It’s rare in sports to have one moment so perfectly sum up a team’s entire season. That’s especially true in the NFL, where parity reigns supreme and every team ends up experiencing more twists and turns over a four-month period than an episode of “Lost.”

On Sunday afternoon, we all got to witness the rare “perfect snapshot” during the course of Jacksonville’s dispiriting 20-3 loss to Houston in the regular season finale. It came during the second quarter, with the Jaguars down 10-3, when the CBS cameras captured running back Leonard Fournette and T.J. Yeldon sitting on the bench, arms crossed, blankly staring up at the video scoreboard while the Jaguars’ offense was on the field.

The moment, which encapsulated the way the two sat on the bench the entire game, summed up the Jaguars’ 2018 season — one filled with dysfunction, disappointment, apathy and frustration.

View photos Leonard Fournette was informed that the Jaguars voided the remaining guarantees on his four-year contract as a result of a one-game suspension for fighting, the Associated Press reported Sunday night. (Getty Images) More

It also led Jaguars executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin to issue an angry statement.

“I am disappointed in the behavior today from T.J. Yeldon and Leonard Fournette,” Coughlin’s statement read. “They were disrespectful, selfish and their behavior was unbecoming of a professional football player.”

Statement from: Tom Coughlin: “I am disappointed in the behavior today from T.J. Yeldon and Leonard Fournette. They were disrespectful, selfish and their behavior was unbecoming that of a professional football player.” #Jaguars pic.twitter.com/WmcwQKt2Ek — Phillip Heilman (@phillip_heilman) December 30, 2018





Yeldon was active, so he should have been standing near his offensive coaches whenever the offense was on the field, ready to go in.

The Fournette criticism is mysterious since he was inactive due to a foot/ankle injury. He had a tumultuous season, one marred by a nagging hamstring injury, a stupid fan altercation, got ejected in a loss to Buffalo which also resulted in a one-game suspension against the division rival Indianapolis Colts. Fournette, the fourth overall pick in 2017 who rushed for 439 yards and five touchdowns this year, had a disappointing sophomore campaign, and it’s clear the 23-year-old must mature. The team also took the action in voiding the remaining guarantees in Fournette’s rookie contract, according to an Associated Press report.

But while we’re holding people accountable in Jacksonville … Coughlin needs to take a look at himself, in addition to general manager Dave Caldwell and coach Doug Marrone. They are, after all, part of the three-headed braintrust that stewarded this embarrassing 5-11 campaign. The 2018 Jaguars will go down in history as one of the most disappointing preseason Super Bowl contenders ever, and most of the blame for that lies with them, despite the fact team owner Shad Khan announced Sunday all three will return in 2019.





The roots for this disaster were planted in February, when the Jaguars re-signed Blake Bortles to a three-year extension worth $54 million. On its own, the decision to bring him back was defensible. Bortles, the former No. 3 overall pick, was coming off a 2017 campaign in which he set a career high in completion percentage (60.2) and quarterback rating (59.2). He also took a career low in sacks (24) while throwing for 3,687 yards, 21 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Those numbers aren’t eye-popping, but Bortles — who turned 26 in April — showed an improved ability to make big throws when necessary while leading the Jags to a 10-6 regular-season record, the AFC South crown, a surprising divisional-round upset of Pittsburgh and an appearance in the AFC championship game last season.

So again, the fact they brought him back was OK. But you know what wasn’t? The deal itself, which will make his dead-cap contract an albatross if he’s cut before 2020 … especially when they already had him under contract in 2018 via the fifth-year option they exercised the previous May. Bortles’ lack of accuracy, pocket poise and iffy mechanics have been issues since he entered the league, yet the Jaguars decided against investing a high draft pick in a talented young quarterback/replacement and letting Bortles play out his fifth year.