The Jacksonville Jaguars are one of a handful of NFL teams that are currently looking for a new head coach in the early days of their offseason.
Two years after finishing the 2022 campaign with a flurry and scoring a miracle come-from-behind win in the wild-card round of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Chargers, they stumbled to a 4-13 record, which cost Doug Pederson his job after he had been their head coach for three seasons.
One of the more intriguing and attractive head coaching candidates currently available is Robert Saleh, the former New York Jets’ head coach, and per Zack Rosenblatt, there is some “real buzz” about Saleh’s chances of landing the Jaguars’ head coaching job.
There's "real buzz" about Robert Saleh's chances of becoming the #Jaguars next head coach, per @ZackBlatt pic.twitter.com/3FMZ7sF727
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 14, 2025
Saleh had been a longtime assistant in both the NFL and NCAA before the San Francisco 49ers hired him to be their defensive coordinator for the 2017 season.
At the time, the Niners were early in what looked to be an ugly rebuilding phase, but along with head coach Kyle Shanahan, he built them into a defensive powerhouse and got them to the Super Bowl in his third year there.
He moved on to the Jets in 2021 and made them a defensive juggernaut by his second season there, but after they struggled to start this year, he was shown the door after five games.
At age 45, Saleh is young enough to grow with a Jaguars team that needs lots of work, as well as a bounce back year from two-time Pro Bowl pass rusher Josh Hines-Allen.
NEXT: Steve Spagnuolo Is Drawing Head Coaching Interest
