The Jacksonville Jaguars have lost two of their top head coaching candidates on Thursday.
Nathaniel Hackett has signed on with the Denver Broncos and Matt Eberflus took the Chicago Bears job.
This seemed to point toward Byron Leftwich being the last favorite available.
A report even came out from Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat writer Rick Stroud that Leftwich was close to becoming the Jaguars head coach.
That is when the dysfunction started to take over.
Sources indicate Leftwich wants the job, but doesn’t want to work with GM Trent Baalke.
That is true of a lot of candidates, which has limited the team’s search from the start.
This has now created a scenario where the Jaguars can easily hire a top candidate, but may opt to keep their polarizing GM instead.
Jaguars Botching A Simple Process
The Jaguars even had extra time to find a new head coach after firing Urban Meyer during the season.
But it is now January 27 and they have still not come to a decision.
It even appears that Baalke is interviewing friends of his to find an alternative to Leftwich.
Fans in Jacksonville may actually riot if the team goes with Vic Fangio as their next head coach.
Playing around like this means Leftwich needs to look out for his own best interests.
That could mean interviewing and taking the new opening in New Orleans.
Owner Shad Khan made a disastrous decision last year to hire Urban Meyer to lead his franchise.
He can now keep it simple and bring back a hometown hero in Leftwich.
Instead, he seems to be siding with a GM who is trying to preserve his own job perhaps over the betterment of the franchise.
This is a mess of epic proportions and the Jaguars shunning Leftwich could be a mistake that truly breaks the locker room.
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