Think about it.

Think about where we'd be today if Shad Khan had cleaned house the moment he took over. Think about whom he'd have interviewed and hired as GM. Think about the god-awful coaches (who were oh-so-good, just ask 'em, but Shad just didn't have enough money to hire him) being bandied about as potential head coaches. Think about the energy, noise, lights and faces swirling around in Shad's head as he placed Delores and Wayne Weavers names in Pride of the Jaguars. (We have two victories since that day, by the way.)

A team in disarray, the late-2011 Jaguars were. A lackluster, short-term, miscast collection of positional coaches and coordinators with one on the players and the other on the want ads. Was there any doubt JDR was not a Gene man and was quickly on his way out the door? Wholesale coaching changes were a given.

Not-so-fast forward to 2012. Mularkey. Gene man. Seemed a genuinely good man, hard worker, but didn't inspire optimism. Assistants appeared to be competent and well respected. The unrealistic and uneducated (like me) actually believed the team's core was good and that they had a chance to have a respectable and maybe surprising season. Some of us were even stupid enough to put down big bucks, so confident were we that 5.5 wins were nothing but a foregone conclusion. Then something bad happened. The 2012 season.

The past. History. No rear view mirrors.

The year under Shad's belt has allowed him to make these recent decisions with a wealth of knowledge exponentially greater that available to him in January 2012.

Dave Caldwell? The result of talking to, with and about "more than 100 people" (or words to that effect). The magic that is Shad Khan allowed him to quickly make connections and build relationships integral to his decision-making process. He wouldn't have known Arthur Blank as well. Nor Dmitroff. Nor the at least 98 of the others who helped him form that decision. He'd have been a GM by now (or soon), anyway. I, for one, am glad it's not Fisher or Gruden or (fill in the blank).

Gus? He could well have been on the sideline at a Jags game this season, but it wouldn't have been on the home team side. Only time will tell for sure, but is there a coaching candidate last year or this any one of us would rather have wearing Jaguars gear than Gus?

The new blood Shad has brought in is not only new blood for the Jags or new blood in the league at those positions. The new blood Shad has brought in is new blood FOR the league. It's young minds not constrained by what they did at other venues. It's young minds not limited to the way the league runs an offense or a defense or how it views and evaluates draftees or free agents.

So, take a deep breath. Shake out your hands. Have a cold one.

As Ulysses Everett McGill once said, "We're gonna see a brave new world where they run everybody a wire and hook us all up to a grid. Yes, sir, a veritable age of reason. Like the one they had in France. Not a moment too soon."