New Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone cleared out most of the team’s defensive staff earlier this week, but he elected to retain coordinator Todd Wash. It was unclear, though, whether Wash would continue in the same role. It’s now official that he will once again serve as the Jaguars’ defensive coordinator in 2017, tweets Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union.
The 48-year-old Wash has been in Jacksonville since 2013, though this past season was his first as its coordinator. The unit was mostly impressive on his watch, finishing sixth in the NFL in yardage, 13th in DVOA and 25th in scoring. Those were across-the-board improvements for the Jags, who ranked 24th, 26th and 31st, respectively, in those categories under Wash’s predecessor, Bob Babich, in 2015.
Marrone’s decision to keep Wash in a prominent position comes on the heels of a continuity-geared move to retain offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. Now that he knows his status for next season, Wash will get to work on filling out his staff, including finding new defensive line, linebackers and defensive backs coaches, as O’Halloran notes (Twitter link).