The Urban Meyer tenure in Jacksonville has come to an end as the Jaguars fired the first-year NFL head coach.
Franchise owner Shad Khan early Thursday morning. ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport previously reported the news.
Khan made the decision hours after Josh Lambo, a former Jaguars kicker, told the Tampa Bay Times that Meyer kicked him during a practice in August. It served as the latest asinine misstep by Meyer in a tenure, that while brief, was filled with blunders.
“After deliberation over many weeks and a thorough analysis of the entirety of Urban’s tenure with our team, I am bitterly disappointed to arrive at the conclusion that an immediate change is imperative for everyone,” Khan wrote, per Rapoport. “I informed Urban of the change this evening.”
Arguably Meyer’s most notable error came in September when he opted not to travel back to Jacksonville from Cincinnati with his team. Instead, Meyer was captured in a video the next night at his own bar in Central Ohio while a woman, who was not his wife, was dancing on him.
Controversy continued to follow Meyer. Last week, an NFL Network report shed light on trouble inside the organization. The report referenced how Meyer had called his assistant coaches “losers,” forcing them to defend their resumes all while he got in an argument with one of the team’s receivers, Marvin Jones Jr. Meyer denied all events.
The product on the field wasn’t much better for Meyer. He went 2-11 in 13 games as head coach and Jacksonville lost each of its last five. No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence also continued to struggle, which was perhaps a bigger factor than the record itself.
Calls for Meyer’s job began to grow in the last week, and while it was reported that Khan was sticking by him rather than acting impulsively, it appears the Jags owner had enough with Wednesday’s report serving as the final straw.
Khan shared that Darrell Bevell will serve as the interim head coach for the remainder of the 2021 season.
