The first of a whole lot of interviews with different options I hope and assume.
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Jaguars to interview Greg Roman, Kirby Wilson for offensive coordinator opening
Jaguars coach Gus Bradley’s search for an offensive coordinator will advance to the interview stage later this week.
A league source said the Jaguars have requested permission to meet with San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman. The source also confirmed an NFL Network report that the Jaguars also want to talk with Minnesota Vikings running backs coach Kirby Wilson.
Roman and Wilson are the first two names to surface since the Jaguars fired Jedd Fisch on Dec. 30.
The source told the Times-Union the Jaguars are “a way’s away,” from making a hire and the process could stretch into later this month when the team is coaching at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
Roman has served as the 49ers’ offensive coordinator the last four years under coach Jim Harbaugh. Wilson has no NFL coordinator experience.
Bradley has never been on the same staff with Roman and Wilson, but both have close connections.
Roman was a classmate/teammate of Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell at John Carroll College in the early 1990s and a colleague with the Carolina Panthers.
Wilson worked for current Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll – Bradley’s boss before coming to the Jaguars – with the New England Patriots from 1997-99. Current Jaguars defensive backs coach DeWayne Walker was on that Patriots’ staff.
The early candidates have strong run-game backgrounds and falls in line with Bradley’s anticipated preference to improving the Jaguars’ dismal run game.
Roman, 41, spent time with Carolina, Houston and Baltimore before joining Harbaugh at Stanford (two years) and then the 49ers.
San Francisco reached three NFC championship games (1-2 record) before dipping to 8-8 this year. Harbaugh left for the University of Michigan, but Roman remains under contract with the 49ers. He has also been connected with the coordinator opening in Tampa Bay and head-coaching opening in Buffalo.
In Roman’s four years, the 49ers’ run game was eighth, fourth, third and fourth in the NFL.
Two years ago, Roman was tabbed as the favorite to become the Jaguars’ coach, but Caldwell shifted toward Bradley when the 49ers reached the Super Bowl, which would have delayed a hiring by several weeks.
Wilson, 53, just completed his first season on the Vikings’ staff after a seven-year run with the Pittsburgh Steelers that included two Super Bowl appearances (one title).
Since entering the NFL in 1997, Wilson has coached for New England, Washington, Tampa Bay, Arizona, the Steelers and the Vikings.
In January 2012, when Pittsburgh’s front office declined to renew offensive coordinator Bruce Arians’ contract, Wilson was reportedly in line to replace him until a kitchen fire in home nearly killed him – he sustained lung damage and second- and third-degree burns over half his body. He was intensive care for 45 days.
The Steelers hired Todd Haley as offensive coordinator but Wilson was back to work in time for the 2013 season. During his NFL career, he has coached Curtis Martin, Emmitt Smith, Edgerrin James, Willie Parker and Rashard Mendenhall. Seven backs under Wilson’s watch have had 1,000-yard rushing years.
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/544821/ryan-ohalloran/2015-01-06/jaguars-express-interest-49ers-offensive-coordinator