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Less than a week after interviewing Urban Meyer on his yacht, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan landed the big fish.
Meyer will soon agree to a deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars to bring them back to relevance with future franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence. He became arguably the most prestigious college-to-pro coach in NFL history since Barry Switzer, bringing with him three National Championships and a reputation for being able to create powerful programs.
Meyer’s impending hiring lends immediate legitimacy and relevance to a dying Jags franchise that even the appearance of the 2017 AFC title game couldn’t deserve. There is no doubt that Meyer will get a salary in the top five of all NFL coaches, but billionaire Khan considered that as an investment he would immediately get a return on ticket sales.
Make no mistake: Meyer will have full control of the operation. He has been gathering his team of coaches for a few weeks, as our Jason La Canfora reported. And we think he won’t turn the guts of the team too soon.
Meyer won’t try to bite more than he can chew in the first year, and that includes manually selecting a GM. From now on, it is expected that Trent Baalke, who has been the interim general manager since Dave Caldwell was fired and has been entering work every day since Doug Marrone was fired, will remain the general manager. Baalke has over 20 years of NFL experience as a Boy Scout and Chief of Staff. He ran for the 49ers from 2011 to 2016, where he and Jim Harbaugh took San Francisco to three straight NFC title games and a Super Bowl appearance.
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In addition to interviewing Baalke, the Jags also interviewed Jerry Reese, Louis Riddick, Rick Smith, Ray Farmer, and Terry Fontenot.
If Year 1 isn’t as successful as those in Jacksonville want it to be, Meyer can unplug Baalke. Then, with a year of NFL experience under his belt, he can take it out on the GM of his liking.
But one thing Meyer should demand – or, better, what the severity of Meyer’s hire should demand – is more resources dedicated to football operations. League sources told me in December that the Jags were pretty cheap when it came to salaries and benefits for football operations staff. Longtime Jags defensive lineman Arby Jones on Thursday called for improved facilities for the entire operation.
Again, the money spent on Meyer and the football upgrades is paltry compared to the money Khan is expected to make just from Meyer’s presence, let alone become a consistent playoff contender in the game. ‘AFC South.
For years, Khan has worked for the Jacksonville local government to secure public funds for developments throughout the city. Just this week, city council rejected a proposal for an entertainment district Khan is trying to build in Lot J outside TIAA Bank Field. The deal reportedly saw the city give private developers $ 208 million in cash, and city council auditors believed the return on investment wouldn’t come close to a dollar-for-dollar deal.
No matter what you think of public-private partnerships when it comes to local governments and sports franchises, there is little argument that it is easier for a winning franchise to get public money than one that is on the verge. to make the top 10 in the NFL Draft for the 13th time in 14 years.
Next stop for Haskins
When the Washington football team posted Dwayne Haskins less than three weeks ago, I braced myself for a cascade of anonymous stories tearing the 23-year-old quarterback apart. But they never came.
As I have been told, Haskins is not a bad person. He is simply immature and did not take his duties as seriously as he should have. Staying close to home probably didn’t help, and his father, Dwayne Haskins Sr., was a thorn in Washington’s side from the start. I also think it speaks well of the new culture at the Washington facility under Ron Rivera. The team, under their old name and previous regimes, would have quickly buried someone like Haskins.
So I wasn’t shocked when the Panthers threw the tires on Haskins earlier this week, especially since this team should be evaluating every option as a quarterback for the next four months. Rhule must wonder if he fits into Matt Rhule’s “culture”.
A league source said he wouldn’t be at all surprised if Haskins ended up with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2021. Along with Pittsburgh’s obvious need to bolster their QB hall, Haskins feels an affinity for the coach- Chief Mike Tomlin and hired Tomlin’s agent after they split up. with his own agent after his release in Washington.
Someone will be picking up Haskins before the start of the 2021 season, and his future will depend entirely on his preparation to be an NFL quarterback and all that goes with it.
The numbers are in … sort of
From the start of week 1 of the 2020 NFL regular season until the last game day, the NFL saw 240 players testing positive for COVID-19 and 408 other team staff testing positive.
These numbers come from joint statements released by the league and the NFLPA each week, starting September 6 and ending January 2. But fully contextualizing this can get tricky.
