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It was a new week, but it was the same old story for the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
Following yet another embarrassing home loss to the Detroit Lions that dropped their record to 1-7, all the life has been drained from the Jaguars organization and fan base. It is time for a change in Jacksonville.
This cannot be what new Jaguars owner Shahid Khan envisioned when he purchased the franchise almost one year ago, but the organization he inherited from previous owner Wayne Weaver had developed a losing culture that can only be truly shook by totally cleaning house.
The problems with the Jaguars start at the top of the tree with general manager Gene Smith, who in his four years as the teams top decision maker has taken the franchise from a fringy playoff contender to a perennial laughingstock. Smith had a chance to build the roster with his vision of what a winning team looks like, but he failed miserably. Through three and a half seasons, the Jaguars are now 21-35 since Smith became the general manager.
Khan has done a lot of stuff to improve the fan experience at EverBank Field, but people are going to stop coming unless the product on the field significantly improves.
Smith was forced upon Khan as the last thing Weaver did before selling the team was to give his friend a brand new three-year contract extension that he did nothing to deserve. Despite the two years remaining on Smith’s contract after this season, Khan cannot afford to allow him to continue in his duties as general manager.
However, Khan cannot stop there with the changes. Even though it seems cruel to fire a head coach after only one season, Mike Mularkey has not done anything to suggest he deserves to keep his job next season.
A new general manager deserves to start fresh with a coach he picks. If Khan does indeed decide to move on from Gene Smith this offseason, he needs to burn it all down to the ground and start with a completely new organization in 2013.
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