Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, former Bills head coach Doug Marrone will be hired for the same job with the Jaguars, where he just finished a two-game run as the interim head coach after Gus Bradley was let go in his fourth season on the job.
Jacksonville planning to hire Doug Marrone as HC, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 9, 2017
Marrone, 52, went 15-17 in two years with the Bills, including a 9-7 record in 2014 that was one of only two winning seasons the team has had during the playoff drought. He exercised a clause in his contract to resign from his job after that season, and has been in Jacksonville as the assistant head coach and offensive line coach under Bradley for the last two seasons. He interviewed for several head coaching jobs after quitting on the Bills, but was unable to find any.
A former offensive coordinator, his teams tended to struggle on offense while excelling on the defensive side of the ball under coordinators Mike Pettine and Jim Schwartz. Marrone deserves credit for hiring them, but his inability to develop EJ Manuel (something he’ll need to improve on with Blake Bortles) and ultra-conservative play calling were definite strikes against him.
St. Doug went 1-1 in his stint with the Jaguars this year, beating the playoff-contending Titans 38-17 before blowing a 14-point halftime lead to drop a 24-20 decision to the Colts in the season finale. He had interviewed for other openings as well, but the Jaguars pounced and made him the first hire of this year’s coaching cycle.
The Jaguars had interviewed Buffalo’s top candidate, Anthony Lynn. They had also interviewed Tom Coughlin, who had been linked to the Bills job earlier in the search but doesn’t seem to be on the team’s radar at this point. The hiring leaves five teams still looking for a coach: the Bills, 49ers, Rams, Chargers, and Broncos.