When Jay Glazer of FOX reported over the weekend the existence of a “very strong indication” the Jaguars are for sale, we expected a denial to come.
And then we forgot to check for it.
As it turns out, a “clearly irritated” Wayne Weaver said Monday that his franchise isn’t on the market.
“We’re not for sale,” Weaver said, per Michael C. Wright of the Florida Times-Union. “We’re trying to re-energize this fan base and get them excited about the team.”
Glazer raised the point in conjunction with the notion that coach Jack Del Rio is safe, but that a potential sale could inject some uncertainty into the equation.
But is Del Rio really safe? One league source with knowledge of the dynamics in Jacksonville thinks Del Rio is far from it, and that but for a $15 million buyout he’d already be gone.
Per the source, first-year G.M. Gene Smith “consistently stood up to Del Rio this season and exposed his divisive management/coaching style to the owner.” The source also says that Del Rio “checked out early” many weeks during the season.
The problem, we’re told, is that there’s a disconnect between Del Rio’s “guys” and the rest of the coaching staff.
So while Weaver has indicated that he and Del Rio will “sit down this offseason and figure out all the things we have to do to get better,” there’s a chance that this process will result in Weaver becoming sufficiently upset to make a change, notwithstanding the magnitude of the buyout.
Especially since he’s already pretty upset.
“We’ve been average the last seven years,” Weaver said Monday. “Being average is not acceptable. We’ve got to get better. We had a great draft class, a lot of young players. For the most part, they all produced. Building off this last draft class, and going into the offseason, I think we’re a team that’s ascending. I don’t expect to be sitting home in January next year [during the playoffs]. I’ll tell you that.”
The sit-down is scheduled for next week. If Weaver hasn’t calmed down by then, things could get ugly for Del Rio.