(09-02-2024, 01:05 AM)rpr52121 Wrote:

(09-02-2024, 12:14 AM)JagFanatic24 Wrote: You hit the nail right on the head. One of, if not the biggest mistake in franchise history. That 1999 season was amazing when we went 14-2. Went into the playoffs and blowed the top off against the Dolphins, in front of a crowd of about 70,000. 

The 1996 season was magical. Going up to Buffalo and big Clyde Simmons got it kick-started. Natrone Means busted loose for 62 yards. Went to Denver the following week for one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. Went to New England and was on the goal line, in position to tie the score up at 13-13 in the 4th quarter. 

The 1997 is when Jimmy and Keenan started wrecking the league. And then 1998 we got Taylor and Darius. Taylor dazzled that entire season. 

It all started with Tom Coughlin. 

I went back and looked at the 2000 season, and we were very close to making the playoffs for the 5th straight season. One game that sticks out in my mind was the Bengals game in the snow, Hollis slipped on a missed FG, and we let Peter Warrick return a punt for a TD. I think Taylor averaged 107 rushing yards for the season. 

Coughlin left Jax and went on to win 2 Super Bowls against the best Football Dynasty of all-time in the Patriots.

I've heard a lot of interviews/reports of Coughlin's time with the Giants. It took the owner John Mara and some well respected vets including Strahan going and convincing him to change some of his ways to finally get success in NY. But when he returned to Jacksonville as EVP, some of those same tendencies reverted back and he had no one to basically confront him and tell him ease up. I'm not sure there would have been anyone to convince him to ease up he had just staying with Jacksonville throughout the 00's and 10's.

I remain strictly in the camp that TC earned his walking papers in Jax and forced Weaver's hand by being too dictatorial in his control of HC, OC, and GM duties. (not to even mention the alienation of the locker room) 

His inflexibility and abject refusal to modernize his approach were not only his downfall in Duval, but damn near got him fired twice in NY. And I mean, the decision was made and he held on by a thread after multiple interventions. 

It was the large market, more controlling owner, and a handful of influential A-List players that forced him to make the adaptations in NY that secured his tenure and led to more success. 

Weaver was unable to make TC see the light here and therefore had to send him packing. Weaver's hands were tied IMO, and he did the right thing. 

Coughlin's second turn in Jax cemented this opinion for me.

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