Khan Job: New Management, Same Old Jaguars

I can’t begin to feel what Jacksonville Jaguars fans are feeling right now but I know it can’t be good. New owner Shahid Khan promised them that things would get better and for a couple of weeks things looked as if they might.

I guess change is a relative state of mind to Khan. Khan has kept General Manager Gene Smith and he also kept defensive coordinator Mel Tucker. While retaining both of those guys wasn’t the worst of moves Khan could make, Jaguars fans were expecting the organization to receive more of an overhaul.

That would include management, the coaching staff and the product on the field. From the looks of things fans will see little change in either one of these areas.

Khan did make a head-coaching change. The Jaguars also have a new offensive coordinator but as Jaguars fans will see in the coming months these moves will create little change in the team’s on-field performance.

That is because the Jaguars made somewhat of a lateral move in their hiring of Mike Mularkey as head coach. Mularkey ran the Atlanta Falcons conservative offense the past four years with mixed results. Mularkey does emphasize the run which will at least make Maurice Jones-Drew happy but don’t expect a whole lot after that.

And Jacksonville’s new offensive coordinator? Well that is no other than Bob Bratkowski, Mularkey’s quarterbacks coach from Atlanta and longtime friend.

Khan and Smith probably looked at how quarterback Matt Ryan developed in Atlanta and were hoping that Mularkey and crew would be able to do the same for Blaine Gabbert but maybe they should have taken a deeper look into Ryan’s “progress” before they decided on Mularkey as coach.

Ryan had his best season in terms of total yards and touchdowns last season but those numbers aren’t that great when put into perspective. Despite passing for nearly 500 yards more than the previous season, Ryan only threw one more touchdown while throwing three more interceptions. His average-yards-per-pass improved from the previous season also but it was still lower than what he averaged his rookie season.

Bartkowski and Mularkey tried to implement the no-huddle to Atlanta’s offense last year but Ryan never seemed to master it. Atlanta’s offense would stall at the most inopportune times, none more notable than in their 24-2 Wild Card loss to the New York Giants.

That’s not saying that the Jaguars won’t be a little better than they were under Jack Del Rio. Not so much because Mularkey is a better coach, because he isn’t. More so because Del Rio’s message and routine had grown old and the team needed a fresh face that will bring a different approach to how they do things.

But it won’t take long for Mularkey’s act to wear thin in Jacksonville. The guy only lasted two years in his lone previous stint as head coach of the Buffalo Bills and couldn’t retain his offensive coordinator duties for more than a year when he was with the Miami Dolphins.

So Jaguars fans can expect incremental improvement over the next couple of years while we await the day until Mularkey gets fired. Sure Gabbert will play better and the team will win a few more games but both were bound to happen regardless of who the Jaguars installed as coach. With that being said, the countdown on when Mularkey faces the wrath of Khan begins. Anyone want to place bets on how long that will take?

Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and also writes for both The Penalty Flag and Outside The Redzone. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @Sportmentalist.