Tom Coughlin Should Decline Jacksonville Jaguars
By Zac Wassink
It makes sense the Jacksonville Jaguars want to bring Tom Coughlin back as head coach in 2017, but Coughlin should respectfully decline if he receives an offer.
Tom Coughlin never wanted to stop coaching. Coughlin would be the head coach of the New York Giants today if he was given the option in early January. Coughlin publicly stepped down as head coach in the first week 2016. However, every New York fan knew what actually occurred behind the scenes.
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As John Healy of the New York Daily News explained in March, Coughlin later admitted the Giants forced him out as head coach and that he spoke with the Philadelphia Eagles about accepting that team’s open position.
Coughlin wants to coach, he believes he can still win in the NFL and the Jacksonville Jaguars, the first NFL franchise to hire him as a head coach, will likely soon have an opening at the position. Nobody can blame Coughlin for allegedly being intrigued in giving it one last go in Jacksonville before he rides off into the sunset for good, this time on his own terms.
That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
Per CBS Sports’ John Breech, Coughlin would once again be the oldest head coach in the NFL if he put pen to paper on a contract with the Jaguars. Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick currently sit atop the list and they happen to be two of the best coaches in the league today.
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Don’t think that indicates age is “only a number” for NFL head coaches, though. Both Carroll and Belichick built foundations for championship rosters over time and their successes may lead to the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots meeting in another Super Bowl come February. The Jaguars, on the other hand, probably aren’t a coaching upgrade away from winning anything of merit.
Quarterback Blake Bortles is a mess this fall. As Greg Cosell of Yahoo Sports/Shutdown Corner wrote last month, Bortles’ mechanics need to be addressed and possibly even reworked from scratch. Coughlin and a new staff could help turn Bortles around, but that task will likely take longer than 12 months.
Coughlin and other coaches may not get longer than a year to repair Bortles. Per Spotrac, Bortles is only signed through the end of the 2017 season. His deal includes a club option for 2018, one the team may ignore if Bortles again fails to impress next fall. Moreover, the Jaguars currently have no reason to pay Bortles the type of salary offered to a known franchise quarterback.
Truth be told, Coughlin and those he would hire may have to consider drafting a quarterback during either the first or second day of next year’s draft if Coughlin accepted the Jacksonville job.
Say for argument’s sake, though, that Bortles improves slightly between now and the end of the 2017 season while working underneath Coughlin. Such a scenario would put the 70-year-old Coughlin in quite a predicament, especially if the Jaguars are a middle-of-the-road team 13 months from now. Coughlin, if faced with this situation, would either have to go all-in on Bortles for at least one more season, hope to acquire a veteran in the offseason or possibly trade up to take a rookie quarterback.
Maybe Coughlin could trade for Eli Manning at that point. Stranger things have happened over NFL history.
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For all Coughlin or any new coach could achieve, the Jaguars still lost a full year of development in 2016. That year is gone and lost forever. Neither Coughlin nor any other coach can recover it. If the Jaguars began 2016 a couple of seasons away from potentially contending for a playoff spot or better, they remain in that same spot at the end of the calendar year.
Some would argue Coughlin deserved better than what occurred between he and those running the Giants at the end of the 2015 NFL season. They may be right. Others, however, could point out the Giants haven’t played in a playoff game since New York defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI and that Coughlin wasn’t shown the door soon enough.
How anybody feels about the subject is irrelevant. Coughlin can’t go back and undo mistakes he made during the final few years of his tenure with the Giants and he alone can’t turn the current edition of the Jaguars into a championship team overnight.
How long would the Jaguars actually trust Coughlin before giving up on the experiment? How long until the 70-year-old loses a spark for the job or is physically unable to perform his duties? There are real concerns about Coughlin becoming coach of the Jaguars that go beyond discussions of legacy.
Just as in life, nothing lasts forever in the world of sports. Peyton Manning’s body betrayed him seemingly overnight, and he was fortunate to retire as a champion earlier this year. Fellow icons Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and others also played their final games in 2016. Being able to know and accept it’s time to walk away is part of the business.
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Coughlin can still contribute plenty to NFL teams as an advisor. Any head coach would do well to accept advice from the three-time Super Bowl champion.
The reality is that Coughlin’s best days as an NFL coach are probably in the past, and that is why he should graciously say “thanks, but no thanks” to the Jaguars, New York Jets or any other team that comes calling in 2017.