Unlike Bradley, Marrone tells it like it is for Jaguars

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It's too early to tell if the Jacksonville Jaguars will be better than they were last year, or for that matter, better than they've been the last six years in which they've won a total of 22 games.

A good number of NFL teams will record that many wins over a two-year period, but when your highest number of wins in the last six years is five (2011 and 2015) as it is for the Jaguars, it's an indication that a team is really struggling.

Yet it would be hard to draw that conclusion if you only went by the remarks from the Jaguars previous head coach Gus Bradley.

Bradley guided the team for 62 games over three-plus years, posting a 14-48 record during that time, easily the worst mark by any NFL team during that time, and one of the worst all-time records over a 62-game span.

But for local media that have covered the Jaguars the last four seasons, it was always an upbeat message that came from Bradley.

Asked on a Friday during the season how practices were for that week before Sunday's game and you almost always heard the same answer -- "Great practice, the guys were sharp, focused, ready to play."

And yet Sunday after Sunday with only a few exceptions, that wasn't what Jacksonville fans saw on the field. Anything but that.

Bradley was often asked about a player's performance in a game, where it was clearly evident that the player did not have a good game. Yet the message didn't support that. Instead it was often: "He played well, just had that one bad play, he's making good progress."

It was a message that media members weren't buying and that fans were tired of hearing. It's a reason why there was a collective sigh of relief when Bradley was let go with two games remaining in the 2016 season.

Rarely would Bradley call out a player who deserved to be called out for his lack of good play. It was either passed over quickly by Bradley or just not mentioned by the Jaguars coach.

It certainly led to veteran players knowing they could under perform and not be dismantled, at least not publicly.

But those days might be a thing of the past, with new Jaguars coach Doug Marrone, who was appointed interim coach for the last two games of the 2016 season and then given the permanent spot shortly after the season came to a close.

With Marrone serving as assistant head coach-offense/offensive line coach the last two seasons under Bradley, there had been some concern that there would be more of the same soft-treatment of players, especially publicly through the media.

That doesn't appear to be the case with Marrone however.

There wasn't enough time to draw any conclusions from his short two-game stint as interim head coach last year. Everyone just wanted to get through the season and then start anew with a new coaching staff.

But Marrone sold himself to Jaguars owner Shad Khan that he was anything but a clone of Bradley, and that's as big a factor as anything why Marrone got the job.

At the conclusion of Jacksonville's first week of Organized Team Activities (OTA) under Marrone's supervision, the Jaguars head coach offered up some blunt and honest assessment of where the team was at this time.

And it was anything but sugar-coated.

"I am just being honest," Marrone said. "We are a team that won three football games. I would be lying to you guys if I came up here and said everything is great. "Listen, this is where we are. Listen, we only won three football games. We have a lot to prove. We have a lot of work to put in on the field. We have to do those things and put that work in. I am not the type of person that is going to sit up here and sell some 'BS'. I am not going to do that.

"I think it's hard for me to stand up here and say -- I think it is hard for any coach to sit up here and say where their team is at now and how it is going to go once the pads and the hitting start to come. I want to get our team ready and prepared conditionally, practice-wise, tempo-wise, so that when we do start practicing, the physicality is something that we can stand and we can practice through that to try to create a toughness. We have to become a much tougher team. We have to be able to finish better. That stuff is on tape. It is not like I am making that stuff up.

"Are there certain things that are going on out there that are good? Absolutely, there are. I am talking about overall, as a whole, we have a long way to go and we have to continue to keep our nose to the ground and keep working. Really, just all the way up until, we will be coaching and doing everything we possibly can right up until that first kickoff when everything does count."

It's quite the opposite message that Jaguars fans have been used to hearing. The word coming out of OTAs the last couple of years was that the team was certainly headed in the right direction and that with the new free agents and talented rookies selected from the college draft, this was a group that could turn things around and make the Jaguars a contender.

Some bought into it, others were skeptical, others chose to ignore the message and look at reality -- the Jaguars were still not very good. Yet there were those who predicted the Jaguars to be in a good position to challenge for the title in a weak AFL Central division.

