Ex-Bills Coach Who Quit Out Of Nowhere Gets Turned Down By Other NFL Teams, Takes Lesser Job With Jaguars
At one point he was considered the frontrunner for the Jets job, and it looked like his bold move was going to pan out. Not only was he going to get paid the guaranteed $4 million in salary the Bills owed him in 2015, he was going to get another head coaching job immediately.
Ultimately, that's not how it played out.
The 49ers hired defensive line coach Jim Tomsula, the Bears hired John Fox from the Broncos, and the Jets hired Todd Bowles from the Cardinals. With the head coaching vacancies in Oakland and Atlanta also filled, Marrone found himself with no choice but to take a lesser job elsewhere.
On Tuesday Marrone was hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars as assistant head coach and offensive line coach.
While there's a long track record of ex-NFL head coaches rehabilitating their reputations as assistants before getting hired as head coaches again, there's no guarantee that Marrone returns to the head coaching ranks anytime soon. His job status in Buffalo was complicated by a reported rift with upper management and a lack of personnel control, but it was also relatively stable. Buffalo's 9-7 record in 2014 was its first winning season in a decade.
Marrone gave up a head coaching job in the hopes that he could land in a better head coaching situation elsewhere. That looks like a miscalculation in retrospect. Even though he's still getting that $4 million, it could be a while before he ever gets back to the top.