Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan considered firing general manager Dave Caldwell last year. He ultimately gave him a chance to show what he could do without personnel chief Tom Coughlin wreaking havoc on the salary cap and the locker room. Caldwell made Khan’s decision an easy one, and the owner fired him Sunday after the team’s 10th consecutive loss, its single-season record.
“Dave was exceptionally committed and determined to bring a winner to Jacksonville, but unfortunately his efforts were not rewarded with the results our fans deserve and our organization expects,” Khan said after a 27-25 loss to Cleveland. “Our football operation needs new leadership, and we will have it with a new general manager in 2021.”
Khan will keep coach Doug Marrone and his staff to finish out the season and likely let the next general manager decide their fate. It would be stunning to see Marrone return in 2021. Former San Francisco executive Trent Baalke will serve as interim GM.
The Jaguars are 39-87 since Khan gave Caldwell his first GM job in 2013, falling a few plays shy of upsetting the Patriots for the franchise’s first Super Bowl trip in January 2018 and miring mostly in mediocrity since. The Jaguars (1-10) have dropped 16 of their last 19 games, including 11 by double digits.
Caldwell drafted and signed plenty of talent along the way, but he whiffed repeatedly while trying to fill a gaping hole at quarterback. He chose Blake Bortles with the third overall pick in 2014, and nearly four years later — after everyone in the league knew the QB’s flaws — he gave Bortles a $54 million extension.
When Bortles didn’t pan out, Caldwell signed Super Bowl 52 MVP Nick Foles to a four-year, $88 million deal that included $50.125 million guaranteed. The oft-injured Foles broke his collarbone in the 2019 season opener, returned two months later, and got benched for good three games into his return.
Caldwell and Marrone gambled on second-year pro Gardner Minshew this year, only to see the sixth-round pick exposed as the team started 1-6. Another rookie, fellow sixth-rounder Jake Luton, wasn’t any better.
Caldwell is the fourth general manager fired during this pandemic-impacted season. Houston fired Bill O’Brien, who also was its coach. Atlanta fired coach Dan Quinn and GM Thomas Dimitroff. On Saturday, Detroit released coach Matt Patricia and GM Bob Quinn.
Report: More positive tests within Ravens
According to ESPN, Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Willie Snead tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, making it seven projected offensive starters to test positive and eight consecutive days with at least one positive test. The Ravens were back in their facility Sunday for the first time since last Tuesday.
Baltimore’s game with undefeated Pittsburgh has already been moved from Thanksgiving to Sunday to 8 p.m. on Tuesday. It remains on schedule to be played, with Pro Football Talk reporting the NFL’s medical experts believe these positives are still related to last week’s exposures.
The game will only be postponed, the report said, “if there are ongoing positives that would lead medical professionals to believe that there was continued risk of transmission.”
QB-less Broncos make do, barely
After a 31-3 home loss to New Orleans, the Denver Broncos Twitter account sought to praise emergency quarterback Kendall Hinton, noting he’d been summoned from the practice squad, got zero practice reps at quarterback this week, and was placed in an “unprecedented situation” when the converted receiver was asked to channel his time under center at Wake Forest.
There was a game today.
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) November 29, 2020
The final score is what it is.
Undrafted rookie WIDE RECEIVER @Kendall_Hinton2 came off the practice squad, had zero practice reps and competed in his first NFL game as the Broncos’ QUARTERBACK—an unprecedented situation.
He deserves all the respect. pic.twitter.com/C4UpkPTZBQ
All points were fair ones. With starting quarterback Drew Lock, backup Brett Rypien, and practice squad veteran Blake Bortles all disqualified over the weekend due to close contact with No. 3 QB Jeff Driskel, who tested positive for the coronavirus, simply getting through Sunday was all Denver could ask for.
Hinton, a rookie, went 1 for 9 for 13 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions against the Saints. Tight end Noah Fant’s 13-yard catch in the third quarter was Denver’s only reception. Sometimes, the Broncos had their running backs take direct snaps.
Coach Vic Fangio was disappointed after the game, but not at Hinton. His ire went to Lock, Rypien, and Bortles, who went maskless in a quarterback meeting alongside Driskel, leaving them unavailable due to NFL COVID-19 protocols. (Lock tweeted an explanation and a mea culpa an hour before kickoff.)
“He did everything he could,” Fangio said of Hinton. “That was a big, big ask.”
The Broncos tried to persuade the NFL to delay the game to Monday or Tuesday night like the Ravens-Steelers game was pushed back from Thanksgiving after a virus outbreak on the Ravens. When that failed, they turned to Hilton, whom they cut on Sept. 5, signed to the practice squad on Nov. 4, and who last threw a pass in-game while a redshirt junior at Wake in October 2018. He practiced with the Broncos on Saturday, but as a wide receiver.
Denver’s 112 yards of offense was their lowest game total since Oct. 12, 1992 — almost five full years before Hinton was born.
Chargers, as usual, can’t close
Los Angeles added another chapter to its second-half woes in Buffalo. They didn’t blow a lead in a 27-17 loss, but the Chargers (3-8) scored three points on their final five possessions, including three that ended inside Buffalo’s 30.
The troubles were encapsulated on an empty final possession for Los Angeles after it had first and goal at the Buffalo 2 with 25 seconds left — courtesy of Justin Herbert’s 55-yard pass to Tyron Johnson. With no timeouts remaining, rather than spike the ball to stop the clock, Herbert handed off to Austin Ekeler, who was stopped at the 1.
The clock ran down to six seconds when Herbert threw an incompletion. After initially sending out the field goal unit, the Chargers changed course and ran another play with the game ending on Herbert being stopped for a 2-yard loss.
“I’m not saying that it’s been perfect at all. But what happened today at the end of the game was miscommunication,” Herbert said.
LA is 2-5 this season when leading at halftime, a season after nine of their 11 losses were by seven points or fewer.
Zero hour still in play for Jets
⋅ Sam Darnold, after New York totaled just 10 first downs and 260 yards of offense in losing to Miami, on whether the Jets (0-11) can avoid becoming the third 0-16 team in NFL history: “No. I mean, we’ll find one.”
⋅ Giants quarterback Daniel Jones will have an MRI on Monday on the hamstring he injured completing a short pass in the third quarter of New York’s win in Cincinnati.
“I’m certainly not discouraged,” said Jones, who returned for two plays on the next series before being relieved by Colt McCoy the rest of the game. “You know, I think it’s tough to tell exactly what it is right now.”
⋅ Wayne Gallman Jr.’s first-quarter score in the Giants’ victory at Cincinnati gave him a touchdown in five consecutive games, the longest streak for New York since Saquon Barkley scored in five straight games in 2018. Gallman, who secured the starting job after Barkley and Devonta Freeman went out with injuries, scored three total touchdowns in his first three seasons.
⋅ San Francisco got Richard Sherman back after the veteran cornerback was sidelined by a calf injury, but its secondary took a couple of hits during its 23-20 victory over the Rams. Both nickelback Jamar Taylor and cornerback Ken Webster left the field on a cart.
⋅ Cleveland chief of staff Callie Brownson became the first woman to coach an NFL position group in a regular-season game as she filled in for tight ends coach Drew Petzing. Petzing’s wife, Louisa, gave birth to the couple’s first child Saturday.
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