INDIANAPOLIS -- It's been two years since Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Marrone opted out of his contract with the Buffalo Bills, which started his wayward journey back into the driver's seat of an NFL franchise.
Now that he's had time to reflect, Marrone said he has his fair share of regrets.
"Yeah, I'm not going to sit up here and say, 'No it wasn't [a learning experience].' Yeah, that's definitely a big part of the learning process of wanting more time and things of that nature," he said Wednesday. "Privately, I've talked to [Bills owner] Terry [Pegula] about that and he knows how I feel about it. Obviously, I'll keep that conversation private, but yes, I would say 'absolutely' you learn from that and that's one of the mistakes you wish you can go back and do over and you just wish you had more time. I think when I look at it, I look at myself, is that I wish I could've communicated things better at that time."
He added: "I think you take away a lot. I think you take away (that) everything is a learning experience. You look back, and obviously, I made mistakes in Buffalo. You look back on them and just a couple things and you just try to grow from it and do a better job. I always appreciated that experience, I thought Kim and Terry Pegula were great coming in. Mr. (Ralph) Wilson was awesome while he was alive when I was there, Mary Wilson. The people in the organization; there's a lot of great people there and I think when you go back and when you look back, I'll be honest, there's some things that I should've done differently and I think I've learned from that and it's made me a better coach today."
Marrone turned up in a good place. The new Jaguars regime has been nothing but patient while trying to rebuild and Marrone should have a less turbulent atmosphere in which to work. Add in the architectural skills of new executive vice president Tom Coughlin and you get an enviable situation should the team be able to figure out its quarterback situation.
» Speaking of which, Marrone had no qualms about listing Blake Bortles as his starter for 2017.
"Well, I have already said this before, I see Blake as our quarterback and we're going to do everything we can to make him successful from a standpoint of schematics, putting in a different scheme, which puts us in a tough situation because when you're the interim head coach and you get hired as the head coach, you really don't have the extra time that other coaches get as head coaches, so we've got a lot of work ahead of us to get ourselves going."
Marrone believes he has a handle on Bortles' regression in 2016.
"When you talk to Blake individually, he will acknowledge that his mechanics had gotten loose during the year," he said. "We were able to pick up on that at the end of the year and improve on that through individual (drills) and things of that nature. Also, we have to get better around him, too. I think the success of the quarterback, obviously he controls a lot of it, we all know that, but I think that we can get better around him, better in the protection, better in the running game. I think all of those things are going to help him."
