Following Eric Washington’s departure to join the coaching staff of the Chicago Bears, the Buffalo Bills are in need of a new defensive coordinator. Additionally, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reported that former Jaguars defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell is among the candidates they are looking for.
Caldwell interviewed with the Philadelphia Eagles as a defensive coordinator in addition to the Bills, and he also did an interview for Vic Fangio’s staff as a linebackers coach. Along with other defensive staff members like Inside Linebackers Coach Tony Gilbert, Defensive Line Coach Brentson Buckner, Defensive Quality Control Coach Sean Cullina, Safeties Coach Cody Grimm, Defensive Quality Control Coach Tee Mitchell, Senior Defensive Assistant Bob Sutton, and Passing Game Coordinator/Cornerbacks Coach Deshea Townsend, Caldwell was fired by the Jaguars the day after their 2023 season concluded.
In 2022, Doug Pederson, the head coach of the Jaguars, hired all coaches except Sutton and Gilbert. Gilbert and Sutton were hangovers from earlier coaching staffs. The defense gave up 30 points or more in four of the Jaguars’ six losses in the second half of the season, including two contests against Jake Browning and Joe Flacco, after the team had been playing lights out for the first eight weeks of the season. The Jaguars’ head coach, Brian Schott, bemoaned the defensive side’s failure to make tackles and assignments during the team’s recent 1-5 run. As a result, in their season-ending defeat, the Jaguars gave up 28 points to the Tennessee Titans, including 21 points in the first half and more than eight yards per rush.
“With just over a hundred and thirty yards of run defense, we, I believe, finished eighth. If you compare our final standings with our starting lineup for the first nine or ten games of the season, a significant portion of it broke apart. General manager Trent Baalke of the Jaguars stated this week that there was a significant dropoff.
“Why? Numerous factors come into play there. Players had to have faith in one another. All it takes for an explosive play is to begin looking for plays and answers, whether they are coaches looking for information or players looking to make plays outside of the defense’s strategy. As the season progressed, we let far too many big plays and failed to defend the ball. The ball was not taken away by us. Numerous factors are involved in it. We believe we have some talented players, and the first ten games supported that belief. Having the ability to reliably stop the run—something we failed to do in the end—
