Del Rio Fired in Jacksonville
Posted by Mike Florio on November 29, 2011, 8:25 AM
Reuters
On Sunday, Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver said that he’d leave the topic of coach Jack Del Rio’s future for another day.
If you had “Tuesday” in the office pool, congratulations.
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that Del Rio has been fired. The Jaguars reportedly will announce the move at noon.
The move comes as no surprise, especially since Del Rio has publicly blamed offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter twice in two weeks for decisions that went bad during Jacksonville losses. Most recently, Del Rio said that a key timeout wasn’t taken because Koetter didn’t want it, a shameful passing of the buck away from the desk of the man who runs the show.
Perhaps Del Rio, sensing his demise, was hoping to keep Koetter from becoming the interim head coach.
The second coach in franchise history leaves with a regular-season record of 69-73, with a 1-2 record in two playoff appearances.
The move likely would have come early, but for a five-year contract that Del Rio scored after making a stunning Leftwich-for-Garrard quarterback swap on Labor Day weekend in 2007. Since that year, which culminated in a postseason win at Pittsburgh, the Jags haven’t been back to the playoffs — and Del Rio has been saved by what was a multi-year buyout.
As it now stands, Del Rio will be paid for one year and five games to not coach the Jags.
UPDATE: Defensive coordinator Mel Tucker will be in the interim head coach.