Jaguars Officially Hire Mike Mularkey As Coach
Added on Jan 11, 2012 by Jack Thurman in
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The Jacksonville Jaguars had made clear early on in their coaching search that they were interested in Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey to replace Jack Del Rio. On Tuesday, they made it official. Mularkey will take over a team that has some talent but is generally in disarray.
The team is planning to introduce Mularkey at a news conference on Wednesday. For now, new Jaguars’ owner Shahid Khan had this statement:
“Mike recognizes the challenge and opportunity before all of us, and that’s to make the Jacksonville Jaguars one of the premier franchises in the National Football League, bar none. In simple terms, Mike is aiming high.”
Tight end Marcedes Lewis is also enthusiastic:
“Everybody was ready for it to be done. For me, personally as an offensive guy, I feel like it’s a good hire. We’re going to get new schemes, a new offense and a fresh start. We were anxious to know what direction we were going to go in, ready to move on and start our new quest for a championship.”
Added Lewis:
“Where we were last year, we can only go up.”
In a statement last month owner Khan said that it was important to emphasize offense:
“This is a passing league. This is a quarterback league. If you are not doing those, you’re not going to be successful. I care about playing winning football. What is winning football today? It’s a quarterback, it’s a passing game.”
The Jags had the worst offense in the league last season but clearly have some building blocks in place. Rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbart is highly thought of despite some struggles in his debut season. Jacksonville is hoping that Mularkey can help him develop the same way he did Atlanta’s Matt Ryan. Jacksonville also has a solid running back in Maurice Jones Drew and an underrated defense that finished sixth in the league in 2011.
The next task for the team is to hire an defensive coordinator. Jacksonville is hoping to bring back Mel Tucker and some of his assistances–Tucker interviewed for the coaching vacancy in Minnesota. Tucker served as interim coach after Del Rio was fired, going 2-3 down the stretch.
