Fred Taylor is arguably the greatest Jaguar in the history of the franchise, so his opinion on the firing of longtime coach Jack Del Rio carries some weight.
Taylor played under Del Rio for six seasons until his release after the 2008 season. Clearly, there's no love lost between the men.
"At the end of the day, (Del Rio)'s not a head coach," Taylor told Yahoo! Sports this week. "He's a great defensive coach. But he's not a head coach."
Taylor and other Jaguars teammates became frustrated by how Del Rio carried himself on a day-to-day basis. Del Rio's predecessor, Tom Coughlin, was always stern. Del Rio, by comparison, would vary, vacillating between good cop and bad cop. This inconsistency irked players.
"With Coughlin, if you came in, if you overstep, you're screwed," Taylor said. "With Jack, you never knew what you were getting. You don't know if you'll get a hard-ass one day, a buddy-buddy one day. You never really knew."
Another day, another wholly unflattering story about Del Rio. Taylor seems to have some lingering bitterness over how the end of his run in Jacksonville was handled, but his comments fall in line with the general negative perception of Del Rio. Clearly, it was time for the franchise to move on.
