Jacksonville Jaguars: Timing of personnel moves should be questioned

Why did the Jacksonville Jaguars wait to make moves like benching Blake Bortles and firing Nathaniel Hackett now instead of earlier in the season?

The Jacksonville Jaguars lost their seventh consecutive game in Buffalo in Week 12, which they could have won. Following that loss, Jacksonville fired offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and benched quarterback Blake Bortles in favor of Cody Kessler.

There will not be a playoff run this season for the Jaguars. Expectations were very high for a run for the Lombardi Trophy, especially after Week 2. Things don’t always work out as planned. It is safe to say that injuries have wreaked havoc on the Jaguars offense. Currently, of the 14 players on the injured reserve list, 12 are from the offensive side of the ball. Six are offensive lineman, if you count the long snapper.

Clearly, Hackett is the sacrificial lamb for the horrible offensive performance. Jacksonville looked better in the preseason than they have over last two months. Perhaps, Hackett’s reluctance to abandon the power run attack led to his downfall. Teams are running up and down the field while the Jaguars went three-and-out much too often.

Cody Kessler replaces Bortles as the starting quarterback. Kessler has replaced Bortles once before this season, in the Week 7 game against Houston. He completed 70 percent of his passes that short period of play time.

The former Brown went 21-of-30 passes for 156 yards with one touchdown and an interception. Kessler is smaller physically than Bortles, which might lead to more sacks. But why make the move now instead of back in Week 8?

Jacksonville’s record was 3-4 heading into the London game against Philadelphia. Suppose the Jaguars had stuck with Kessler. Would they have won the game? We will never know, but we know that they have not won a game since Sept. 30.

The failure to make these moves earlier in the season has squandered any hope of back to back playoff appearances. On Oct. 1, the Jaguars were still in play to make the playoffs. Could it be that Leonard Fournette’s meltdown in Buffalo, made those moves easier?

Most importantly, will Kessler run the Hackett offense or will Scott Milanovich begin the move towards an air raid type of offense? Hopefully it’s the latter, because the run game has not worked.

Tom Coughlin basically said so, according to Ken Patra of nfl.com:

"“…The nature of the game got us and we go back to the drawing board… So there’s a lot of things that are going to get addressed, and are being addressed.”"

It’s going to be interesting to see how this team responds. Expect changes in the offseason as the Jaguars rebuild their team identity.