The Jacksonville Jaguars have turned the page toward a new era they hope mirrors the journey of another team on the opposite side of the country: the Los Angeles Rams.
Jacksonville's new leadership duo of general manager James Gladstone and head coach Liam Coen carries direct ties to the Rams. Coen spent four seasons on Sean McVay's offensive staff as an assistant, while Gladstone spent the past eight seasons with the Rams, including the last four as the team's director of college scouting.
They're bringing with them a blueprint they believe can be applied to the Jaguars.
"I think the adaptability that that shows amongst the leadership group in Los Angeles and one that we'll look to embody here, knowing that this is an ever-evolving landscape in the ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷Íøand the importance of changing and being ahead of the curve in terms of what success," Gladstone said during his Monday introductory news conference when asked what he learned in his time with the Rams.
"Beyond that, I see a lot of parallels to really my time with the Los Angeles Rams and the current moment in time here with the Jacksonville Jaguars, in particular dating back to the inflection point in 2017 when the Los Angeles Rams were coming off a four-win season, hired a dynamic and resilient head coach and were able to follow that up with a successful season and successful seasons since. So really gonna tap into all those years of experience and the different sort of modes of operation and models that we deployed while applying here."
It reads like a lot of football/leadership jargon, but if the new leadership group -- which also includes Jaguars legend Tony Boselli, who was recently hired as EVP of football operations -- can replicate the turnaround the Rams enjoyed under McVay and general manager Les Snead, they'll accomplish something the Jaguars haven't been able to do since the days of Jack Del Rio: win consistently.
They'll also have followed in the footsteps of the Rams in another category: youth. McVay was hired as Rams coach at just 30 years old back in 2017; Gladstone takes over the Jaguars' front office at 34 years old.
"Technically, I don't know if we've talked about our age at all," Gladstone said of being hired alongside Coen, 39. "The interesting thing, I do think we both start from a place of humility and I think that makes a lot of stuff easy and seamless, while at the same time, there's this aura of confidence and understanding that we have [a] dynamic asset and that is our ability to see what tools are available and apply and execute those within our spheres. So I don't know that age has ever been something that my mind's ever gone to as a part of our process and we certainly haven't brought it up in any conversations."
In short, Gladstone sees his youth as an advantage because he's more adept at using modern processes to the Jaguars' benefit -- or at least, that's how he's pitching it. Boselli is the elder statesman of the group at 52, admitting humorously, "it bothers me because I'm old!"
But there's truth in Gladstone's elaborate response. Youth is an advantage in a league in which everyone is constantly searching for an edge. Coen sees another benefit, too.
"This is a league where you have to be able to connect with people that are coming out of college," Coen explained. "This game is ever-evolving and ever-changing, as we've talked about. Can we connect with the players? That to me is all that really matters. Can the staff, the personnel department, Tony, can we all connect with these players to be able to get the best product on the field? That's really all that matters."
It wasn't a notable issue under Doug Pederson, but the Jaguars are familiar with lacking connection between locker room and front office. When Tom Coughlin returned as an executive late last decade, he didn't make many fans in the locker room, and his firing was a move that appeared to be quite popular among players at the time.
Most of those players are no longer with the team. But the ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷Íøis a business that is constantly resupplied by collegiate draft classes, and if anybody is going to get a young group of players -- which, with a ton of draft capital in hand over the next two years, the Jaguars will have plenty of -- on board quickly, it will be a younger coach and general manager.
Gladstone seems invigorated by the opportunity.
"The short of it is there's talent in a lot of key spots, and with the amount of draft capital that we have at our disposal over the next two seasons, it's really exciting about what we can do there, especially knowing that that's the highest volume of draft capital that exists for any team in the ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷Íøover the next two years," he said. "We're coming off two cycles in the Los Angeles Rams where that was the exact same case. … Really, this is a dynamic that I'm uniquely positioned to navigate and really looking forward to utilizing as a means of continuing to develop this roster."
Though they hired the coach first, Gladstone and Coen should be on the same page from the start because of their shared background in Los Angeles. Time will tell, but they're hoping that familiarity helps them hit the ground running.
"By default, because of where our roots both fall, we're aligned just in and of itself," Gladstone said. "I think through this whole process, some of the things that really were the most alluring and exciting about this opportunity is that the leadership structure mirrors what I'm familiar with in Los Angeles and I know that's one that I can have success in and is something that can be successful in this line of work."
