Jaguars show the NFL they are an unserious franchise by retaining GM Trent Baalke for 2025 head coaching search
Jacksonville owner Shad Khan is making a terrible mistake not cleaning house.
The number 2 job of an NFL General Manager is winning games. The number 1 job is to keep the job. And nobody is better at that job than Jacksonville Jaguars GM Trent Baalke.
Owner Shad Khan released a statement on the morning of Black Monday announcing the firing of Head Coach Doug Pederson, which has been expected for months. It hardly registers as news at this point. But what did register as news was the inexplicable decision to retain GM Trent Baalke.
That's right, in his 5th year as Jaguars GM, Baalke is being given the chance to hire his 3rd head coach. This offseason will also include his 3rd top-5 pick in the NFL draft, including back-to-back 1st overall selections in 2021 & 2022.
This is unheard of for a GM with a track record like his. It's been made clear that Baalke has done a fantastic job endearing himself to ownership and franchise executives, and apparently he has them convinced he's irreplaceable right now as well.
In case you've forgotten, this is the man who won a power struggle in San Francisco and convinced the organization to keep him over Jim Harbaugh. We've all seen how that went for everybody involved.
The Jaguars are branding themselves a completely unserious franchise with this move. It's unthinkable to not completely clean house and fire both GM and the Head Coach to create a clean slate for their next team of decision makers. But that's exactly what they've done.
Baalke is the man who hired Urban Meyer. His second hire, a much more sober move with Doug Pederson, went very poorly as well. How can Jaguars ownership possibly think he's the man to make the decision on their next coach? How can you possibly sell that to fans? The answer is that you can't.
Baalke has made 48 draft picks as Jaguars GM, including 6 in the first round and 2 first overall. His total record is 25-43 with a single playoff win.
Outrage over the decision aside, the Jaguars may very well have just taken themselves out of the race for the top coaching candidates. The understanding around the league heading into Black Monday is that Jacksonville would need to clean house in order to make themselves truly attractive to top head coach options. And in league circles, the expectation was that they would.
Take a listen to these comments from local Jacksonville radio. Former Jaguars QB Mark Brunell is now the QB coach in Detroit, so he works daily with Ben Johnson. It's being reported that according to Brunell, Johnson wants the Jacksonville job. Full stop, point blank. He likes the idea of coaching Trevor Lawrence, and Brunell would almost certainly come with him. Meanwhile, it's sounding more and more like GM Trent Baalke is likely to be fired along with Doug Pederson in order to make the Jaguars a more attractive landing spot for top candidates. I think Johnson is headed to Jacksonville as soon as the Lions season is over, and he's bringing a GM of his choice with him.
Well, never mind! I don't see Johnson having any interest in joining a Baalke regime. perhaps I'm wrong, but there's no denying that the overall attractiveness of the job just went down in a big way. One thing in the NFL never changes: dysfunctional franchises do dysfunctional things.
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