The Jacksonville Jaguars hired former Washington head coach Jay Gruden as their new offensive coordinator Wednesday. Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone was a guest on “XL Primetime” to discuss the hiring of Gruden to the Jacksonville coaching staff.
“We didn’t want to make a quick decision and just jump at it,” Marrone said. “We spent a lot of time and tried to make sure that we were bringing in people that had experience because we obviously don’t have any time to go through any type of learning curve.
“We brought in four really good candidates and we looked to see what fits ourselves as coaches in that room with communication and leadership and more importantly how it’s going to fit with the players.
The offense wasn’t the only problem for Jacksonville in 2019. The Jaguars defense struggled for most of 2019 as well. Marrone was asked why he decided to keep defensive coordinator Todd Wash following the 2019 season.
“Obviously we are all disappointed in our play and how we have done,” Marrone said. “I think it’s easy to look at when someone fails, you want change. Including myself because I haven’t done a good enough job.
“I’ve been with Todd Wash now for five years, one of them he was the defensive line coach and he transitioned to the coordinator job and when you look at the body of work the past four years as defensive coordinator you’re one of the top defense in the NFL.
“We had injuries last year and we have made changes. It’s not like we are not flexible moving fronts, or moving coverages, doing what we have to do for our players.
“He has shown the ability to do it. We are hopefully going to go out and add some more pieces to it and our expectation is to be back to where we were.”
Finally, Marrone was asked about the firing of Tom Coughlin from his role as senior vice president of football operations and if he is now freed up as a result of Coughlin no longer being with the organization.
“I had great respect for Coach Coughlin,” Marrone said. “I don’t know if that’s really fair to talk about freed up. I never felt like I wasn’t free when Coach Coughlin was here.
“For me, it’s working through it and getting the best from the coaches and the players. Having to go out there and having to win games. We all understand that.
“I know Tom wishes the best for us. He was the initial coach here in Jacksonville and we have a ton of respect for him. The one thing he left me with is to go out there and win football games. That’s what coach has always been about and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
(You can follow Ryan Green on Twitter @RyanGreen1010XL)