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Much has been made about the reported decision of the Jaguars to give executive V.P. of football operations Tom Coughlin final say over the roster. Some league insiders have cautioned to not believe it until it’s clearly and unmistakably announced by the Jaguars during the press conference introducing Coughlin and head coach Doug Marrone.

If Coughlin has final say over the roster, something that previously belonged to G.M. Dave Caldwell, what does it really mean? For normally functioning organizations, final say doesn’t really matter. The various personalities involved in football operations work together, reaching a consensus on the right decisions to be made in the best interests of the team. When any team gets to the point where the person with “final say” is waving his contract around and declaring, “I have final say,” the battle already has been lost.

Ultimately, true final say remains with ownership, which can use its final say over who does and doesn’t have a job with the team to ensure that the franchise operates in the desired manner.

As to Coughlin, the fact that someone saw fit to leak the notion that he has final say is a bit troubling, unless the goal was to show that Coughlin’s role isn’t ceremonial or advisory. Even so, the situation in Jacksonville will work best only if it’s a true collaboration, with Coughlin, Caldwell, and Marrone working together in a way that gets the right players on the team, that puts them in the right position to succeed, and that makes the right decisions on game days.

And that’s where the Coughlin-Marrone dynamic will become far more important than the division of power between Coughlin and Caldwell. Coughlin will need to be able to let Marrone coach the team in the way Marrone sees fit, without micromanagement or second-guessing of game-planning or play-calling or decision-making. Just because Coughlin would do certain things differently than Marrone doesn’t make Coughlin’s ways right and Marrone’s wrong. Marrone is the coach and Coughlin is the executive V.P. of football operations, and Coughlin will need to remind himself of what his former boss Bill Parcells preached to everyone in the organization: Do your job.