Jacksonville Jaguars: Doug Marrone is the problem, not Gardner Minshew or the roster

The Jacksonville Jaguars have played poorly this season but blame should be placed on Doug Marrone.

This past offseason, the Jacksonville Jaguars essentially dumped away any players worthy of merit for anything that they could get. That’s led to a horrendous 2020 season and one where fans need to start looking at the person coaching the team, Doug Marrone, rather than the players when pointing fingers.

Gardner Minshew took the NFL by storm last season, introducing Minshew Mania to the masses. The jorts-wearing, mustachioed quarterback was a surprise and a revelation after Nick Foles went down in Week 1 against the Chiefs. To say he was average is an understatement, as the rookie ended up playing better in many statistics than Offensive Rookie of the Year winner Kyler Murray, despite starting four fewer games.

As we approached the 2020 season, there was a lot of incorrect stigma surrounding Minshew and his abilities. Despite being labeled as having a “weak arm”, the Washington State product was ranked as the third-best deep-ball passer in the league by PFF (subscription required) in 2019.

He excelled throwing the ball nearly everywhere, as he was ranked in the top five in terms of throwing into open windows. Minshew also ranked first throwing from clean pockets and from under center. He was also the most accurate passer in the NFL on throws from 26-30 yards.

And while Minshew wasn’t known as a running quarterback, he managed to record the second-most scramble yards in the NFL during his rookie campaign, only behind Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Last season during his unlikely run that was pushing the Jaguars into a playoff position, Marrone benched his rookie quarterback for the then-healthy Nick Foles, who went on to lose every game he started. This led Marrone to bench Foles and return to Minshew which, by then, as you could imagine, was too late for the Jaguars and their playoff hopes.

All of this misinformation about the Jaguars leads us to Doug Marrone.

That season should have ended with the head coach getting fired but here we are. The 2020 campaign has not gotten any better for the Jaguars and Marrone must be the one to take the blame at this stage.

Marrone has been known in the NFL as an offensive line coach for a long time yet, somehow, his offensive line’s performance in Jacksonville has been at the bottom half of the NFL for the past three years.

In 2018, the Jaguars’ O-line ranked 28th in pass blocking efficiency by PFF. The blocking for any quarterback under center has been so bad in the past three years that they haven’t graded out higher than 20th, which is where they sit this year. The team is ranked 23rd in sacks allowed, averaging 2.6 per game, which is marginally better than last year when they allowed 2.7.

With essentially the same crew for the past three seasons, it’s an indictment on the coaching staff to see how badly the line is playing with a coach whose specialty is supposed to be that position group specifically.

Another main concern that has yet to be addressed is the Jaguars defense, which has been a sieve since moving on from a plethora of players this offseason. For two seasons in a row, the Jaguars defense is ranked among the bottom 10 in the NFL in overall defense and in pass coverage, per PFF.

No changes have been made to the defensive coaching staff, which is another indictment on Marrone not being able to see the problems that are right in front of him. This becomes more true when realizing that the defense was almost exactly as bad the year prior despite having a much more talented roster.

Most recently, Marrone came out and said that Mike Glennon was the team’s best option to win football games over a healthy Gardner Minshew. This wouldn’t be a problem if it were true — but it’s simply not.

For their respective careers, Glennon has never had a season where he finished better than Minshew in total offense and passing grades when he’s had at least 50 snaps, per PFF. Everyone who’s paid attention to the NFL over the years knows what Glennon is. He isn’t a bad player but a head coach overlooking their best option at quarterback in a false sense that it will save their job is a big problem.

The Jaguars are a young team that should have expected to struggle this season. But having a head coach that can’t get his roster to play better after 2-3 years signals that the problem is on the coaching staff, not on the playing field.