By the third year of hearing the message, as positive as it was and as good as it was to help with the selling of tickets before the Jaguars took the field each year, it wasn't close to reality.

It's a message that resonates with the players. Outside linebacker Telvin Smith said he appreciates the way Marrone has laid it on the line and stated the obvious.

"Most definitely, I think that's something that still has to grow," Smith said. "I think that's something that's definitely appreciated and needed. Most definitely needed."

This new message coming out is one that speaks closer to the truth about how far the Jaguars have to go to catch up with first the teams in their own division and then the rest of the league.

It's a message that Jaguars fans might not want to hear, but it's much closer to reality than what they've heard in recent years.

"We have to figure out a way, where do we make hay?" Marrone said. "Where do we make the movement on these other teams that have played better than we have and done those things?"

"How do we do that? We are trying to get more reps. We are trying to get things done quicker. We are trying to make sure there is an emphasis on nutrition. Everyone is doing that. We are just going to have to continue to keep working and see where we go."

--Of all the newly signed free agents, the college draft picks and the undrafted rookies that are now a part of t Jaguars 90-man roster, none may be more important than veteran defensive end Calais Campbell. The former Dallas Cowboys standout comes with Pro Bowl credentials, on the field and inside the locker room.

The latter quality might be what sold team officials to pursue Campbell the way they did. The Jaguars have always been big on a player's lifestyle away from the field, one reason they've had relatively few personnel issues on a player's conduct outside of the team facilities. It's a reason that Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone is especially high on what Campbell brings to the Jaguars.

"Calais, couldn't ask for anything better, I really couldn't," Marrone said about the Jaguars new starter at defensive end. "You go around, you do your research, you talk to people and everyone's like we love him, he's going to be a great pro, he's going to do all this stuff. You never know. In my profession, even though they say they're friends of yours, they'll lie to you in a heartbeat now to get rid of a player.

"I mean I've never called a coach and a coach go, 'Oh this guy is great, he's awesome, I can't believe you got him, we loved him.' They didn't take him, you know what I'm saying? I mean that's how it is, but this one, this story I will say it's true. Everything that I've heard about him."

That feeling was strengthened a week ago when Marrone attended a ceremony for a retiring local high school coach that Marrone had befriended from his days as a coach at Georgia Tech. He indicated that he ran into someone who had nothing but a glowing report on Campbell.

"'I played at the University of Miami with Calais and I'm just going to tell you, the best guy, the best,' and he hit every nail on the head so I couldn't be more pleased. I really couldn't," Marrone said. "I think he's outstanding."

Jaguars rookie running back Leonard Fournette can attest to the value of Campbell's presence in the locker room.

"It's been fun going against some of the best defensive players, especially the D-linemen," Fournette said. "Calais, his locker is right next to mine, getting advice from him as a rookie, he's always preaching to me about doing the right thing."

--Running back Leonard Fournette was a standout in the perennial tough Southeastern Conference during his days at LSU. He set numerous team and league records during his three seasons with the Tigers, all while facing some of the best defensive players in the nation.

Fournette says that type of competition will help him during the learning stages of his NFL career.

"I played in the SEC, so I had a lot of big and fast guys, but to me, I think it's 95 percent mental," Fournette said at the start of Jacksonville's second week of OTAs.

"If you don't know what you're doing when you go out there not knowing anything, you'll get lost fast. I think it's a lot of hard work and preparation at the end of the day."

Fournette is in competition with veteran running backs Chris Ivory and T.J. Yeldon, who shared the workload in the Jaguars ground attack last year. Fournette said he has leaned on Ivory for help as he makes the adjustment from college to professional ball.

"I'm learning from Chris," Fournette said. "Chris took me under his wing. Thank God. Without him, I'd be lost right now. Also, Coach (Tyrone) Wheatley, he's doing a great job with the young guys; he's taking his time with us. (I'm) getting to know the playbook and also, with (quarterback) Blake (Bortles), he's teaching us, too."