Doug Marrone has survived.
The Jaguars are bringing back Marrone as their head coach and Dave Caldwell as their general manager after a second straight losing season, owner Shad Khan announced Tuesday.
“I have met on several occasions over the past few days with Dave Caldwell, Doug Marrone and their staffs to fully understand their plans to reverse our course and compete for a postseason berth in 2020,” Khan said in a statement after also holding one-on-one meetings with players.
An ESPN report from Saturday said Marrone had been informed that he would be dismissed after Sunday’s season finale, which the team denied. The Jaguars then went out and beat the Colts 38-20 to finish 6-10, but Khan said that had “nothing to do” with his decision to keep Marrone.
“While our discussions will remain confidential, the decision I am making to keep our staff intact for 2020 has nothing to do with our victory on Sunday and everything to do with my positive meetings with Dave, Doug, the coordinators and our players, as well as my belief that this is not the time to consider an overhaul of our organization,” Khan said.
Khan had already struck a blow to the Jaguars’ management earlier in December when he fired Tom Coughlin as executive vice president of football operations. The former Giants coach was canned shortly after the Jaguars lost a grievance to the NFL Players Association for requiring injured players to receive offseason medical treatment at the team’s facility and fining those who did not.
But the ax did not reach Marrone, who will get another chance to bring the Jaguars back to the playoffs in 2020 like he did in his first full season in 2017, reaching the AFC Championship Game.
The 2019 Jaguars saw Nick Foles break his clavicle in the season opener. He was replaced by Gardner Minshew, who gained cult hero status and had the Jaguars at 4-4 before falling apart.
“The 2019 season was unacceptable and I’ve made my dissatisfaction clear,” Khan said. “While many unusual circumstances influenced our season, none can fully explain or defend our second-half collapse with first place in the division within reach on Week 9. At the same time, there were positive developments and contributions that should not be overlooked.”