Make no mistake about it. Shahid Khan will do whatever it takes to get a quality coach who can help take his Jacksonville Jaguars to the Super Bowl. He will even sacrifice his general manager if the new coach wants him to, as he attested to his own (virtual) face.
Shahid Khan Willing To Throw Trent Baalke Under the Bus for New Coach
Khan is looking for a new coach, and he wants the best. He is willing to give up control of the front office to the new coach and fire general manager Trent Baalke if the coach gives him a credible reason to do so. While it is customary for the coach and the general manager to both come in at the same time, it is not customary for the owner to say he would fire the general manager right in front of him.
John Shipley of Jacksonville Jaguars on SI reported on Monday night, Jan. 6, that Khan will let Baalke go if the new coach wants him to, and the reason makes sense. The fact that Baalke was not fired alongside Doug Pederson on Black Monday does not mean he is safe from getting his walking papers.
“What do you mean by clean slate? If so, that’s the definition of a clean slate? What we want to do is for them to have an environment where they’re going to be successful,” Khan said on Monday when Shipley posed the question of how he would respond to a coach with reservations.
“They say, ‘I want my own quarterback, I want my own health and wellness, I want my own doctors.’ It’s like, you do that, unless they have identified — somebody wants to say that, I would want to really go through that in depth,” Khan said.
Wild: #Jaguars owner Shad Khan just said he’d potentially get rid of GM Trent Baalke if a prospective head coach gives him a credible reason for why they feel that way.
Baalke was right there on the call with him…
This team is a joke 😂 pic.twitter.com/YuKpSZV92I
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 7, 2025
“Because if we can get better, if they have a better doctor … [Head Physician] Kevin Kaplan is among the top two or three best doctors in the NFL, for example. Same thing, a lot of things we’re doing, I’d want to listen to them and get better. If they have reservations, I would want to address them honestly and openly because our goal is they need to be successful.
“What do we have to give them to be successful? Fear, preconceived notions, whatever, that really can inhibit the right performance. But if they need something, I mean, obviously, we want to listen and we want to improve. I know we can improve.”
Baalke is Khan’s most trusted football advisor, but it does not mean he would not get rid of him in a New York minute if the new coach gave him good sound reasoning that his choice was better.
“My response would be how would you improve it, and then if it is credible, you want to do it,” Khan said.
“How does the structure work? I want to make sure that this isn’t about ego or power or something more sinister, quite frankly. There have been some of those elements that I have found in my experience in the NFL. If it’s a legit effort to get better, then everything should be on the table.”