Jags closed out the year on a high note, with their best game and Trevor Lawrence's best game. First order of business is to hire a new head coach and decide on the fate of GM Trent Baalke.
The elephant in the room - Shad Khan is really bad at choosing football people. Crazy Bad. Every single hire he had as a coach, GM or executive VP has failed. And some reek of spectacular mis-reads of people. Specifically Coughlin and Meyer. And he can't decide on his hiring model. Just 12 months ago, he announced that he figured out that "coach-centric" was the way to operate. The GM had to meld to whoever the HC was. And he kept Trent Baalke and promoted him to GM to work for Meyer.
12 months later, Meyer is gone, and word on the street from people like Jason LaCanfora and Jay Glazer is that coaches are telling Khan that they don't want to work with Baalke. But Baalke is still here. Doesn't sound coach centric to me. Sounds like another busted personnel move by Shad.
What should they (Shad) do?
Hire a football guy to be Executive GM. Shad tried this with Coughlin but made two mistakes. Picked a old school control freak, and then gave him ultimate decision authority. Wrong guy, wrong management authority. Pick a wise, cool headed person, let him choose the GM and HC and then let them have authority.
That executive VP then has to be a more visible face of the franchise. Shad Khan essentially shows up once a year, tells us how he has it figured it out this time and disappears.
Who should that EVP be? I'd put a feeler out to Peyton Manning who I assume would have no interest. But of names floating around out there now (assuming Ozzie and Dungy aren't interested) I like Jim Caldwell. I'm not crazy about him as coach, but EVP would be about perfect. Having him around would allow you to pursue a first time head coach. I'd even be ok with Caldwell saying he will coach for a couple years till ship is rightened and then pick his successor as he "retires" to EVP only.