Trent Baalke Gets Fired
As far as billionare owners go, Shad Khan doesn’t seem that bad. He seems invested in keeping the team in Jacksonville and embracing the community. He doesn’t seem too meddlesome. His problem is he is absolutely the dumbest man alive when it comes to football decisions. Doug Pederson is arguably the only good hire he’s made during his tenure, and that only really worked out for a year before it went sour.
Trent Baalke was his most recent mistake. Baalke is the GM equivalent of Grima Wormtongue. Jags fans protested his hiring by collectively making their twitter profile pictures the clown emoji with the Khan mustache. Baalke, if you don’t remember, is the snake GM who poisoned 49ers owner Jed York against Jim Harbaugh and got him ousted. The 49ers would instantly crumble into dust for a few years before York realized his error, fired Baalke, and made good football decisions again. Baalke somehow wormed his way into Jacksonville and got promoted when the previous GM was let go. As things soured during the Doug Pederson era this year, it became widely anticipated that everyone would get let go at season’s end.
Baalke was not fired. Jags fans were furious. Well, as of two days ago, Baalke was finally let go in a surprise move. It turns out Baalke is such a well-known snake that every major candidate the Jags interviewed basically told Khan they don’t want to work with him. This culminated when Liam Coen, the Bucs OC, turned them down after looking like a top candidate, and turned around to get offered a massive deal to instead stay in Tampa. A day later Baalke is let go and as of this writing, shenanigans are taking place with Coen secretly flying back to Jacksonville for a second interview that might be in violation of his Tampa deal? Coen clearly put one demand on the table: I don’t want to work with that guy. Khan finally woke up and killed the snake.
So two weeks after they should have fired him, after losing out on two of the top coaching candidates, rejected by other quality candidates and about to lose on yet another, the Jags appear to have figured shit out. I don’t know if Liam Coen is the answer. Baker Mayfield has gotten two offensive coordinators a job now. Maybe it’s just Baker being good. Though Canales looks like he might have some juice.
We have to be wary of where Baalke ends up next.
The funny thing is that a different Bucs OC riding the coattails of a great Bucs QB, this time with much stronger ties to the Jags, also Baalked on Shad Kahn towards the beginning of Trent’s tenure: Bryon Leftwich.
Baalke would be a decent GM if he knew how to play well with others. The implosion of the Harbaugh 49ers was definitely Baalke’s doing and theyay very well have won a title or two had Harbaugh stayed.
Oh damn, Coen new head coach of the Jaguars. Looks like the clown smackdown worked.
Oh, I know where Balki Bartokomous is going! After Schoen’n'(D)Abel are fired next year, he’s gonna end up the GM of the New York Football Giants. It’s gonna be PANDA MOMENTUM! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy.
Let us do the Dance of Joy!