Tom Coughlin has been ousted from Jacksonville.
The former Giants head coach and three-time Super Bowl winner (twice as a head coach) was fired by the Jaguars on Wednesday, days after the team lost a grievance to the NFL Players Association. He had been the team’s executive vice president of football operations since 2017.
“Within the past hour I informed Tom Coughlin that he was being relieved of his duties as Executive Vice President of Football Operations of the Jacksonville Jaguars, effective this evening,” Jags owner Shad Khan said in statement. “I determined earlier this fall that making this move at the conclusion of the 2019 season would be in everyone’s best interests but, in recent days, I reconsidered and decided to make this change immediately.”
General manager David Caldwell and coach Doug Marrone will report directly to Khan on an “interim basis,” the owner said. According to CBS Sports, Khan will be looking to rebuild the entire front office, something coaches and scouts have seen coming, with many already on the lookout for jobs elsewhere.
Coughlin oversaw a 20-26 record — including a 5-9 mark in 2019 — after the team reached the AFC championship game during his first season, and infamously drew the ire of the NFL Players Association over the summer when he blasted Jacksonville players for not coming to the team’s voluntary workouts.
That eventually led to the NFL Players Association winning an arbitration grievance against the Jaguars. The union claimed the club required players to receive all offseason medical treatment at the team’s facilities — which violated the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
In a statement, the NFLPA noted that more than 25 percent of league grievances filed in the last two years have come against the Jaguars, who fined linebacker Dante Fowler $700,000 during the 2018 offseason for for skipping out on “mandatory” medical treatments.
“You as players may want to consider this when you have a chance to select your next club,” the NFLPA said in a statement after winning the grievance.
The Jaguars have struggled this season. Quarterback Nick Foles, who inked a four-year, $88 million free-agent deal during the offseason, missed 10 weeks with a broken collarbone sustained in the first game of the season and floundered upon his return, getting benched for rookie Gardner Minshew. Jacksonville’s offsense has scored 250 points on the season, fifth-worst in the AFC, while the defense has done little to help, allowing 343 points, fourth-most in the conference.
The team is set to miss the postseason for the 11th time in 12 seasons.