MOBILE, Ala. -- Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley now has the world's best-compensated offensive line coach in Doug Marrone.
But he's not worried about the circumstances that brought his new assistant head coach and offensive line guru to Jacksonville, including a surprisingly quick and bitter departure from Buffalo.
"I really didn't get into that with him," Bradley, the head coach of the South team here at the 2015 Senior Bowl, said. "For me, it was obviously that he was a good teacher, developer and person. The topics we talked about, I think one thing that's really important is humility and if you have humility, you can identify your weaknesses and get better at those and I just felt a great sense of humility. It was a great visit. An unbelievable visit."
Bradley added that Marrone's additional title, assistant head coach, will give him the opportunity to bounce schematic and philosophical ideas off Bradley. He considers Marrone's recent experience as a valuable asset, but does not expect him to join the staff down in Mobile.
Based on Marrone's recent track record, this could work one of two ways. By all accounts, he was a dutiful and loyal assistant in New Orleans for three years and could be a loyal and dutiful assistant again. It's hard to fault a coach for igniting such a beautifully-executed clause in his contract, especially when his name was at the top of several short lists elsewhere. How he left, of course, calls that into question.
If rumors of a distant, unlikable coach who clashed with staff members in house are true, then Bradley might be taking too much onto his plate. On top of developing a quarterback, building a defense, reversing years of irresponsible drafting and motivating a fan base that hasn't seen a playoff appearance since 2007, this might be a tipping point, especially if Marrone is still interested in running the show.
Bradley, of course, is all in on the first scenario.
"I think that our whole mindset is, we want to put everything we can into our players to help them get better with no agenda," Bradley said. "It's not for any other reason than to purely help the players. That's what our players expect, and that is what Doug Marrone is all about."
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