By Hays Carlyon
NFL experience on offense.
A fresh change on defense.
Those were the major takeaways as Jaguars first-year coach Urban Meyer finally unveiled his coaching staff on Thursday.
Meyer, hired Jan. 14, named Darrell Bevell his offensive coordinator and Joe Cullen his defensive coordinator.
The 51-year-old Bevell has been an offensive coordinator with Minnesota (2006-10), Seattle (2011-17) and Detroit (2019-20). He should be able to assist Meyer as he tries to navigate his way from college to the NFL in terms of which spread concepts will work.
The 53-year-old Cullen is a first-time NFL coordinator and indicates the Jaguars will be moving to a 3-4 defense, which should better suit their personnel. Cullen served as defensive line coach in Baltimore from 2016-20. He has worked for five NFL teams as defensive line coach, including the Jaguars in 2010-12.
Meyer hired Brian Schneider to be the special teams coordinator. Schneider had been with the Seahawks since 2010.
Meyer retained three key members of former coach Doug Marrone’s staff: offensive line coach George Warhop, cornerbacks coach Tim Walton and nickels coach Joe Danna.
The rest of the offensive staff: Brian Schottenheimer (passing game coordinator), Sanjay Lal (receivers) Bernie Parmalee (running backs) and Tyler Bowen (tight ends).
The 47-year-old Schottenheimer has worked as an offensive coordinator with the New York Jets (2006-11), St. Louis Rams (2012-14) and Seattle (2018-20). This is the seventh NFL team he has worked for as a coach.
The rest of the defensive staff: Tosh Lupoi (defensive line), Zachary Orr (outside linebackers), Charlie Strong (assistant head coach/inside linebackers) and Chris Ash (safeties).
Strong was on Meyer’s staff at Florida when the Gators won national championships in 2006 and 2008.
There are eight other coaches on staff serving in senior, assistant to the assistant or quality control roles.
There are five new hires in the sports medicine and strength and conditioning staff. Chris Doyle was named director of sports performance, while Anthony Schlegel is head strength and conditioning coach.
The Jaguars are trying to quickly contend after a disastrous 1-15 season. The team has an NFL-high amount of salary-cap space at $77 million roughly and 11 draft picks, including five in the first 65 selections.
The NFL’s tampering window opens March 15, with free agents able to be signed on March 17.
(You can email Hays at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @HaysCarlyon)
