Quote:This team is using a completely different model for rebuilding a roster from the ground up from what other teams have done previously. This process has never been tested to the extent that it has been here where you're putting the bulk of your focus on the draft and building with younger players. That takes time to develop. People were up in arms last year because the team appeared to take a step back. They didn't bother to recognize the amount of youth that was on the field starting and contributing. Nobody started more rookies than the Jags last year. The step back was a necessity as part of the process.


Everything has been focused on the turnaround starting in year 3. Caldwell has said on more than one occasion that the expectation is that the team will turn the corner, and it will do so this year, and when it happens, it will happen quickly. He never made any promise that it would happen in week one or two, but he said they were confident that this was the year where the younger contributors coupled with the free agents they've brought in will take that next step in the progression, and we'll start to see a more competitive brand of football.


Trying to cherry pick "analytics" that prop up the notion that Gus is a failed head coach vs. every head coach who has participated in a Super Bowl over the last 19 years is simply irrelevant because you're comparing apples to oranges. Many of the coaches on that list had a lot more experience as a head coach than Bradley has today when they reached that mark. None of them inherited the hot mess that we had here in Jacksonville when Bradley was hired.


I know there's a faction on this board who is always going to blame the coach and demand he be replaced. It was the same thing when Coughlin struggled in 2002. They wanted him fired, and celebrated when that happened. That really worked out well, didn't it?


Fortunately for us, this front office doesn't appear to be quite as willing to bend to the will of the fans when it comes to personnel decisions. Gus is in year 3 of the rebuild. He says the team is built, and that there are only going to be tweaks from here on out with the roster. This is the team that he expects to take that next step. This is the year where that needs to start happening. It doesn't matter how the team starts the season. What matters is where it's at when the season ends. If this team is looking at another 5 win or less season, and they're not playing up to any expectations, then Gus is more than likely in jeopardy of losing his job. If the team is playing better at the end of the season, and they've won 6-8 games, then he'll stick around for year 4, where he'll once again be under heavy scrutiny because at that point, the expectation is playoffs, and a push for the division title.


It doesn't matter what other coaches have done over the past 19 years. What does matter is what Gus and this team do over the next 5 months.