Jags expect inexperienced staff, including 34-year-old GM James Gladstone, to ‘grow into it’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan has no concerns about the experience — or inexperience, really — of his leadership team.

Khan hired a first-time head coach (Liam Coen, age 39), a first-time general manager (James Gladstone, age 34) and a first-time executive vice president (Tony Boselli, age 52) in the past month. Adding to the team’s youth movement, Coen brought in two first-time coordinators, 29-year-old Grant Udinski on offense and 42-year-old Anthony Campanile on defense.

A gamble? Maybe. Khan is counting on it leading to a brighter future for a franchise that is coming off its 10th losing season in his 13 years as owner.

“Even though they might be in the position for the first time, I think collectively they’re going to have great success,” Khan said Monday while introducing Gladstone. “I think we’re all aware that they’re new, but a huge amount of the potential to really grow into it.”

Khan said he talked to his revamped staff about the “Peter Principle,” which is based on hierarchy research and states that people who are competent at their job will continue to earn promotions until they rise to a level of incompetence.

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“I asked everyone not only here but our coaching staff that are in that position for the first time, just to be aware of that concept,” Khan added.

But the owner insists the notion won’t become a reality.

“I think the brainpower, the bandwidth, the different experience are really complementary,” he said. “This is a team of football people, executives who are going to be successful. No one is a perfect human being. This isn’t about, ‘Hey, I’ve got X years of experience in something.’

“A lot of times it turns out to be one year of experience X times over. I just think the brain matter here is going to be great for the Jaguars.”

Gladstone is the second-youngest general manager in NFL history. He spent the past nine years working for the Rams under GM Les Snead. He took an unusual path to get there.

Gladstone was teaching at Clayton High School near St. Louis and serving as the team’s offensive coordinator under his father, Gene. James Gladstone was coaching Les Snead’s son Logan when his methods caught the Snead family’s attention.

Nearly a decade later, Gladstone has a job he never envisioned. He accepted the position Friday, was introduced Monday and then was scheduled to fly to Indianapolis for the NFL combine later in the day.

And he sounds different from traditional NFL executives.

“I have a fresh perspective, I’d say, a deep understanding of really the modern tools and mechanisms that are revolutionizing the sport,” Gladstone said. “The current mode of operation is in rhythm, the cadence is in place. My intent here through this initial spring is to really calibrate my own mode of operation to the current mode of operation, insert some specific efficiencies that will help me better understand our group’s insights and perspectives, and then assess at the end of this spring what types of things we can roll out into the future.

“But we’ll certainly put the pedal to the metal on a lot of advanced modes of operation.”

And he plans to “prioritize people and players that are intangibly rich.”

“They will elevate our ecosystem, our team, by being nothing more than themselves,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

No one can fault Khan for trying something different. He’s hired retreads (Mike Mularkey, Doug Marrone, Trent Baalke, Doug Pederson, Tom Coughlin) before and went young when he paired first-time GM Dave Caldwell with first-time head coach Gus Bradley in 2013. He even gave three-time college national championship-winning coach Urban Meyer a chance.

Now he’s taking a swing with Boselli, a Hall of Fame left tackle, and two guys under 40 (Coen and Gladstone) and hoping his latest rebuild will be more sustainable than the others.

“It’s not about any one individual,” Boselli said. “No egos, agendas. It’s about what happens on the grass. We’re going to keep the main thing the main thing, and that’s winning football games, and that’s what we’re going to do.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to be judged by wins and losses, and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”

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