Gus Bradley Fired by Jaguars: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction

Gus Bradley's time in charge of the Jacksonville Jaguars is over after almost four years. The team announced it fired the head coach Sunday.

The news broke right after the Jaguars lost to the Houston Texans, 21-20, dropping their record to 2-12. Adam Schefter of ESPN reported Bradley would still fly back to Jacksonville with the team.

On Monday, the Jaguars announced Doug Marrone was named as the interim head coach. He was serving as the assistant head coach for the offense and offensive line coach.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported the team had decided to fire Bradley after the loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 14 and that the Jaguars "didn't want to start the search for a new coach with the old coach in the building."

Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell confirmed to reporters that Bradley would have been fired win or lose on Sunday and that Bradley will be meeting with owner Shad Khan this week.

Bradley spoke to reporters about the Jaguars' decision Monday, courtesy of the Florida Times-Union's Ryan O'Halloran:

It comes as little surprise after the Jaguars' disastrous start to the 2016 season. There's no question Bradley was dealt a tough hand when he first arrived, but Jacksonville has shown few signs of progress since he took over in 2013.

The Jags started the year 0-3 but won their next two games—the latter of which included overcoming a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Chicago Bears. A nine-game losing streak followed, all but sealing Bradley's fate.

As the Jaguars were en route to a Week 8 defeat to the Tennessee Titans, Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman also thought the Jaguars had little recourse but to fire Bradley:

"

I don't ever root for someone to get fired, I'm just stating reality. No way Gus Bradley survives this debacle of a game and season.

— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) October 28, 2016"

As Football Outsiders' Cian Fahey argued, inheriting a bad team only provides a buffer for so long before major questions are asked:

"

Literally the only reason Gus Bradley still has a job is how bad the roster was before he got there.

— Cian Fahey (@Cianaf) September 24, 2016"

According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, 171 coaches have been on the sideline for at least 50 games in the NFL. With a 14-48 overall record, Bradley's .226 winning percentage is second worst among that group.

Schefter noted that New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick could go 0-16 for 41 consecutive seasons and still have a better winning percentage than Bradley.

ESPN.com's Sheil Kapadia further illustrated the team's struggles back in September:

The Jaguars hired Bradley in large part on the assumption he would help turn around their defense. He worked as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebackers coach from 2007-08, then as the Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator from 2009-12. Under his watch, the Seahawks started building one of the strongest defenses in the league.

Bradley's success in Seattle hasn't carried over to Jacksonville. Below is a look at where the Jaguars ranked in yards and points allowed, in addition to Football Outsiders' defensive metrics:

Season	Yards Allowed	Pts. Allowed	Total Defense DVOA	Pass Defense DVOA	Run Defense DVOA
2013	379.4 (T-27th)	28.1 (28th)	10.9% (28th)	20.1% (26th)	1.1% (24th)
2014	370.8 (26th)	25.8 (26th)	1.5% (20th)	8.0% (17th)	-5.5% (20th)
2015	375.0 (24th)	28.0 (31st)	9.7% (26th)	26.8% (31st)	-11.7% (17th)
2016 (Heading into Week 15)	316.4 (5th)	26.0 (27th)	-2.2% (15th)	4.5% (15th)	-9.7% (16th)

Bleacher Report's Chris Simms made the case that the strategies Bradley used in Seattle aren't as effective anymore in the NFL:

And while the Jaguars are showing improvement on the defensive side of the ball in 2016, their offense has taken a step backward despite having a talented young trio in quarterback Blake Bortles and wideouts Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns.

Following the Jaguars' 19-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3, defensive tackle Sen'Derrick Marks openly questioned the offensive play-calling late in the game, per ESPN.com's Mike DiRocco:

"

I felt like we got conservative with six minutes left in the game. You can't do that. If it comes down to it and it bites you in the butt like it did [Sunday], then it's basically that's why you're the [expletive] Jaguars. You can't do that. You have to put teams away. We had plenty of chances and we didn't do it and they capitalized the exact same way they did at their home last year.

"

NFL writer Benjamin Allbright would prefer the Jaguars target a coach who can get the most out of Bortles, Robinson and Hurns:

Caldwell told reporters there won't be "any mandates" to start Bortles for whoever is the next head coach.

The future remains relatively bright for the Jags, though. As a result of their string of losing seasons, they've assembled a talented young group. Along with those aforementioned key offensive skill-position players, Jacksonville is building around a strong core of Jalen Ramsey, Dante Fowler Jr. and Telvin Smith on the defense.

Jaguars fans will know better than to automatically assume a coaching change will get the team back on track. But it was clear Jacksonville stagnated under Bradley and needed to go in a different direction.