Jaguars HC Doug Marrone on Jay Gruden: ‘I know he’s going to be able to help our football team’

After nine days the Jaguars announced the hiring of offensive coordinator Jay Gruden with head coach Doug Marrone leading the search to find a veteran coach to coordinate the team’s offense. While the process was lengthy, Marrone wanted to take his time in finding a coach that could not only fit the team’s coaches, but the players more importantly.

“The one thing I didn’t want to do is try to do something quick and fast,” Marrone said via conference call with the local media. “I wanted to make sure it was a thorough process and at the end of the day we can find the best player or the best coach for ourselves as coaches, but more importantly for our players.”

If a coach has a good background in coaching quarterbacks, for example, they may tend to lean on the quarterback position group — leaving the rest to be maintained by other coaches.

“I think you have a better understanding in my opinion of the whole picture. You get in some meetings sometimes and guys will fight for their position group, or their side of the ball. When I say that, they’ll challenge you on, ‘Hey, we need this, we need that.’ Sometimes you need a little bit of that, but at the same time, you have to be able to see the whole picture. So I think the more people you can have around that can see the whole picture, and that’s what we try to create, I think the more success you can have.”

Gruden has coached multiple levels of offense along with being a head coach which gives Marrone the assurance that a coach with plenty of experience will be leading the team’s offense, giving the team a clear path forward.

Gruden’s work in the past with young quarterbacks and veteran quarterbacks was another point of emphasis in his hiring. The most important part of the job is to create a growing relationship with the most important position on the football field — the quarterback. Working with a young quarterback like Gardner Minshew II, Gruden should be able to establish himself as a key figure in his growth as a passer.

“I think that I want to make sure that we have someone that understands where everyone is within their process or learning process to their development that can have plans for maybe that third guy that is on your roster that you’re trying to bring up or the type of backup. Is it a veteran backup, is it a younger guy who is a backup? Is the younger guy playing? Is the veteran guy playing? How you keep those players developing is the key to every organization. Jay has really good insight to that.”

Marrone explained that the schematics and how Gruden likes to work is in-tune with himself and other members of the coaching staff.

A balanced offense has been paramount to success with coach Gruden as he has been able to establish himself as one of the best offensive minds in football over the years. A connection to a multitude of position groups, his diversity and influence will lead to positive marks with the Jaguars offense.

Marrone says the need for an offensive coordinator to stand up in front of the team whether it’s the offensive line, or any other position. Gruden has shown not only a high-firing passing offense but he has also shown a balanced attack with running the football, something that is an offensive line’s best friend.

“At the same time, we have unique experience with [Wide Receivers Coach] Keenan [McCardell] was a wide receiver when Jay was coaching [in Tampa Bay]. They had a lot of interactions with Keenan as a player and Jay as a coach, which obviously always comes into play.” Gruden also has ties to Jaguars defensive coordinator Todd Wash who coached with the Buccaneers as a defensive quality control coach with Gruden in 2008.

“I know he’s going to be able to help our football team.”