DUUUUVAL DAILY: NEW RB COACH, KUBIAK, HACKETT, MURRAY, OC POSITION

The latest news surrounding your Jacksonville Jaguars.

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​Some of the biggest news of the day for the Jaguars is the non-news news, if you catch my meaning. Let’s get to it.

Coaching Dominoes

While pieces fall into place all around the league for other teams, the Jaguars biggest coaching staff question remains unanswered. Who will be the Jaguars next offensive coordinator? The team was scheduled to meet with Super Bowl winning coach Gary Kubiak today, but the Vikings swooped in to make him a personnel advisor and gave some of his desired staff (including his son) offensive assistant jobs. The Jaguars also lost out on Todd Monken, whom they interviewed last week for their OC job. He elected to roll with Baker Mayfield and Cleveland. Can you blame him? The Jaguars have also interviewed Darrell Bevell and John DeFilippo for the job, but neither has been hired. What makes the whole situation so odd is that the Jaguars have hired their entire offensive staff before even announcing a coordinator. Ideally the OC would have some say in who his assistants are. Something odd seems to be brewing inside the Jaguars front office. Two of their assistant coaching hires, George Warhop (offensive line) and Tim Walton (defensive backs), had little success in their most recent stops, while newly hired RB Coach Terry Robiskie hasn’t coached running backs since the mid 1980’s. 

Terry Robiskie

Speaking of Robiskie, how can the Jaguars justify adding a guy to the coaching staff to coach RBs that hasn’t done so in 30 years? It’s simple. The Jaguars need to get Leonard Fournette back on track mentally. This was a relationship hire. Former RB coach Tyrone Wheatley wasn’t able to connect with Fournette, at least not the way the team needed him to. The hope is that Terry Robiskie, who grew up in New Orleans and played running back at LSU (sound familiar?), will be able to identify with Leonard Fournette and get him headed back in the right direction. Robiskie is a well respected coach that has served as an offensive coordinator at multiple stops and has even been an interim head coach in this league. This was an outside the box hire, but if Robiskie can help the uber talented Leonard Fournette find his mojo then it’ll be a home run.

Nate Hackett

The Jaguars fired offensive coordinator Nate Hackett mid way through the 2018 season. Hackett will now get the opportunity to work with one of the best QBs the game has ever seen for one of the most iconic franchises in NFL history. He’s been hired to be the Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator. Of course, he won’t call plays. Newly hired head coach Matt LaFleur will handle that. But if the Packers offense regains it’s former glory with Hackett at the helm he could be in line for a head coaching gig sooner rather than later. What does it say about Matt LaFleur’s opinion of the Jaguars 2018 offensive talent that he would hire an OC who was fired midseason and was the Titans whipping boy on multiple occasions while LaFleur directed the Tennessee offense? 

Kyler Murray

The 2018 Heisman winner officially declared for the NFL Draft on Monday. He still has a grace period of about three days to remove his name from the draft, and won’t be obligated to play even if he does get drafted, but all signs are pointing to Murray pursuing his NFL career, instead of taking his talents to the baseball diamond. He is, without question, the most electrifying talent in this year’s draft class and he’s likely to end up an early first round pick. Football czar Tom Coughlin has long been known to value measurables like height and weight in a QB and Murray is just under 5’10’’. But Murray is well suited for the modern NFL and with his skill set could greatly enhance the Jaguars rushing attack and passing game. Coughlin and company would be wise to find out everything about this kid and his game, because he might be their best option whether they remain at number seven in the draft or elect to trade up.