Bad Coaching in the NFL: Doug Marrone, thirsty try-hard
By Mike Tanier
The NFL has some horrendous coaching every week. In Week 14, Doug Marrone and the Jacksonville Jaguars took the reins.
So what does Doug Marrone have to do to get himself fired, anyway?
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported before Sunday’s game that insiders around the league feel Marrone “will be given a chance to stick on,” based on how hard his Jacksonville Jaguars have been playing over the last month or so. That’s right, folks: in his fourth season (plus change) on the job, Marrone is getting credit for almost beating the Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns.
Lower expectations, fail to meet them, earn a C-plus for effort and stay on the job: the organizational principles which make the Jacksonville Jaguars great!
C’mon, Coach would almost be willing to listen to the look how scrappy the lads are argument if Marrone was not actively sabotaging the Jaguars quarterback situation.
Gardner Minshew has recovered from his hand injury and has been “begging” (his own words) to return to the lineup since before the Browns game, but Marrone insisted on sticking with department store mannequin Mike Glennon instead.
“I just want to see more practice,” Marrone said of Minshew last week (per ESPN’s Michael DiRocco). “Obviously he’s cleared medically, but still you want to be able to see those things on the practice field. I just think right now in practice Mike is throwing better and gives us the best chance to win.”
It’s important to point out Glennon has made an almost decade-long NFL career out of looking great while wearing a red pinnie during 7-on-7 drills, while Minshew always looks like he just fell out of an NFL Films documentary about a quarterback who rode a motorcycle straight from Woodstock to a 1 p.m. kickoff.
So it’s perfectly reasonable that Glennon could look better than Minshew in practice. But once there is any pass rush whatsoever, Glennon always turns into Stripsack McFumbleface, while Minshew has proven that he can improvise and make plays with his arm, legs and unpredictability. Some of the Jaguars close losses might have been wins if Minshew were back in the lineup.
The Jaguars may be finding it hard to fire Marrone simply because he was never really hired in the first place. Marrone opted out of his Bills contract in 2014 – it says volumes about a coach when he quits after a 9-7 season – and somehow materialized on Gus Bradley’s staff as the offensive line coach.
Bradley was fired late in the 2016 season, Marrone took over as the interim head coach, and he has been hiding in plain sight ever since: no expectations, no accountability, a middle manager at a forgotten sales branch who keeps his job because no one can be bothered to start the process of replacing him.
Marrone is the coach a team gets when it doesn’t really know what it wants from a coach.
Schefter’s report on Sunday was not exactly a ringing endorsement: he was passing along league scuttlebutt, not a decree directly from the Khan family. But that sort of around-the-campfire reputation fluffing often turns into reality.
Even if Marrone is fired, he’ll spin the “he couldn’t help the fact that his team stunk” narrative into another high-profile gig as an offensive coordinator or assistant head coach. No one will stop to wonder why he was powerless to stop his team from stinking. And there really is a chance that Marrone hangs around, if only so the next Jaguars general manager can “evaluate” him (in other words, enjoy a mulligan year of rebuilding that he can blame on the outgoing regime).
As for Marrone’s “highly-motivated” Jaguars, here’s a highlight reel of Derrick Henry ripping off 215 rushing yards against them in Sunday’s 31-10 Tennessee Titans victory. Yes, Henry does this to a lot of teams this time of year. But no, most of them don’t play defense like 11 guys who fell asleep in wheelbarrows.
If we’re going to give a coach credit for his team’s effort, we should at least pick a coach whose team is still putting out some effort.
Lynn Sanity
The Los Angeles Chargers were out of timeouts with 22 seconds left before halftime when Kalen Ballage ran up the middle for no gain on 3rd-and-1 from the Falcons eight-yard line.
The clock ticked down to about 10 seconds before the Chargers offense realized, uh-oh, it was fourth down and they had to do something! So Justin Herbert tried to line the offense up and call a play. Meanwhile, head coach Anthony Lynn also suddenly realized that it was fourth down and sent the field goal unit sprinting onto the field with about eight seconds left.
The field goal unit waved frantically for Herbert and company to get off the field. With two seconds left, several starters were still jogging toward the sideline with no real sense of urgency. Michael Badgley somehow managed to get a kick off as time expired, but there were still Chargers strewn all over the field; the referees decided “illegal shift” was the proper penalty, because “running around like a bunch of doofuses” is not a foul in the official NFL rulebook.
