Trent Baalke is out in Jacksonville after all.
The Jaguars announced on Wednesday afternoon that they had split with their general manager amid a search for a new head coach.
“Following several discussions with Trent Baalke this week, we both arrived at the conclusion that it is in our mutual best interests to respectfully separate, effective immediately,” owner Shad Khan said in a statement. “Trent leaves us with my deepest appreciation for his efforts over the past five seasons. Ethan Waugh will serve as interim general manager and play an important role, with others, as we continue the process of interviewing candidates to serve as our new head coach. I am deeply committed to building a winner here in Jacksonville and look forward to introducing a new head coach who will make that happen for our players and fans alike.”
Baalke has been with the Jaguars for the last four seasons. The team reached the playoffs just once under his watch, and they are fresh off a 4-13 campaign. Baalke was hired ahead of the 2021 campaign, which saw coach Urban Meyer fired after less than a year. The team then fired head coach Doug Pederson earlier this month. In total, Baalke compiled a 25-43 record in Jacksonville. The job marked his second as a general manager in the league, following a six-year run with the San Francisco 49ers — who reached a Super Bowl under his watch.
When the Jaguars fired Pederson at the end of the regular season, Khan said that he wasn’t going to fire Baalke too. He didn’t want to completely overhaul the franchise, he said, as doing so would be “like shooting yourself in the foot.”
But in the weeks since, things have not gone well for the Jaguars. The reported favorite for the head coaching job, Liam Coen, opted to remain with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He took himself out of the running for the position in Jacksonville earlier on Wednesday, and instead negotiated a new contract with Tampa Bay that will make him one of the highest-paid coordinators in the league. The Jaguars are now back to the drawing board to find their next head coach, which will be the fourth since Baalke selected quarterback Trevor Lawrence with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft.
It took him a few extra weeks to get there, but it now appears that the full reset is what Khan is going for in Jacksonville. But based on how things have gone with the Jaguars in recent years, whoever he gets to replace both Pederson and Baalke will have a very tough job ahead of them.
This post will be updated with more information shortly.
