Jaguars owner Shad Khan on Urban Meyer’s troubles, future: ‘You don't want to be impulsive’
This season, and the last few days specifically, have not been good for Urban Meyer.
Yet despite the increased controversy and scrutiny, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan insisted on Monday night that he won’t make a quick or emotional decision when it comes to his first-year head coach.
"I want to do the right thing for the team. I want to do the right thing for the city," Khan said, via ESPN. "That, to me, is way more important than just acting helter-skelter on emotion. I think we have a history of really looking at the facts and then really doing the right thing.
"Gus Bradley was here four years. Doug Marrone was here four years. It was wins and losses and this is a little bit different but, you know, I'm going to reflect on all of that and do what's the right thing for the team and the right thing for the city."
Khan: ‘This is something [Meyer’s] never dealt with’
A report from the NFL Network on Saturday detailed severe discontent within the Jaguars organization under Meyer — who has gone just 2-11 so far this season.
Players and coaches are reportedly fed up with Meyer both on and off the field, and his coaching style has apparently led to “multiple run-ins.” He reportedly berates his coaching staff and called them “losers” to their faces in a meeting before “challenging each coach individually to explain when they’ve ever won and forcing them to defend their resumes.”
Meyer — who was also videotaped partying at a bar in Ohio earlier in the season after a loss — then complained about who leaked the story after their 20-0 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday and threatened to fire whoever it was on the spot.
“What’s the answer? Starting leaking some information or nonsense?” Meyer said when asked how to fix their many issues. “That’s garbage … If there’s a source, then that source is unemployed. I mean, within seconds.”
On Monday, Meyer then was asked about safety Andre Cisco, who didn’t play one snap against the Titans.
“Cisco is playing a little bit more, I believe, I don’t have his numbers in front of me,” he said.
Cisco, again, didn’t play at all on Sunday.
Though Khan knows his organization has had its struggles, they’ve mostly been on-field issues. The team has made the postseason just once in the past 14 years, and only has one winning record in that timespan. Last season, the finished 1-15.
The problems surrounding Meyer, however, are new — both for Khan and Meyer himself.
"Now the scrutiny we have is really something different,” Khan said, via ESPN. “How much of that is we're bringing it upon ourselves, or how much of that is deserved? Urban, he won wherever he was. This is something he's never dealt with.
"And when you win in football you create enemies, OK, and the only way you can really deal with that is you've got to win again."
But despite everything, both on the field and off, Khan isn’t going to rush to make a decision regarding Meyer’s job. He reportedly met with Meyer on Sunday night, and said he wants to make sure he has all of the information before making any move.
"I'm not impulsive," Khan said, via ESPN. "I learned that a long time ago with anything that's this important. You don't want to be impulsive. You want to look at exactly what I know firsthand or people are telling me and then collect that and do the right thing."
