. The extension of Dave Caldwell’s contract speaks to his excellent work thus far and the continued importance of complementing our talented and promising roster.”
The three moves, seen together, represent an intriguing blend of continuity and looking to the past. It’s great news for quarterback Blake Bortles, yet it also puts pressure on Marrone and Caldwell to turn Jacksonville’s fortunes around quickly, something perhaps reflected in Marrone’s short contract for a coaching hire.
Marrone should be a comfortable hire for Caldwell and ownership because they know Marrone well after two seasons on the Jaguarsstaff as the team’s assistant head coach-offense/offensive line coach. Marrone finished 1-1 to end the 2016 season as the team’s interim head coach following the ouster of coach Gus Bradley. Rapoport reported on NFL Network that the direction Marrone took the team in two weeks as interim head coach was a big factor in elevating him.
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