Sticking to plan
Jaguars owner Shad Khan expects his patient approach to start yielding wins this season,
Shad Khan says there is no magic number.
Without question, wins are important in 2016 — at least more important than they’ve been the last three seasons, in which the Jacksonville Jaguars are tied for the NFL’s worst record at 12-36. When their owner says, “We should have ambitions for the postseason now,” Khan means it.
“I think we’ve suffered long enough,” Khan said, chuckling during a recent phone interview with USA TODAY Sports. “It’s been painful.”
But Khan thinks he’ll know if coach Gus Bradley, general manager Dave Caldwell and the rest of the staff are the right people to continue guiding the Jaguars over the long term without relying on the standings, the same processbased thinking that has driven his patience to this point.
If that patience pays off, other NFL owners and executives figure to take notice. Because Khan has done perhaps the hardest thing in football since hiring Bradley and Caldwell in January 2013: not only commit to starting over but see their plan through, focusing on sustainability instead of a quick fix.
In those 31⁄ years, the NFL’s other biggest losers — the Cleveland Browns, Tennessee Titans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders — have combined to fire seven head coaches and four GMs. Bradley got a one-year extension after last season’s 5-11 finish, putting him (like Caldwell) under contract through 2017. And after being highly active in free agency this year and executing a draft that landed two of the top players on their board, the Jaguars finally seem ready to start keeping score, even if the score isn’t everything.
“We’ve been fortunate where Shad’s given us four good years to build this and get this up to what we feel is a competitive NFL team,” Caldwell said. “This is the first offseason where I think we’re all excited going into the season of, hey, we’ve got a chance now. And we’ll see what happens.”
NO RASH DECISIONS When Caldwell interviewed for the job, he made clear he needed time. His plan: Focus on stringing together good drafts to build a young core. Supplement with undrafted rookies and B-tier veterans. Eschew big-ticket free agents and conserve salary cap space until Years 3 and 4, when any signees would be around long enough to make an impact as the Jaguars’ window opened in Year 5 and beyond.
For at least a couple of years, Caldwell admitted to Khan, it’d be difficult to compete. Most players on the roster at the end of the 2012 season would likely be gone before the Jaguars made the playoffs. (Only five remain now.) Khan appreciated the honesty, which matched his assessment a year after he purchased the team from original owner Wayne Weaver for $770 million.
“One of the temptations is that everybody thinks they have a remodeling project on their hands. There are some teams — the Jaguars would be one — that really, no, it’s a tear-down unfortunately,” said Khan, who will turn 66 on Monday.
Taking the long view has paid off before for Khan, a PakistaniAmerican who made his fortune in front- and rear-end vehicle technology.
“In the auto industry, I spent years perfecting processes,” he said. “Now, the successes and failures don’t get the kind of publicity, obviously, NFL football does. But over time you develop a sense that, do I want to just be tearing this thing down over and over again? How am I going to be better?”
Caldwell noted that Khan had been married a long time (35 years now) and his executive board was long-tenured, too.
“He didn’t seem like the type of guy that would make rash deci- sions,” Caldwell said. (The four managers Khan has sacked since buying the Fulham soccer club of the English Premier League in July 2013 might disagree. “It’s a whole different sport,” Khan said. “You can’t compare.”)
Together, Khan and Caldwell hired Bradley, the relentlessly positive former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator. Bradley is tied for the 12th-longest tenure among current NFL head coaches, despite not fielding a defense that finished better than 24th in yards or points allowed and owning a lower career winning percentage than all but one coach who lasted at least 50 games.
Bradley has remodeled his staff, swapping offensive coordinators (Jedd Fisch for Greg Olson) last year and defensive coordinators (Bob Babich for Todd Wash) in January. The ros- ter now, particularly on defense, is easily the best of Bradley’s tenure. And Khan’s praise for his work ethic and integrity is unequivocal: “He deserves to win, we deserve to win, and to me, we want to win with Gus.”
There is historical precedent for turning things around in Year 4 — Earle “Greasy” Neale of the Philadelphia Eagles and Chuck Noll of the Pittsburgh Steelers started 9-21-3 and 12-30, respectively, before winning a combined six titles and earning spots in the Hall of Fame. But they coached decades ago, and Bradley knows few coaches in the modern game get this kind of time.
“Being a team that owns the AFC South year-in and year-out — those things are very important to us, and keep building from there,” Bradley said. “But we just spend most of our time on the process, so we don’t miss anything along the way. And we’re going to enjoy it, too.”
PLAYERS IN PLACE That would be easier with a few more wins. And at least on paper, the Jaguars seem equipped to get them.
The offense made a leap in 2015, led by second-year quarterback Blake Bortles, who threw 35 touchdown passes, and 1,000yard receivers Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns. This offseason, the Jaguars invested mostly in defense. They signed defensive lineman Malik Jackson (six years, $85.5 million), safety Tashaun Gipson and cornerback Prince Amukamara. (Running back Chris Ivory was also a nice pickup.) Jacksonville then drafted cornerback Jalen Ramsey at No. 5 overall and linebacker Myles Jack, a first-round talent who slipped to the second because of long-term concerns about his knee. They get last year’s No. 3 overall pick, defensive end Dante Fowler Jr., back from a knee injury, too.
In essence, the free agent signings (including tight end Julius Thomas and end Jared Odrick last year) took the place of the second contracts that ideally would be handed out in-house.
“The hope was that, if we would’ve made some of the right decisions in the draft, we’d start re-signing some of our own guys and then use that cap space for the guys we drafted and keep that going,” Caldwell said.
They started by giving Hurns a four-year, $40.05 million extension in June. Bortles and Robinson are up next. Even after this year’s spending, the Jaguars sit on one of the NFL’s largest salary cap surpluses (more than $40 million under the 2016 cap at the end of June).
Khan, who remains active in his day job as president and owner of Flex-N- Gate Corp., makes his home a short plane ride away in Naples, Fla., communicating regularly with Caldwell by phone and text when he’s not in town. He spoke one-on-one with every player in camp last year and estimated he personally interviewed 30 draft prospects this year, saying, “I don’t know about talent of football, but I do know about people.”
He wants to see who’s committed and who’s a good fit. But he defers decisions to Caldwell and Bradley, whom Khan calls “two of the best guys in the business.”
Last year’s NFC champions, the Carolina Panthers, have been praised for their patience with coach Ron Rivera. But they switched GMs the same year Jacksonville did.
The Raiders have spent 41⁄ years building their talented young core under GM Reggie McKenzie, who fired coach Dennis Allen early in his third season with an 8-28 record — exactly the same as Bradley’s through 36 games.
“I’m not saying, ‘If we win, this is the blueprint for everybody.’ It’s the blueprint for us,” Khan said.
“Now, we have the talent in place, and I think if you are a Jaguars fan, you should be excited and you should have some expectations that we’re going to be a sustainable, winning organization now.
“I have expectations that not only are we going to be better but we’re going to be sustainable and this isn’t going to be a flash in the pan where we’re just going to flame out.”