MASTER OF THE HALF-MEASURE, IT'S PAST TIME FOR SHAD KHAN TO CLEAN HOUSE

New year, same Shad Khan?

BY JORDAN DE LUGO

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On Monday evening, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media dropped a bomb regarding the future of the Jaguars' organization. 

"And by the way, Trent Baalke, who is the GM now, will be retained and be involved with owner Shad Khan in the (coaching) search," Rapoport shared on NFL Network. "I'm told Baalke will report to Khan and will work in sync with the new coach."

It's almost unfathomable that after all the failures Shad Khan has witnessed and been an active party to, that he wouldn't learn his lesson about half-measures. 

Khan took over the Jaguars' organization in 2012, and he's done wondrous things for the economic value of the franchise. He purchased the club for around $750 million, and it's now valued at just under $3 billion, per Statista. 

But Khan's football decisions have led the Jaguars and their fans down the rabbit hole over the last decade. We should have taken the blue pill. And with the report from Rapoport that Baalke will stick around at the team's general manager, it appears that Khan is making the same mistake he has repeated time and time again while leading the Jaguars to a 41-118 record in his ten seasons at the helm.

Trent Baalke has a negative reputation in league circles, has alienated employees and colleagues, and has failed miserably at hiring coaches, drafting talent, and pursuing free agents. Sure, he had success early in his tenure with San Francisco, thanks largely to a roster built by his predecessor, but Baalke's record as a football executive since 2015 is 10-53.

Forget all that for a moment and look at this in the most basic way. The Jaguars have not made sweeping organizational changes since 2013, when Khan parted ways with head coach Mike Mularkey and general manager Gene Smith. 

Now, after the worst two-year performance in franchise history, Khan is reportedly set to do what he does best: take another half-measure.

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A quick jog down memory lane:

In 2016, when Khan finally pulled the plug on the Gus Bradley rebuild, he kept Dave Caldwell on as the general manager, promoted offensive line/interim head coach Doug Marrone, and brought in Tom Coughlin to oversee the entire operation.

In December of 2019, after Tom Coughlin's actions led the NFLPA to send out a scathing letter to players, warning them not to sign in Jacksonville, Khan fired the former Super Bowl champion. But even as the organization faced an uphill battle after being blackballed by the NFLPA, Khan saw fit to keep Doug Marrone in place as the head coach and Dave Caldwell on board as the general manager. 

January 2021; after firing Dave Caldwell and Doug Marrone, Khan sets his eyes on the biggest fish in the coaching sea: Urban Meyer. He lands Meyer, but again fails to remove some of the toxicity in the organization by promoting interim GM Trent Baalke to full-time GM moving forward. 

Now, after the most embarrassing coaching job in recent memory and with a roster in shambles, Khan will reportedly keep Trent Baalke in place. 

For the sake of the team and the fan base, I sincerely hope Khan has a change of heart with this decision. The fans are doing their part, as thousands of them have changed their Twitter avi's to clowns emojis resembling Shad Khan with his iconic mustache. And NFL writers locally and around the country are speaking out against the decision. It's one thing to keep continuity within a successful organization, but to keep guys around from one of the worst decades of pro football in recent memory is laughable. 

It's time for Khan to see the err in his ways, but if anything has become evident over the last decade, it's that Khan doesn't learn from his mistakes. 

Follow Jordan on Twitter. ​