JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars are making a long-overdue change at general manager with the team firing Trent Baalke on Wednesday afternoon.
In a statement, owner Shad Khan said the decision was made to mutually part ways with Baalke, who was retained after the team fired head coach Doug Pederson on Jan. 6. Ethan Waugh will serve as the interim general manager.
“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. 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,” Khan said in a statement.
The decision to retain Baalke after the season ended has reportedly been an issue with the Jaguars being able to bring in a head coach. Khan said after he fired Pederson that if a candidate said that keeping Baalke was a hangup, he would explore a change at GM.
The Jaguars finished 4-13, despite Khan saying before the season that this was the best team ever assembled. Baalke had a woeful free agent class that included whiffs like Arik Armstead, Gabe Davis and Ronald Darby. His draft classes had been hit and miss.
But the latest issue likely entailed Jacksonville’s inability to land one of its top head coaching candidates. Ben Johnson picked the Bears over Jacksonville because he reportedly liked the structure in Chicago better. Rumored frontrunner Liam Coen opted to return to Tampa Bay rather than the Jaguars.
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