Simply Marr-velous

Ex-Bills coach & Jets candidate hits Jax-pot

SOMETIMES, the best things in life are worth the wait. Sometimes, the stress and uncertainty endured along the way make the journey more worthy.

If Doug Marrone is anything as an NFL coach, he’s a survivor.

Just three seasons ago, Marrone found himself in NFL coaching purgatory.

After leading the 2014 Bills to their first winning season in a decade, Marrone found himself uncomfortable with the organizational uncertainty in Buffalo, where new owner Terry Pegula arrived with a management agenda he declined to share with his head coach.

So Marrone utilized an optout clause in his contract to walk away — albeit with a $4 million buyout in pocket as financial security.

Within days of his departure from Buffalo, Marrone was presented to Jets owner Woody Johnson as the recommended head-coach hire to replace the deposed Rex Ryan. That recommendation came from Ron Wolf and Charley Casserly, the two former league executives Johnson brought in to find him a new head coach and general manager.

Marrone and Mike Maccagnan. That was the coach-GM tandem Wolf and Casserly first recommended to Johnson .

What followed was an indigestion-inducing combo platter that included one newspaper’s dubious smear campaign and Johnson’s unfortunate propensity to become distracted by all the wrong things.

Spooked by the character attacks, Johnson looked away from Marrone and turned to Todd Bowles as his coach to team with Maccagnan.

While the Jets embarked on three consecutive years out of the playoffs since that hire, Marrone was forced to rebuild his career, spending 2015 and 2016 as the Jaguars offensive line coach before Jacksonville owner Shad Khan fired Gus Bradley late last season and elevated Marrone to head coach.

Enter 2017, which has included an AFC South title for the Jaguars, their first postseason berth since 2007, and their first home playoff game since 1999.

This is the place where Marrone now resides as his 10-6 Jaguars play the 9-7 Bills (of all teams) in Sunday’s AFC wild-card game at Jacksonville.

So Marrone has survived. The Jets with Bowles? Still to be determined.

As for his history with the Bills, Marrone prefers to focus on his own team, which along with the resurgent Rams has become the talk of the NFL this season.

Marrone, a builder of downtrodden programs based on his work as the Syracuse head coach and with the Bills, is determined not to let his young team become complacent with simply making the playoffs.

Complacency is an island on which the driven Marrone has never resided or even vacationed for a minute.

When reached by phone early Friday morning at an hour most people haven’t even pondered coffee or breakfast yet, Marrone was in his Jaguars office. Not because he got in early, but because he had spent Thursday night there.

“We’ve got so much to do,’’ Marrone said. “They’re a good football team — physical on both sides of the ball. There are a lot of challenges for us in this game.”

Marrone insisted he has no ill will toward the Bills, pointing out that almost everyone who was there when he was there is no longer with the organization.

“I’m happy for Buffalo,’’ he said. “I’m happy for their fans and I’m happy for the organization, but my focus is on our fans, our team and where we want to go.’’

Marrone has been to that “where we want to go’’ place — as an assistant coach to Sean Payton’s 2009 Saints team that won Super Bowl XLIV. But of the 12 teams in the playoffs, his Jaguars have the second-fewest number of players (11) who have experienced at least one postseason game.

This is part of what has kept him in his office overnight.

“You want to make sure everything is clear, the plan is clear, what we want to do is clear,’’ he said. “When everything is clear, you can play harder and play faster. You don’t want to say [after losing a playoff game] that is not what we have been doing during the year.’’

During this season the Jaguars have put behind them the five-year stretch in which they won a total of 17 games — including just three last season — to earn the No. 3 seed in these AFC playoffs.

Along the way, Marrone has put behind him the unnecessary nonsense he was forced to endure three years ago.

“I’m in a great place,’’ he said. “I’m feeling great about where I am.’’