Trent Baalke definitely sounds like he cost the Jaguars a shot at Ben Johnson

After a wildly disappointing 4-13 season, it felt inevitable that the Jacksonville Jaguars were going to reset everything. Not only was Doug Pederson going to lose his job, but Trent Baalke had to go too, right? Well, not so fast. Pederson was let go, but Jags owner Shahid Khan opted to keep Baalke around. Thus began what is sure to be a fascinating for Jacksonville.

With the GM seemingly untouchable at this point, the Jags had a head coaching vacancy to address. Fittingly, they targeted the top fish available, Ben Johnson, to be their new head coach. Had they been able to seal the deal, that would've been a home run hire.

Johnson wound up choosing the Chicago Bears, instead, and there figures to be one main reason as to why. It all has to do with Baalke.

Jaguars keeping Trent Baalke around cost them chance at hiring Ben Johnson

The setup not being in line with what he was looking for sounds exactly like Johnson was not fond of potentially having to work with Baalke — and if we're being honest, it's hard to blame him.

Why Baalke is still around is a question only Khan really knows the answer to. The back half of Baalke's tenure with the San Francisco 49ers was beyond uninspiring, and most of his Jaguars tenure, despite having the opportunity to draft generational prospect Trevor Lawrence, has been the same.

The Jaguars have made the playoffs just once in Baalke's four years in Jacksonville, and they went 9-8 in the season. They've gone just 25-43 overall since Baalke took over. How many general managers get to hire three different head coaches in five years when they've only had one playoff appearance to show for their time in a particular city? Not many, and Johnson knows that.

Why should Johnson trust Baalke's roster-building ability when he has gone nearly 20 games under .500 in his time in Jacksonville? Ryan Poles' track record might not be great, but at least the Bears have Caleb Williams on a rookie deal, making roster construction not nearly as challenging.

Whether Johnson would've come to Jacksonville if they let him pick his own general manager is something only that franchise and the new Bears head coach know, but if we find out that he was and that the Jags were unwilling to let Baalke go as a result, that's just a brutal look.

Baalke should've been fired after this past season, regardless of what Johnson wanted. The fact that the Jags might've missed out on one of the most intriguing candidates we've seen in years because they wanted to keep a general manager who has won just 37 percent of his games since arriving in Jacksonville is heartbreaking to a fanbase that deserves so much better.