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After celebrating the Jaguars by highlighting their players who someday could be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, we flip the script to give you Jacksonville’s Hall of Shame.
Worst breakup: Urban Meyer
It wasn’t just that Meyer had a .154 winning percentage (2-11 record) during his only season as Jaguars head coach. He also made just about every mistake that a first-year NFL head coach could make.
He hired Chris Doyle as Jacksonville’s director of sports performance and then doubled down on the decision after several Iowa players accused Doyle of bullying players and making racist comments during his time with the team.
Next, after a Week 4 loss at the Cincinnati Bengals, Meyer chose not to fly back home with the team. Videos then circulated on social media showing the then-56-year-old coach getting handsy in a bar with a woman who was not his wife.
Next, Meyer was accused of kicking Josh Lambo while he was stretching during a preseason game. Meyer was fired the next day, bringing an end to an era in Jacksonville that every Jaguars fan probably wants to forget.
Worst draft pick: WR R. Jay Soward
There was plenty to pick from here. A strong case could be made for Luke Joeckel, Derrick Harvey, Blaine Gabbert or Justin Blackmon, but we’re going with Soward. The 29th overall pick in the 2000 draft, Soward was supposed to be a shot in the arm for a receivers room that featured Jimmy Smith and Keenan McCardell. Instead, he played in just 13 games and totaled 14 receptions for 154 yards and one touchdown his rookie year.
Soward was suspended for the first four games of the 2001 season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy and suspended six games shortly after for a second violation of the policy. He was activated in December of that year, but the team suspended him two separate times for violating team rules.
The NFL suspended Soward for the entire 2002 season for another substance abuse violation and he did not apply for reinstatement, ending his tumultuous Jaguars tenure as the worst draft bust in franchise history. He never played another down in the NFL.
Worst free-agent signing: QB Nick Foles
It could be argued that nobody cashed in more from a Super Bowl performance than Foles, who signed a four-year, $88 million contract with the Jaguars in 2019 that included $45 million guaranteed after quarterbacking the Philadelphia Eagles to a win in Super Bowl LII.
The crazy part about it all is Jacksonville rolled the dice on Foles after having just five starts under his belt the previous season, and he had double-digit starts in just two of his previous seven seasons. Needless to say, the Foles signing was about the most Jaguars thing that could have happened at the time. He was benched for Gardner Minshew after making four starts and averaging 184 yards passing per game.
The following year, Jacksonville traded Foles to the Chicago Bears for a fifth-round pick.
Worst loss: AFC Championship Game, Jan. 23, 2000
With a 14-2 record and a defense that allowed the fewest points in the league, the Jaguars were, at least statistically, the best team in the NFL during the 1999 season. However, none of that mattered when the Tennessee Titans rolled into town and handed out a 33-14 beatdown in the AFC Championship Game.
Adding salt to the wound was the fact that the Jaguars were riding momentum from a 62-7 thrashing of the Miami Dolphins a week earlier in the AFC Divisional Round.
For an expansion franchise, two AFC Championship Game appearances in its first five years is quite an accomplishment. But the Jaguars have made only one conference title game and have just four playoff wins in the 23 years since that 1999 season.
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