Jaguars news: Urban Meyer chosen over these 4 stud coaching candidates

The Jaguars chose ex-head coach Urban Meyer over these four candidates, two of them still currently employed by the teams who did hire them.

The Jacksonville Jaguars recently fired head coach Urban Meyer, prompting a bevy of reactions from the NFL world. One of the reactions came from ESPN NFL reporter Adam Schefter, who dropped an interesting tidbit on the Jaguars' head coaching search and who the franchise seemingly passed on when they chose Meyer to be their leader.

FWIW: When the Jaguars hired Urban Meyer last January, they chose him over Kansas City OC Eric Bienemy, San Francisco 49ers DC Robert Saleh, former Buccanneers/Atlanta Falcons interim coach Raheem Morris and Tennessee OC Arthur Smith.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 16, 2021

Yikes. So, the Jaguars could have had Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy, current New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh, current Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, or current Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith, but they chose Urban Meyer.

To be fair, Bienemy has never been a head coach at the NFL level and neither had Saleh or Smith before being hired to their positions. Morris was also relatively uninspiring as a head coach. Still, Smith and Saleh, who were both candidates around the time that Meyer was hired by the Jaguars, are both still employed by their teams.

The Jets haven't been much more impressive under the leadership of Saleh than the Jaguars were under Meyer, though New York does seem to play hard for Saleh, something Jacksonville never seemed to do for Meyer. Also, neither of the likes of Smith or Saleh have come close to losing their respective locker rooms, at least not yet.

To make matters worse, Smith, who was the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, played against the Jaguars in their own division. The Jaguars got to see Smith twice a year during his tenure with the Titans and they still weren't persuaded enough to hire him as their head coach.

Any of these coaching candidates could have been hired and led the team to the same record as Urban Meyer. However, it's safe to say that they very likely wouldn't have been so foolish as to do the egregious things that Urban Meyer did during his time with the Jaguars.