AFC Notes: Urban Meyer, Jaguars, Texans, Deshaun Watson

Urban Meyer

Jim Woodcock, a spokesman for Jaguars’ owner Shad Khan said that Khan considered firing HC Urban Meyer for quite some time before deciding to make it official.

“It was determined to wait until the conclusion of previously scheduled appointments that week to make the announcement,” Woodcock said, via ESPN. “Those appointments included an employee staff luncheon and meeting with Jacksonville media, both to recognize the 10th anniversary of Shad’s purchase of the Jaguars, on Monday as well as NFL meetings in Dallas on December 14 and 15. The announcement was made at 12:35 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, December 16, to provide coaches and staff alike a fresh start upon reporting to the stadium that morning. Contrary to incorrect assumptions and widespread egregious reporting, the dismissal was not triggered by a single newspaper report late Wednesday afternoon related to a claim made by a former player. To repeat from Shad’s official statement, the decision was reached ‘after deliberation over many weeks and a thorough analysis of the entirety of Urban’s tenure with our team.'”

Jaguars’ QB Trevor Lawrence said the coaching change will finally bring some clarity to the team.

“I wouldn’t believe you if you told me this is how this year was going to go,” Lawrence said. “I think it [the coaching change] brings a little bit of clarity to the guys in the locker room. I wouldn’t say relief, but I would say just bring some clarity and some direction moving forward. You know, we really want to go and finish the season strong, and to be honest, it’s been hard the last week with everything going on. And there’s a lot of things being stirred up I think by the outside too. That didn’t help [and] made things a lot worse, but also everything that’s going on. It’s hard to be focused and have all your attention and efforts going toward winning the game when there are so many things going on.”

• Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times gives a timeline of the firing of HC Urban Meyer, noting that the team was aware of the story involving K Josh Lambo at 8:30 am and asked to delay the publishing of it until 4 pm.
• The team then provided a rebuttal statement from their legal team by 3 pm and received a letter from Meyers’ personal lawyer demanding that off-the-record denials be included in the story. Meyer then left his staff without saying anything following practice to deal with allegations.
• Stroud goes on to say that the news story went out at 4:30 pm, followed by the firing of Meyer just after 12:30 am on Thursday. 

Jaguars

Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence said interim HC Darrell Bevell has a “very even keel” personality around the locker room and thinks Bevell is a coach he can “level with.” 

“He’s very even keel,” Lawrence said, via Michael DiRocco of ESPN. “Always the same person never gets too high or too low. That’s something that I respect and that I can level with. So I’d say that’s the biggest thing that we need right now. Someone that’s consistent and just to move forward and push past it.”

Lawrence added that Bevell being named interim head coach brings “some clarity” to the direction of the organization following Urban Meyer‘s dismissal. 

“I wouldn’t believe you if you told me this is how this year was going to go,” Lawrence said. “I think it [the coaching change] brings a little bit of clarity to the guys in the locker room. I wouldn’t say relief, but I would say just bring some clarity and some direction moving forward.”

Lawrence admitted that it is difficult to keep his focus on playing the game when Meyer’s situation provided outside distractions. 

“You know, we really want to go and finish the season strong and to be honest, it’s been hard to last the last week with everything going on. And there’s a lot of things being stirred up I think by the outside, too. That didn’t help [and] made things a lot worse, but also everything that’s going on. It’s hard to be focused and have all your attention and efforts going towards winning the game when there’s so many things going on.”

Texans

Texans’ WR Nico Collins has been working to develop his chemistry QB Davis Mills after practice.

“We’ve been connected since rookie minicamp, OTAs,” Collins said, via TexansWire.com. “We’ve always been playing pitch and catch with each other during the rotation. We’ve always had that connection. We stay after practice. You know quarterbacks need a couple of throws. I’m there catching for him, so the connection has always been there. We are just building on it, finding ways we can score points, the whole offense. I feel like things are going to get better, we’re all going to keep growing, keep continuing to improve on anything we need to improve on.”

• Free agents LS Beau Brinkley and P Dominik Eberle visited with the Texans, according to Aaron Wilson.

Deshaun Watson

The agent for Texans’ QB Deshaun Watson was recently interviewed by former NFL S Ryan Clark of ESPN, saying that he believes Watson will remain relevant when all is said and done.

“There are legal reasons we can’t expound on it right now the way we’d like to,” agent David Mulugheta said, via Pro Football Talk. “But the one thing I can say is I know who Deshaun is, I think people around the NFL know who Deshaun is. That’s the reason the market for Deshaun was still as hot as it was.”