He doesn’t own the lowest win/loss percentage in franchise history, nor is he the only head coach to spend just one year with the Jaguars.
However, with on and off-the-field drama in mind, Urban Meyer is not only considered the worst head coach of Jacksonville’s near-30 years of existence by plenty of fans. He’s also viewed as the NFL’s worst head coaching hire of all time, at least according to Pro Football Network.
PFN analyst Dallas Robinson gave Meyer the title on Sunday while ranking the top 10 such coaches. We’ll let Robinson’s analysis tell the full story, or at least as much information as he could recall (there’s a lot).
Urban Meyer had been out of coaching for three years and had zero NFL experience when the Jacksonville Jaguars hired him as their head coach in 2021. While Meyer was a three-time NCAA champion, his collegiate accomplishments couldn’t prevent him from posting the worst coaching tenure in NFL history.
It’s difficult to know where to begin with Meyer, who was fired before the end of his first season, having won just two of 13 games.
Soon after being hired, Meyer added strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle to Jacksonville’s staff. Doyle had been fired from the University of Iowa after allegations of racial discrimination and was soon forced to resign from the Jaguars.
Meyer signed Tim Tebow to play tight end. After a September loss to the Bengals, Meyer infamously stayed behind in Ohio and was spotted dancing with a woman who was not his wife. He reportedly held a staff meeting where he referred to his assistants as “losers.”
But the breaking point came in December, when Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo revealed that Meyer kicked him in the leg while he was preparing for a preseason game. Lambo said Meyer told him, “Hey dips—, make your f—— kicks!” before kicking him with some force.
Meyer was fired hours after Lambo reported the incident, mercifully ending the worst head coaching tenure in NFL history.
Meyer ultimately went 2-11 in the role, producing the second-worst record among historical Jaguars head coaches relative to win/loss percentage (.154). Mike Mularkey, who only oversaw Jacksonville in 2012, went 2-14 (.125) on a full schedule.
The Jaguars claimed Meyer was fired for cause in an attempt to withhold the remaining guaranteed money on his contract.
Financial terms of Meyer’s five-year deal with Jacksonville were never publicly revealed, and as of May 2022, the two sides have been “unable to strike” a settlement related to the firing, per Jarrett Bell of USA TODAY Sports. No update has been reported since.
“When you lose the respect, the trust and an issue of truthfulness, how can you work with someone like that? It’s not possible,” Jaguars owner Shad Khan told Bell about Meyer at the time.
“It was not about wins and losses. I think when you know someone is not truthful, how can you be around someone, OK? We had Doug Marrone here four years. We had Gus Bradley here four years. I have nothing but the utmost respect and friendship with them. That’s why they got the time, because it wasn’t a matter about respect or truth. It was a matter of wins and losses over four years. This is much bigger than that.”
Marrone compiled a 25-44 record with the Jaguars between late 2016-20, including the team’s 2-1 postseason record from its 2017-18 run to the AFC Championship. Bradley went 14-48 from 2013-16.
Jacksonville hired Super Bowl-winning former Philadelphia head coach Doug Pederson after dismissing Meyer. Over two seasons on the job, Pederson owns a 19-17 record, including a 1-1 mark in the playoffs following the Jaguars’ 2022-23 AFC Divisional Round appearance.
Following behind Meyer in PFN’s rankings, in descending order, were Nathaniel Hackett (Denver, 2022), Bobby Petrino (Atlanta, 2007), Hue Jackson (Cleveland, 2016-18), David Shula (Cincinnati, 1992-96), Joe Judge (New York Giants, 2020-21), Matt Patricia (Detroit, 2018-20), Rich Kotite (New York Jets, 1995-96), Freddie Kitchens (Cleveland, 2019) and Adam Gase (New York Jets, 2019-20).
