NFL Predictions: Mel Tucker's Return Is the Best Thing for the Jaguars

When a man is told he is not the right man for a job, he usually walks away with a little bit of embarrassment on his face.

Not Mel Tucker. The former interim coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars was told he was not the right fit for the team to remain in that capacity, but the team wanted him to remain as their defensive coordinator.

It sounded like a demotion. It sounded like a "thank you for all your hard work, but..." And it sounded like the man who was one of the most respected coaches in the Jaguars locker room would be headed to Minnesota to possibly join the Vikings coaching staff.

But Tucker decided after a conversation and interview with new Jaguars head coach Mike Mularkey (to be a fly on the wall for that discussion) to accept the role he assumed when he started the 2011 season. But now, add assistant head coach to his list of titles.

Tucker took a defense that ranked near the bottom of the NFL in 2010 and transformed it into the sixth-best overall. A pretty great feat since the Jaguars defense looked like a MASH unit from the midseason on. And that kind of success and determination is something Tucker will use to help motivate his unit again.

Can this matchup between Mularkey and Tucker work? It has to. It has to be a success. There is no room for internal strife. There is no room for disagreement. There is no room for failure. And there is no room for counter-productivity.

Tucker called the defensive plays for the first time this season and showed how successful he could be with a game plan that worked. In 2010, then-head coach Jack Del Rio called the defensive plays as well as managed the team. Then team owner Wayne Weaver told Del Rio in January of 2011 that he needed to step back and let the coaches on his staff coach.

Del Rio did that, and while the offense was a failure this season sans the running game, Tucker proved to me a mastermind.

Maybe Mularkey has the same kind of mindset. If so, then the team of the man asked to lead the Jaguars and the man who just finished his tour of leading them will put a winning team on the field.