Larry Brown Sports

Jack Del Rio had the Jaguars organization fooled from 2003 into 2011.  Why?  Because he was the Jags’ head coach.  According to former Pro Bowler Fred Taylor, Del Rio is not fit for that position.

“At the end of the day, he’s not a head coach,” Taylor said according to The Post Game. “He’s a great defensive coach. But he’s not a head coach.”

If the rumors about Del Rio showing up to team facilities at 9 a.m. routinely are true, he was no longer fit to be the head coach in Jacksonville.  As for whether or not he is fit to be a head coach at any level, that remains to be seen if he gets another opportunity.  However, Taylor insists Del Rio had a way of mismanaging his players and not giving guys the benefit of the doubt.

“Why do you think I’m not there?” he asked. “There wasn’t any falloff in my production. I expressed my willingness to take a paycut. I just wanted to be there and be a part of the community. I wanted to finish my career there. Just because we had this new running back. All we had to do was switch roles. ‘Fred, Maurice [Jones-Drew] is going to be the starter.’ Fine, no problem. I wasn’t a virus in the locker room. I worked my ass off — everything.”

Taylor said it was a “gray area” in Del Rio’s personality that made him difficult to play under.  Unlike Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin — former head coaches of Taylor’s that aren’t afraid to put any player in line at any moment — he said Del Rio would be your best friend one day and the next he would be cutting someone a month before the season began (David Garrard).

It is important to note, however, that there are players who supported Del Rio.  Mike Sims Walker, who spent three seasons with Jacksonville before signing with the Rams and returning to the Jags after he was released, sent out a tweet on Tuesday praising his former coach. Clearly like any other player-coach relationship in the NFL, individual experiences have varied in Jacksonville.

Considering the Jacksonville Jaguars have not finished with a record above .500 since 2007 and are one of the NFL’s worst teams this year, it should come as no surprise that Jack Del Rio was fired this week.  The news has been accompanied by plenty of buzz, however, likely because Del Rio has been the coach in Jacksonville for the last eight years.  Not only that, but the way in which his release came about is particularly interesting.

According to CBSSports.com, Del Rio is rumored to have lost his drive once he received a fat contract extension in 2008 that would have kept him with the team through 2012.  Jags owner Wayne Weaver is not the type who would fire a coach in the middle of a season, but Del Rio was reportedly showing up to work at 9 a.m. most days.

With the way we hear coaches and players talking about tedious preparation and endless hours in the film room, you can understand why the Jaguars grew tired of Del Rio.  Showing up to work at 9 a.m. as a head football coach in the National Football League is insane.  It may not seem that way in a world where a 9-5 job is fairly common, but coaching a professional football team is not your average job.  If Del Rio really was strolling in that late, it’s no surprise the Jaguars have looked like one of the league’s most unprepared teams all season long.  After all, they did struggle against the Colts.  Perhaps watching more Curtis Painter film would have helped.