AFC Notes: Urban Meyer, Jaguars, Patriots, Titans

Jaguars

Regarding Jaguars HC Urban Meyer and his recent situation, one NFL executive discussed the differences in being a college coach versus an NFL head coach.  

“College coaches are not like NFL head coaches, who spend all their time in the office,” said an executive, via Mike Sando of The Athletic. “In college, there is no owner. The A.D. doesn’t come down and look for you. He comes down and your secretary says you’re out recruiting and he says, ‘OK,’ turns around and leaves. He doesn’t know if you’re spending three extra days in Florida on the golf course, and if he does find out, you can always say, ‘Yeah, I was recruiting in Florida, one of the coaches down there wanted to talk about RPOs, so of course I brought my clubs and then we had dinner and talked ball.’”

Another NFL executive isn’t buying Meyer’s apology to the team and points out that the incident occurred in his own bar back in Ohio.  

“This happened back at Urban Meyer’s own bar in Ohio, so that’s his little spot,” an exec said. “It’s not like he walked into the wrong place at the wrong time. He knew where he was. And then, as part of his apology, he said, ‘I’m not that guy.’ Stop it, you are that guy. Your first chance of not being that guy is to admit that you were that guy — in that moment, you were that guy. To somehow deny it and say I’m not that guy, give me a break. I don’t think it goes well. I think he’s still in denial.”

Sando’s source believes Jaguars’ owner Shad Khan put Meyer “on notice” and wonders whether the coach’s “hubris” will push him out of Jacksonville. 

“The owner put him on notice,” an exec said. “I don’t know the language of the contract, whether that is a fireable offense, conduct detrimental, with cause, or does he want him to resign? He is putting him in the corner. This is a guy (Meyer) with a lot of hubris. How does he feel about being chastised like that?”

• The Jaguars announced that CB coach Tim Walton will be unavailable for Week 5 due to COVID-19 protocols and nickel cornerbacks coach Joe Danna will handle his duties.

Patriots

Patriots’ rookie QB Mac Jones gave insight into playing under OC Josh McDaniels.

“Josh [McDaniels], obviously, is one of the best offensive minds in football, and I always like to learn how he wants to do it, and we’ve had really good conversations even before, like in OTAs. ‘Hey, what do you like about this play or not like?’ He does a great job of, obviously, attacking defenses, and my job is to see it how he sees it, and the good thing is that I think, even from the start, we see it very similar, and, obviously, we have room to grow there,” Jones said, via PatriotsWire.com. “That’s just an every-week thing because every defense changes every week. You’re not going to face the same scheme, players, coaches, etc. So, whatever the scheme on our end is for that week, by the end of the week, I feel really comfortable where I’m at. That’s why we practice. We make errors and fix things and talk through them and by Sunday, I feel really prepared, and all of us do because the coaching staff does a good job of holding us to that standard. We’re trying to hold each other to that standard now, too. So, that’s just part of it, and like I said, as the week goes on, more conversations are had and things go in, things go out. That’s just how the quarterback-offensive coordinator relationship works; probably for a lot of people too.”

Titans

Titans DC Shane Bowen said their defense must collectively improve and there are “a lot of different things” that they must work on. 

“All 11 guys have to evaluate themselves: ‘How could I have made a difference on this play?’” Bowen said, via Ben Arthur of the Nashville Tennessean. “Whether it’s keeping the guy in the pocket, which happened a couple times the other day. Whether it’s staying deep when I’m a half(field) player. There’s a lot of different things that come into play in regard to that, and it’s not just one guy, right? It’s a unit thing. Everybody kind of factors in when those big plays are happening.”

Bowen added their cornerbacks must be able to understand different situations. For instance, he mentions that they need to play press coverage on third-and-five. 

“They have to understand the situation of what’s going on with those kinds of stuff too,” Bowen said. “That’s a big part of it. Playing off when it’s third-and-five probably ain’t gonna do it.”

Bowen reiterated that their defensive backs need to show better communication in certain situations. 

“Ultimately, we have to have a plan for how we’re going to handle it. You can’t just line up against the man and play that man when they’re tight and bunched together or stacked together. You have to be able to play off each other, communicate defensively what we want to get done. That way, we can be a little bit tighter and just understand the situation of what’s going on.”

• Titans HC Mike Vrabel said they will use RB Derrick Henry until the running back determines when to come out: “We’ll use Derrick (Henry) as a barometer and if Derrick needs to come out, he’ll come out.”  (Mike Giardi)