The league began its testing program on August 1 during training camp, and since then it has administered more than 900,000 tests. If you include the positive cases from the camp and the 25 total positives from players and staff during the wildcard weekend, you will get a positivity rate of 0.075% looking at the total positives against the tests.
If you just want to look at how many players and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 compared to the number of players in the league, that percentage is getting closer to double digits.
Each week, approximately 2,400 players and 4,600 staff members were tested daily. The staff group is said to have remained largely unchanged except for a few coaching changes throughout the season and random layoffs and hires from lower level positions. The group of 2,400 players has changed a lot, however. Teams that knock the bottom off their roster and their practice teams make it very difficult to find the exact search that has been tested every day of every week. Were there 3,000 people who ended up being tested in the player pool, with a few hundred coming and going from team to team or getting knocked out? More? Less?
Additionally, we don’t know how many players and staff contracted the virus between March and the start of camp. We don’t know for sure how long the antibodies last, so we can’t assume that someone who caught the virus in June wouldn’t be able to catch it later in the year.
But just taking the round (and probably low) number of 7,000 players and staff tested daily from the start of Week 1 to the end of the season, the 648 positives represent 9.2% of the league catching the virus. The 240 positive players out of 2,400 players would be 10% and the 408 staff members out of 4,600 staff members would be 8.9%. But again, these percentages are likely to be slightly lower.
Tips
- Did you also have to stifle the laughs when Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie spoke on Monday about his recent involvement in football decisions? “I would say my involvement has been the same for about 25 years. I think what I tend to do is ask a lot of questions and understand where we’re coming from strategically and in terms of performance.” Ask former offensive coordinator Mike Groh and former wide receivers coach Carson Walch, both sacked last season shortly after Doug Pederson met Lurie at the end of the season, if Lurie just asks a lot of questions.
- The Washington football team has asked to interview 49ers vice president of player staff Martin Mayhew and Titans vice president of player staff Ryan Cowden. Along with internal candidates Eric Stokes and Kyle Smith, WFT will likely question former Texans general manager Rick Smith if he’s still available. Former Panthers general manager Marty Hurney is said to be the chief of the post today.
- In normal years, the NFLPA releases projected salary cap numbers for the upcoming Super Bowl-era season. This will likely be delayed for a few weeks as both sides try to understand the financial fallout from the pandemic. We know the floor cap is $ 175 million and the union will be releasing the working cap numbers soon. For planning purposes, a cautious team should not expect more than $ 175 million plus their carry forward to 2021.
Division round choice
Rams at Packers
4:35 p.m. ET, Saturday, FOX
I’m salivating at this game between the Packers offense and the Rams defense. The QBs have a 61.9 passer rating when they pitch at Jalen Ramsey this season, so Aaron Rodgers is wary. But the pack were playing amazing football in December, had a week off and could play at home against a team with an injured quarterback and an injured defensive tackle.
The choice: Packers
Ravens at Bills
8:15 p.m., Saturday, NBC
I so want to choose the bills. I actually think they’re the best team, and if they win, I won’t be surprised, especially if they manage to play in winter weather. Josh Allen is a much more precise quarterback than he was in 2019 when he completed just 43.6% of his passes against a stifling Ravens defense, and he now has Stefon Diggs to help out. play the Baltimore D. But I was disappointed with the Buffalo’s run defense in the fourth quarter against the Colts, where they gave up three runs from 20 yards or more. It won’t face the best ground attack in the league.
The choice: Ravens
Browns at Chiefs
3:05 p.m., Sunday, CBS
Spoiler alert: I won’t pick Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. What the Browns did last week was astounding, but Pittsburgh was waiting to be knocked out of the playoffs. The Chiefs are built for January, and as long as they’re dealing with football (which they haven’t done so well in the final weeks of the season), they’ll win this one by over 11 points.
The choice: Chefs
Buccaneers at Saints
6:40 p.m., Sunday, FOX
This is the 33rd time a 2-0 team has faced the loser for a third time in the playoffs, and this winner has gone 20-12 in previous clashes. It would bode well for the Saints if it was the same Bucs team from Weeks 1 and 9. But Tom Brady has his deep ball now. Tampa has to be better in the second downs to avoid impossible third and long situations against that Saints defense, but I think they can pull off the surprise in the Superdome.
The choice: Buccaneers
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