Jacksonville Jaguars: Is There Pressure on Mike Mularkey to Win Now?

It has been said before, but the NFL not only stands for National Football League, it also stands for "Not For Long," especially when it comes to the league's head coaches.

In the college ranks, head coaches often get to see a full recruiting class through before there is any real pressure, with Notre Dame and Michigan the most notable exceptions to that.

In the NFL, however, head coaches get three seasons at the most to make the team at least competitive. Even when they accomplish such a feet, depending on the situation, they still get the proverbial ax. 

Needless to say, the pressure on NFL head coaches not only to win, but to win immediately is immense. In the specific case of Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Mike Mularkey, that same pressure exists.

To be fair to Mularkey, he is not going into a supremely favorable situation. He is taking over a team that looks on paper at least a year away from contending.

Mularkey does not come into Jacksonville with a glowing track record either. He only spent two seasons at the helm in Buffalo and resigned due to disagreements with the organization.

Now he comes to Jacksonville where he takes over a team in desperate need of a new voice in the locker room, with a possibly shell-shocked second-year quarterback in Blaine Gabbert.

He is now given the task of leading a franchise to a level of relevance it has yet to achieve in its previous 16 seasons.

Whether it is fair or not, the pressure is on Mularkey. Mularkey has to motivate his team enough to show the fan base in Jacksonville and the rest NFL that there is indeed a relevant professional football team in Jacksonville. (No disrespect to the Jacksonville Sharks)

A losing season in 2012 may not and more than likely will not cost Mularkey his job. It is only one season after all.

But it will ratchet up the pressure to finally turn things around in Jacksonville.