The Jaguars gave a serious culture problem. Why can’t Coughlin and Marrone fix it?

[theathletic.com] ... ne-fix-it/

The Jaguars have a serious culture problem. Why can’t Tom Coughlin and Doug Marrone fix it?

By Ross Tucker

If you were hired by an NFL organization to instill discipline and establish a championship culture and you have proceeded to do the exact opposite, then what, exactly, are you bringing to this team, and why do you even still have that job? Those are the questions I’d be asking myself if I were Jacksonville Jaguars executive vice president Tom Coughlin and his handpicked head coach, Doug Marrone.

It’s pretty crazy when you think about it. Two guys who are as known for discipline as much as anyone else in the NFL are the leaders of arguably the most undisciplined team in the NFL.

To be clear, I’m not looking to play the blame game here. I’ve always had respect for both Coughlin and Marrone and believe in a lot of the things they hold near and dear to their hearts about the sport of football. Yet somehow, some way, here we are as they preside over a team that has had more discipline issues over the past 10 months than some teams have in a decade.

Maybe it’s emblematic of a new generation of players, the likes of which Coughlin and Marrone don’t know how to reach. Perhaps it’s general manager Dave Caldwell’s fault for giving Dante Fowler (whom they traded to the Rams in October), Jalen Ramsey and Leonard Fournette fully guaranteed contracts after drafting them in the top 10, thus making them virtually untouchable. Whatever it is, after last season’s 5-11 debacle it must change — and this past weekend was the latest indication that it hasn’t.

First, linebacker Telvin Smith posted on Instagram the fine letter that the Jaguars sent him for not going to the team’s mandatory minicamp recently. He’s certainly not the first player to ever publicly post a fine from the league or his team, but Smith’s current circumstances don’t speak well to the Jaguars’ culture. Smith previously posted that he is taking this year off from football to “get my world in order,” which could mean a lot of things. What makes Smith’s situation unique is that he has reportedly had no contact with the team to discuss what he needs to get in order or what issues he is dealing with. Hence, the fine.

Pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue was also fined for skipping minicamp, but his situation is about money. That’s normal enough that it doesn’t even register on the Richter scale of recent Jags events.

What wasn’t as “normal” was Fournette and Ramsey, each of whom has made questionable decisions, posting a video over the weekend in which Ramsey makes it clear that he will not accept any “hometown” discount from the Jaguars next offseason after the team let him know it wasn’t going to extend him this offseason. Instead, he will ask the team for an “ungodly” amount.

First, I hope he and every player gets as much money as possible. Second, the entire concept of a hometown discount is comical to me, but that’s a story for another day. But do Ramsey and Fournette really need to post a video saying these things? How does that help the team or, frankly, even the two of them? Not to mention the fact that Ramsey is under contract for two more years and then the Jags could just franchise tag him after that in 2021, but that’s neither here nor there.

Right about now, I know what some of you are thinking. It’s June and Ross is grasping at straws or nitpicking or this column is a reach or whatever. My guess is that because they’re the Jags, you haven’t really followed everything that happened with them last season. To recap:

It started last training camp when Fowler and Ngakoue got in the rare “fight between players at the same position” and Ramsey went on a tirade toward the reporters filming the incident, threatening one of them on social media before being suspended, along with Fowler, for a week.

That was right around the time Ramsey was quoted in GQ as basically saying almost every quarterback in the NFL was “trash,” another move that, in my opinion, really helps nobody.

Shortly after that, four players were arrested in a London nightclub for failing to pay their tab two days before they lost to the Eagles.

After that, it was Fournette’s turn to get in the act as he ran across the field during a game in Buffalo in November to get involved in a fight, which led to his ejection as well as a one-game suspension. In his first game back, he was caught on video telling a fan in Tennessee that he was going to “beat your ass.” He wasn’t done yet, as he and T.J. Yeldon caught the ire of Coughlin by sitting on the bench during the entire season finale in a move Coughlin said was “disrespectful,” “selfish” and “unbecoming of a professional football player”.

After this past weekend, it doesn’t seem like anything has changed.

Only time will tell, but if it really hasn’t and the team can’t turn things around, then the real change might start with Coughlin and Marrone.