Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan announced on Sunday that the jobs of head coach Doug Marrone and general manager Dave Caldwell are safe.

Khan emphasized that the decision was that of executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin, but that he told Coughlin that he desired “as much stability as reasonable or possible at the top of our football operation.”

“I am pleased that Tom sees our situation and opportunity similarly, so we will return to work this week fully confident and optimistic with Dave Caldwell as our general manager and Doug Marrone as our head coach,” Khan wrote.

Disappointing year on heels of last season’s success

It was a disappointing 5-11 year in Jacksonville coming off an appearance in the AFC championship game last season.

The Jaguars started the season strong enough, opening 3-1, including a Week 2 revenge win over the New England Patriots team that vanquished them in last season’s AFC championship.

But from there they fell off a cliff, losing seven straight and 10 of their last 12 games to close the season, including Sunday’s 20-3 loss to the Houston Texans. Quarterback Blake Bortles proved to be the quarterback almost everyone outside of Jacksonville knew he was, and the team’s trademark defense languished.

Struggles cost OC Nathaniel Hackett his job last month

The Jaguars fired offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett in November, a move that was promptly followed by the benching of Bortles for Cody Kessler. The defense found its form in the next game, but the offense was still awful in a 6-0 win over the Indianapolis Colts to break the seven-game losing streak.

Then it was back to losing in consecutive games, first a Thursday night blowout to the Tennessee Titans and then against a Washington Redskins team playing Josh Johnson at quarterback.

Problems on defense too

The defense that dominated last season and regularly smothered opposing passing attacks was often missing this year. The first real sign the defense had slipped was a 40-7 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Oct. 14. Other disappointing performances included a 29-26 loss to the Colts and a 24-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

The October arrest of four Jaguars players during Jacksonville’s trip to London invited questions about the team’s discipline.

Next season will be Marrone’s third as the Jaguars full-time head coach. He was hired as interim coach for the last three game’s of the 2016 season after Gus Bradley was fired and ended up keeping the job.

Caldwell has served as general manager in Jacksonville since 2013.

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