JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jaguars owner Shad Khan appears to have been the last one to come to the conclusion that Gus Bradley had to go.
While some fans wanted to see Bradley fired after last season, this year's historic failures built the murmur of discontent to a roar that the owner could not ignore.
Recommended Videos
Under Bradley, the Jaguars are mired in the longest losing streak in team history, and since Bradley was hired, only the Browns have had as bad a record as the Jaguars' 14-48 mark. So how does the timing of the move impact the Jaguars going forward?
For starters, the Jaguars are the second NFL team to fire their coach (the Rams said goodbye to Jeff Fisher last week) but certainly won't be the last. Getting a jump start on the other teams will be important for the Jaguars.
The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Dave Caldwell was interested in former Broncos head coach and current New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. The Jaguars can begin conducting interviews with NFL assistant coaches as soon as the season is over. They can interview college coaches and other out of work coaches immediately. The benefit of being among the first teams to fire a coach quite simply allows the Jaguars to be ahead of other teams in the process of interviewing coaches.
If a coach works for a team that makes the playoffs, the league has a time frame for making that coach available for interviews.
The timing of the move was a bit odd. The public perception flipped after the Jaguars were embarrassed by the Tennessee Titans in a nationally televised Thursday night game on Oct. 27. No move was made at that time. When the Jaguars officially were eliminated from playoff contention, it seemed to be the time to make the move, but Khan held off.
If the decision had already been made to fire Bradley after the year, then somebody, maybe general manager Dave Caldwell, convinced Khan to pull the trigger now. If that is the case, why not have the same conversation several weeks ago?
Also remember that more often than not, when teams fire coaches, they look for someone who is the opposite of the guy they just fired. So in this case, the Jaguars have fired Bradley, a defensive-minded players coach. So the Jaguars could be tempted by an offensive-minded disciplinarian. There are a number of experienced names being discussed as candidates and some of those names fit that mold.