After 2 Years Spent Out of Coaching, Ben McAdoo is Embracing His Role With Jaguars

Jaguars QBs coach Ben McAdoo was a head coach not long ago. Now, he wants to be the kind of assistant he always wishes he had.

For two full seasons, Ben McAdoo wasn't doing what he had been doing every single year since 2003 -- coaching in the NFL.

Ever since McAdoo took his first NFL job as an offensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints in 2004, he had spent each fall roaming the NFL sidelines. His years were filled with stints an offensive line coach, tight ends coach, quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator and, of course, head coach.

But after stops in New Orleans, San Francisco, Green Bay and New York, McAdoo was fired as the Giants head coach after a 2-10 start in 2017. For two years, a 24-17 loss to the Oakland Raiders was the last game McAdoo had coached in.

But that'll change in three weeks, with McAdoo being tasked with developing the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback room before they are set to take on the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1 on Sept. 13.

McAdoo was hired as the team's quarterbacks coach in February after interviewing with the team for its vacant offensive coordinator spot in January. With the hiring, he returned to the NFL and joined the staff of one of his former NFC East foes in Jay Gruden.

"I knew Jay [Gruden]. I didn’t know him very well. We had our battles up there in the NFC East, but I’ve always admired his work from afar," McAdoo said during a video press conference on Friday. "The system’s good and just diving into it, it’s really good and I’m excited to be in it. I’m here. I’m grateful for the opportunity."

In what is McAdoo's first coaching job since his short and bumpy tenure with the Giants, he can now use the lessons he learned from his experience as a head coach and implement them now as an assistant.

McAdoo knows likely as well as anyone that surrounding a head coach with a strong staff not only makes the head coach's job easier, but makes the team better as a whole. Therefore, he is trying to be that part of the equation for Marrone.

"When you sit out a couple of years, you have a chance to sit back and reflect. I’m just trying to be the assistant I wanted my guys to be for me in New York," McAdoo said.

"I’m trying to do that for Coach Marrone and trying to make Jay’s vision come alive here. [I’m] helping Gardner [Minshew II] and Jay, kind of be the bridge there and help Jay’s vision come alive. So far it’s been outstanding.”

While McAdoo was out of coaching, he and his family moved to Florida. Little did he know that two years later he'd be donning Jaguars gear under the unforgiving Florida sun. But the ruthless August weather is likely a small sacrifice for McAdoo considering it meant a return to an NFL sideline, something which had evaded him for each of the last two seasons. 

There were certainly benefits to McAdoo finally not being on the sidelines. As he described, he got to learn about his kids more as people. He got to spend more time with his family and even try his hand at getting used to the Florida humidity. But McAdoo knew he still wanted to be coaching the game, one way or another.

"But I’m a coach and that was my first love. My wife kind of knows [that] she’s fighting an uphill battle right there, but it was great being home," McAdoo said on Aug. 21. 

"I was at the point where I just wanted to get back in, I wanted to coach. It didn’t matter what I was coaching, and I’m blessed to have the opportunity here. I told guys the other day I would’ve taken a job coaching a monkey how to do hopscotch if I had to; I just wanted to get back in. I love coaching and I just love seeing and being around players, helping them get better, doing everything I can to help those guys get better. I look forward to doing it.”

So far, McAdoo's mark in Jacksonville is being made on Minshew and the rest of the team's quarterback room, which consists of Josh Dobbs, Mike Glennon and Jake Luton. It won't be until further down the road that we see if McAdoo makes another ascension back up the coaching ladder, or even if he helps Minshew take the next step in his development as a quarterback. 

But for now, McAdoo can relish in the fact that after two years away from the game, he finally once again has the title he has cherished for decades — coach.