In one day, the Jaguars' have found both their new defensive coordinator after the departure of Gregg Williams and a new Secondary Coach after the departure of Donnie Henderson.
The Jags scored a major coup and snagged 2008 Browns Defensive Coordinator and DB specialist Mel Tucker to be our DB coach. It says a lot that Mel was willing to take the equivalent of a demotion to come to Jacksonville and coach the DB's. A Bio on Tucker will be up in a few days, but until then it is sufficient to say the guy knows the secondary.
At the Defensive Coordinator position, Jack Del Rio has appointed... (wait for it)... Jack Del Rio. That's right, our Head Coach will now be calling the plays and the shots on defense. Expect passionate, full speed, hard knocks football with Del Rio at the helm. This also means that there is no chance that we switch to a 3-4 defensive scheme, in fact, expect us to return to a more conventional 4-3 defense with fewer blitzes overall. I know Del Rio learned a lot from watching and seeing Gregg Williams' playbook and style, so it will be interesting to see if Del Rio adopts any of Gregg's blitzing tendencies.
Not many coaches in the NFL who are Defensive gurus take over the play calling on the defensive side of the ball, unlike their offensive counterparts (Gruden, Martz), so this breaks the conventional mold. It also will put a great deal of accountability on Del RIo's shoulders should the defense struggle. This is an "OWN IT" move by Del Rio. He's taking the defense's struggles personally, and he feels that he is the ideal man to fix the unit's deficiencies. That says a lot about the confidence he has in himself and it instills a great deal of confidence in me.
Here's the press release. WOKV broke the story.
-Collin