Mularkey hired as Jacksonville head coach
Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey chats with the local media. (D. ORLANDO LEDBETTER/AJC)
UPDATE: The Jacksonville Jaguars have confirmed the hiring of former Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey as their third head coach.
The Florida Times-Union is reporting, through a source, that the Jaquars have hired Mike Mularkey as their new head coach.
FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey is interviewing for the vacant head coach position with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Les Snead, the team’s director of player personnel is interviewing for the general manager’s post in St. Louis, today.
He’s set to interview with Miami later in the week.
Should Mularkey land the Jacksonville or Miami job, he could take a couple of assistant coaches with him. There has been very little turnover from Smith’s original staff. With former defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder’s swift departure to the college ranks, five of the original 16 members have moved on to other jobs.
Mularkey was a candidate last season for head coaching jobs in Cleveland and Denver. He interviewed with Cleveland, but withdrew from the Denver search. Cleveland hired Pat Shurmur and Denver hired John Fox.
Mularkey’s son Patrick is a scouting assistant with the Jaguars. He wants to be a head coach again. He was Buffalo’s head coach in 2004-05 and posted a 14-18 record.
Mularkey and former offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave have been lauded league-wide for their fast development of quarterback Matt Ryan and for turning the Falcons’ offense into one of the league’s better units which has powered the team to a 43-21 record and three trips to the playoffs.
Mularkey is attractive because of his background in coaching power football. Jacksonville also needs someone to develop quarterback Blaine Gabbert, who struggled in his first year in the league. Miami will likely be in the market for a quarterback in the draft.
Mularkey was Miami’s offensive coordinator in 2006 and their tight ends coach in 2007.
Mularkey’s unit was stymied in the 24-2 loss to the New York Giants in the NFC wild-card playoff game on Sunday. The Falcons were 4 of 14 on third downs and 0 for 3 on fourth downs as they were kept out of the end zone.
Jacksonville dismissed Jack Del Rio this season. He was replaced on an interim basis by Mel Tucker. Miami parted ways with Tony Sparano.
After the 2010 season, Mularkey was selected as the coordinator of the year by The Sporting News.
–D. Orlando Ledbetter, The Atlanta Falcons beat blog
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415 comments Add your comment
TBALL
January 11th, 2012
10:48 am
I’m so happy, if i was a dog my tail would be wagging!!!!
BigTimeTECHFan
January 11th, 2012
10:50 am
Trade Ryan and Lofton to IND for no 1 pick and get RG-III, then second pick get Vontaze Burfict from Az St
CGD..
January 11th, 2012
11:02 am
not even competitive? show up to a gun fight with a knife(Matt Ryan)
Stick a fork it that Golf Pro.
HAVE TO UPGRADE THE QB POSITION. HE IS THE WEAKEST LINK!
Leeroy
January 11th, 2012
11:16 am
“Mularkey is attractive because of his background in coaching power football.”
Not sure if serious…
SirReal
January 11th, 2012
11:33 am
@Leeroy Yeah I thought they were pretty drunk to say that. Maybe before ATL but definitely not here. Our linemen are too small for TRUE power football and thats evident as the THREE cases we had against N.O. and N.Y. The team seems a bit delusional about their personnel.
If MM does a good job in JAX then we know for sure it was our weak-willed QB. I’m sorry but I just dont like the guy. He’s not mentally tough in the trenches, not a true leader, and refuses to put blame on himself in many situations where he was the ONLY one to blame. Regular season guy….cajones shrink the bigger the stage….
joebrave
January 11th, 2012
11:50 am
Fools
joebrave
January 11th, 2012
11:51 am
You idiots bashing Ryan have
NO Clue
meaningless news
January 11th, 2012
12:56 pm
Giants D-Line coach as possible candidate for DC.
N.O. O-Line coach as possible candidate for OC.
Let the interviews begin.
What Pass Defense?
January 11th, 2012
1:30 pm
If you go on-line, like I did, and make a chart of the passing attack of the Falcons and compare it to to the Packers, Saints, Lions, Giants and Patriots you will see significant differences. The chart will show the Falcons passing attack is essentially limited to Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez and Julio Jones. These three caught 23 of the 29 TD passes Matt Ryan threw. Five other players caught the other six, meaning no one else caught more than two.
The Packers top three TD catching receivers caught 32 of A. Rodgers TD passes. Two other receivers caught 13 TD passes from him.
The Saints top three TD catching receivers caught 27 of D. Brees TD passes. Two other receivers caught 13 TD passes from him.
The Lions top three TD catching receivers caught 28 of M. Staffords TD passes. Two other receivers caught 10 TD passes from him.
The Giants top three TD catching receivers caught 20 TD passes of E. Manning. Two other receivers caught 6 TD passes from him.
The Patriots top three TD catching receivers caught 33 TD passes from T. Brady. One other receiver caught 5 TD passes from him.
These other teams passing attack is much more diversified than ours. Each of these teams has receivers, like ours, with one or two TD catches I did not include in the TD reception totals.It is easier to defend only three receivers that everyone knows Matt Ryan is depending on than it is to defend 5 receivers, each of which is a TD threat.
Dan
January 11th, 2012
1:47 pm
Well, now you don’t have your OC and your DC, just like you all wanted. My advise is “be careful what you wish for”. I think you should go aggressively after Mike Martz. Michael Turner and Matt Ryan are going to make everyone forget about Marshall Faulk and Kurt Warner. He doesn’t use pass catching tight ends, so you just wasted 7 million on Gonzales.
ranjo
January 11th, 2012
2:57 pm
Looks like the Thursday night game with the Jags was theMM interview – that’s the only game the offense wasn’t offensive.
UGA89
January 11th, 2012
3:03 pm
Go Jags!!!!
Bring Cam Home
January 11th, 2012
5:17 pm
HELL NO TO MIKE MARTZ!!!
Samuel Lichak
January 11th, 2012
7:27 pm
I am just a Zumba beginner but I got some great videos for beginners and now I am having so much fun!
Audrey Tatem
January 11th, 2012
7:27 pm
I have so much fun doing Zumba for workouts.