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Urban Meyer Botches Simple Question About Rookie Andre Cisco’s Playing Time

In Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: the Jaguars coach’s latest gaffe, some amazing ‘Monday Night Football’ quarterback play and more.

Dan Gartland

Urban Meyer Botches Simple Question About Rookie Andre Cisco’s Playing Time
Urban Meyer Botches Simple Question About Rookie Andre Cisco’s Playing Time /

How hard is it to keep track of which guys aren’t playing?

The explosive NFL.com report from over the weekend about the dysfunction within the Jaguars locker room and Urban Meyer’s role in fostering that toxic environment paints a picture of Meyer as a boss who is quick to make overly harsh criticisms of an employee’s performance. The report details incidents in which Meyer’s constant criticism of Marvin Jones led the receiver to leave practice after a “heated argument,” he benched running back James Robinson over a single fumble and once called his assistant coaches “losers.”

But not everyone is put under the microscope like that. There are some players, evidently, who Meyer hardly pays attention to at all.

In his Monday press conference following Jacksonville’s 20–0 loss to the Titans, Meyer was asked a routine question about rookie safety Andre Cisco’s playing time on defense.

“With four games still to go, obviously he’s performing great on special teams. … How do you fit [him], do you plan on—” a reporter asked before Meyer cut her off.

“Well, Cisco’s playing a little bit more, I believe,” Meyer said. “I don’t have his numbers in front of me. But yeah, that’s a conversation.”

If Meyer did have Cisco’s numbers in front of him, he’d see that he’s actually played less over the past few weeks. He did play 17 snaps on special teams in Sunday’s game (and forced a fumble on the opening kickoff), but he didn’t see the field at all on defense. That’s after playing eight defensive snaps in Week 13, two in Week 12 and 11 in Week 11. It was the sixth game Cisco has played this season in which he didn’t have his number called on defense.

How hard is it to keep track of which guys aren’t seeing any playing time at their usual positions? Only five defensive backs saw significant action on defense for the Jags on Sunday. Cisco and fellow safety Daniel Thomas (who also only played on special teams) were one injury away from being pressed into action. Shouldn’t the head coach be aware of whether either of those guys actually saw the field so he can decide which one gives him the best chance to win if someone else goes down?

The other thing that makes this strange is that Cisco was a reasonably high pick in Meyer’s first Jacksonville draft class. He was selected in the third round out of Syracuse with Jacksonville’s fifth pick of the 2021 draft. Any coach focused on building a winning team should be invested in his progress. Maybe Meyer doesn’t expect to be around to see whether Cisco develops into a contributor on defense. 

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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