The question the Jacksonville Jaguars should be asking is not whether Urban Meyer is worth a whopping $ 12 million a year to coach the team, as ProFootballTalk reports that he is looking for.
It is whether he is worthy of a golden opportunity to use the Jags’ considerable current resources – four choices from the draft top 50, including the overall No. 1, and about $ 81 million in salary cap space – to rebuild the place at the moment.
In that case, even that money doesn’t matter (Meyer would be one of the highest-paid coaches in the league, although well behind Bill Belichick, who probably earns more than $ 20 million a year in New England).
NFL teams can always make money. They rarely have so much going for them as they try to rebuild.
Meyer is an intriguing candidate, not only because he has won three national university degrees, including two at the nearby University of Florida. It’s how he won those titles that stand out – creating culture and maximizing talents – because that could translate perfectly into the redesign of the Jaguars.
There is no guarantee, of course, that Meyer will win in the NFL. The professional ranks are filled with great college coaches who failed, including Nick Saban. And Meyer has struggled to keep his health under the stress of college seasons, where losses are rare. How will he deal with the Any Given Sunday professional world?
However, there is never a guarantee. Belichick, Andy Reid and Pete Carroll were all fired at one point or another. The NFL is a meat grinder.
Meyer’s success has been the ability to create a winning and even perfectionist mindset, and then use it to attract high-level competitors who want to get the most out of their talent.
You need great players to win. This is true in college and in the NFL. Meyer won with many of them. He also won by raising what he inherited before he could just accumulate a list. He had 17-6 in two seasons at Bowling Green and then 22-2 in Utah, making big wins quickly.
In Florida, Meyer won a national title in year 2 and took home two more seasons after that. He “retired” for one season, resurfaced at Ohio State and made it 12-0 in his first season in Columbus. Two seasons later, he took the Buckeyes to the national title. It’s a lot to win with players from other coaches.
When it came to his own recruitment, part of Meyer’s secret was the ability to identify not only extremely talented players, but also extremely talented players who were also extremely competitive. He valued the latter over almost everything.
“I don’t believe in NFL, college or high school coaches [realize the importance of competitiveness]”Said Meyer a few years ago. “And I was guilty for a while. You talk about his competitiveness for a while and then you start talking about his footwork. I don’t really care about your footwork. When we train you, we will examine that. We can teach that. You cannot train competitiveness. “
He annually ran a recruitment camp called “Friday Night Lights”. He would get as many high school candidates as he could find, put everyone under the lights inside the campus stadium, play some music, and make them do battle at various training and events.
Then, he would sit down and find out which guys would give a championship.
“[A player’s] the desire to win is undoubtedly the most important, ”he said. “I used to be, ‘he’s a three-quarters [throwing motion]? Does he have four fingers on the laces or five? I do not care anymore.
“Is he going to choke you to win a game of checkers?” Meyer asked. “If he does, I will take him.”
Does this translate to the NFL? If the Jags think so, then Meyer can be perfect.
The assets available to the new coach and general manager are attractive. With draft # 1 choice, Jacksonville could have Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who professional scouts call the best QB candidate in nearly a decade and was known in college for his competitiveness and leadership.
Then there are three more draft choices (a first round and two seconds) that should be between the first 20 years and No. 47 overall. In addition to all that free agency money, with Meyer now back as a recruiter, promising a new day in Jacksonville.
While concerns about Meyer dealing with the inevitable defeat (no NFL team rebounds 1-15 over night) persist, the Jags offer the kind of freedom to put their mark on the team. It’s a better fit for him than, say, Houston, which has Deshaun Watson, but has almost $ 16 million over the limit and no choice of draft in the first two rounds.
If nothing else, Meyer creates excitement and confidence, which desperately need a franchise that has always struggled to capture the imagination of its region.
The Jags have achieved a respectable number of three AFC championship games in 26 seasons, but ticket sales often drop to the point that they play annually in London (and had two games originally scheduled for the 2020 season).
Meyer helps with that. The same is true, more so, Lawrence.
If the Jags believe that Urban is worthy of dealing with a situation that the franchise cannot afford to explode, then a few million more a year shouldn’t matter.
He will deserve it.
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