Tom Coughlin: “I offer no excuses” for our record

[Jaxson De Ville]

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Jaguars executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin made a rare appearance at the podium for a press conference on Wednesday to discuss the way the 2019 season has unfolded.

Coughlin opened the session by saying “I offer no excuses” for the team’s 4-7 record before moving on to a plea to have “everyone onboard pulling in the same direction” as the team tries to win their final five games of the year. That included a call for fans to give the team a strong advantage during their final three home games of the year.

Speaking to those fans, Coughlin said the team needs them “very badly” and spent a portion of his opening statement rattling off a variety of positives about the team. That included a mention of having multiple first-round picks in 2020 as a result of the Jalen Ramsey trade, but Coughlin declined to comment on what led to the Ramsey trade when asked about it later in the press conference.

Coughlin also fielded questions about his future, the future of head coach Doug Marrone, the future of quarterback Nick Foles and whether the team will try to re-sign defensive end Yannick Ngakoue. The exact wording varied, but his answer to the Ngakoue question — “We have five games to play and everyone has a lot to prove.” — was pretty much what he had to say about all of those topics.

Coughlin stressed that the team has a chance to have a winning record if they sweep their final five games. That’s true, but it is also unlikely and that likely leaves a lot of decisions for the Jaguars to make about what direction they want to take this offseason.