Urban Meyer is the worst NFL coach of all time; here's why

Urban Meyer completed the nearly impossible task of being a head coach fired during his first NFL season. It only took 13 games before the Jacksonville Jaguars had no other choice but to fire the college coaching legend.

It is common to see NFL head coaches fired during the season. We have also seen a handful of coaches fired after one terrible season on the job. But fired during the year in year one? That is new territory.

Meyer now stands alone as the worst NFL head coach in the history of the league, and it is not even close. Here is why.

No other NFL head coach was as bad as Urban Meyer

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Coaches have gone 0-16 and 1-15 in the past. So Meyer, at least, had two wins before being canned. However, all those other coaches were losing without a controversy popping up every single week.

Cam Cameron is a top example of a coach who had one awful season before being fired. He went 1-15 in 2007 with the Miami Dolphins in his only year as a NFL head coach. But it's not like Cameron was kicking his players or getting danced on at bars.

Hue Jackson is another recent example of a head coach with a brutal tenure. He went 3-36-1 with the Cleveland Browns from 2016-2018, and while he frustrated fans, his controversy had more to do with coaching blunders than anything else. Jackson also did good work in the community and seemed to be a genuine person.

Now let's get to Meyer's biggest competition in the crown for the worst of all time. That would be Bobby Petrino. While he did face controversy for an infamous motorcycle crash at Arkansas, that came after his sad stint in the NFL.

Petrino took the Atlanta Falcons job for the 2007 season. Of course, that was the year when Michael Vick was arrested on dogfighting charges. The entire franchise's trajectory changed, and Petrino resigned after a 3-10 start.

But he didn't resign in a noble manner. He opted to put notes in everyone's locker and bail without addressing the team. That action alone defined Petrino's NFL tenure and made it clear he would never be welcomed back in the NFL.

Yet does the note situation even compare to anything we've seen from Meyer? He set a whole new standard of drama that is hard to fathom. Meyer's actions kept getting worse and worse, thus making some seem not as bad as they actually were.

And at the same time, his team got off to a 2-11 start. That is the part that drives home the point of him being the worst NFL head coach of all time. Petrino lasted 13 games, but he resigned. Meyer had to be forced out and may have put the team in legal trouble for reportedly kicking former kicker Josh Lambo.

It is a terrible tenure of epic proportions that will forever be tough to top.