Lynn made a similar mistake in the waning moments of the Chargers’ Week 12 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Herbert completed a miraculous fourth down Hail Mary to Ty Johnson at the Bills 2-yard line with one minute left in a two-score game.
The Chargers took forever to get down the field and line up. Instead of calling a quick spike, goal line fade or even a field goal attempt, Lynn then called an Austin Ekeler run up the middle with 25 seconds left and no timeouts, effectively taking away any hope of a quick touchdown and an onside kick.
For the record, C’mon, Coach loves Lynn as a game planner and thinks he has done a fine job developing Herbert. But Lynn’s clock management makes Andy Reid look like a Time Lord. After a while, mistakes like the ones Lynn has made over the last few weeks become inexcusable, no matter how good a job a coach is doing with his rookie quarterback.
You Can’t Fire the Guy with the $100-Million Contract
Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Paul Guenther was hired to be fired. Jon Gruden chose his old chum Guenther for his loyalty, ordinariness and expendability: a trusty sidekick who would allow Gruden to completely ignore the defensive side of the ball until he needed a scapegoat.
Guenther was the coaching equivalent of the spouse in a starter marriage: someone for Gruden and the Raiders to grow out of. The only surprise about his firing after Week 14 is he lasted almost three full seasons.
Gruden hired Guenther not just because of their personal relationship but based on the reputation he built as a linebackers coach and coordinator for the 2010s Cincinnati Bengals. Gruden then filled Guenther’s defense with 2010s Bengals.
The 2018 Raiders defense featured Reggie Nelson, Frostee Rucker and Leon Hall in significant roles, plus journeyman defenders from non-Bengals teams like Tahir Whitehead, Derrick Johnson and Rashaan Melvin occupying roster spots that should have gone to younger players.
Gruden and Guenther, golf and carpool buddies off the field, spent the 2018 season jawing at each other on the sideline as the old, slow Raiders defense wheezed around the field in Patrick Mahomes’ contrail.
Mike Mayock signed on to the Gruden vanity project in 2019 and began replacing the old Bengals with names plucked from the Clemson media guide. Mayock gave Guenther Clelin Ferrell, a sack specialist who rarely produces a sack, and Trayvon Mullen, a cornerback who cannot tackle. He also added more veterans like linebacker Corey Littleton, a coverage linebacker who cannot cover.
Guenther’s defense became overloaded with high-effort major-program prospects who aren’t all that gifted, lots of late-round developmental projects and “just another guy” caliber veterans.
After three seasons, the Raiders still lack an elite edge rusher or shutdown cornerback; middle linebacker Nick Kwiatkowski (another journeyman import) and inconsistent pass rusher Maxx Crosby (who disappears for long stretches after flashing potential) are the closest things the Raiders have to a defensive star.
Guenther moved from coaching from the sideline to the booth in October, as if Raiders defenders would become faster and more physical if their coach could see the field a little bit better.
The Raiders defense allowed 200-plus rushing yards in back-to-back games to the Jets and Colts over the last two weeks, ultimately sealing Guenther’s fate. It’s important to note that the Raiders defense was missing multiple starters on Sunday. And they have a quick turnaround before facing the Chargers on Thursday night. And they still have an outside shot at the playoffs.
Guenther deserved one more chance, at least for the sake of using the mini-bye to insure a smoother transition to interim coordinator Rod Marinelli. But when Gruden is feeling impulsive, no one is safe. Especially not the frenemy he kept around for just this sort of emergency.
Gruden’s Raiders keep experiencing the same year over and over again: Derek Carr looks pretty good, they win a few games, reality sets in against a tougher schedule, the team collapses late in the year, Gruden and Mayock make a bunch of semi-splashy offseason moves which don’t amount to much, rinse and repeat. Guenther’s firing is the first sign that Gruden realizes he cannot keep doing this forever.
Eventually, team owner Mark Davis will want to see results. If Gruden cannot supply those results, he’ll be forced to continue jettisoning the comfy ballast he has insulated himself with for the last three years.
Carr had better not suffer through any multi-turnover games over the rest of the season. Because he’ll be the next one on Gruden’s chopping block.