Darrell Bevell gets another interim head coaching job after Urban Meyer fired

Maybe someone should just hire him as a head coach, and stop pairing him with awful leaders.

We’re far from knowing whether the Detroit Lions’ hiring of Dan Campbell will work out in the long-term, but before his first season is through, we do know he wasn’t the worst hiring of the 2021 cycle.

That honor belongs to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ hiring of Urban Meyer, who was unceremoniously fired on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, after a myriad of scandals. He had reportedly completely lost the locker room, called his own coaching staff a bunch of losers, and it appears the straw the broke the camel’s back was a former Jaguars kicker revealing that Meyer literally kicked him at practice for missing field goals in the preseason.

The Jaguars subsequently announced that offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell would take over as interim head coach for the final four games of the season. Of course, you’ll remember Bevell as the Lions’ offensive coordinator from 2019 to 2020 before being promoted to interim head coach upon Matt Patricia’s firing after the Lions got blown out on Thanksgiving last year.

When Bevell took over the Lions last year, he immediately picked up an emotional win over the Chicago Bears, but then the team fell back to reality and lost the final four games of the season (Bevell missed one of those losses due to COVID-19).

Jaguars players—who had previously expressed their frustrations with Meyer both to the media and to players of other teams—are reportedly ecstatic about Bevell’s promotion. Per NFL insider Aaron Wilson, Bevell is “wildly popular” and the “polar opposite” of the kind of leader Meyer was.

I swear, this is all sounding oddly familiar.

Bevell has a great opportunity to pull out a win in his first game with the Jaguars, too. Jacksonville takes on the 2-11 Houston Texans this week, in a game that could really help out Detroit’s draft position.