Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan said recently that Urban Meyer needs to work to earn back the trust of his players. The more we hear, however, the more it sounds like Meyer may have never had it.
Jeff Howe of The Athletic wrote on Thursday that sources told him they don’t believe the recent embarrassing headlines created by Meyer have caused the coach to lose the locker room. Those sources believe Meyer “never had the locker room” in the first place.
Why? Apparently veteran players have not responded well to Meyer’s coaching style. That isn’t exactly a surprise, as Meyer had no NFL coaching experience prior to this season. College coaches often have a difficult time relating to NFL players, and that may be what has happened with Meyer in his first year in Jacksonville.
The report meshes with what we recently heard from an anonymous Jaguars player and two player agents. The player blasted Meyer and said he has never established credibility since he was hired by Jacksonville. The agents claimed Jags players view Meyer as a “fraud” and couldn’t believe the coach chose to remain in Ohio two weeks ago after the team lost to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Meyer has faced plenty of criticism since a video surfaced of him getting cozy with a young woman at a bar. But when the dust settles from all of that, the biggest question might be if he was even the right person for the Jaguars job to begin with. It sounds like there is a lot of skepticism about that, too.
