Doug Marrone

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone speaks during a press conference at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, Wednesday, March 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

(Michael Conroy)

Orchard Park, N.Y. -- Everything worked out just fine for Doug Marrone.

A little more than two years ago, Marrone decided to opt out of his contract as head coach of the Buffalo Bills. He took his guaranteed $4 million salary but didn't find another head-coaching gig right away. Instead, he became the offensive line coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Marrone's career to that point was more about the jobs he left (Syracuse, Buffalo) than what he actually did at those jobs.

But now Marrone is the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He held court with reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Wednesday morning and still faced questions about his past in Buffalo and what he learned.

"I think you take away a lot," Marrone said. "You take away, you know, everything's a learning experience. You look back, and obviously I made mistakes in Buffalo. You look back on them, just a couple things, and you just try to grow from it and do a better job. I always appreciated that experience. I thought Kim and Terry Pegula were great coming in, Mr. Wilson was awesome when he was alive while I was there, Mary Wilson. The people in the organization, there's a lot of great people there. I think when you go back and you look back, I'll be honest, there's some things that I should have done differently. I think I've learned from that and it's made me a better coach today."

Marrone was then asked if walking away from the job was one of those things he learned from.

"I'm not going to sit up here and say no it wasn't," Marrone said. "Yeah, I mean, that's definitely a big part of the learning process and wanting more time and things of that nature. Privately, I've talked to Terry about that. He knows how I feel about it. I'm going to obviously keep that conversation private. Yes, I would say absolutely, you learn from that. That's one of the mistakes you wish you could go back and do over and you just wish you had more time. I think when I look at it and I look at myself, I wish I could have communicated things better at that time."

It sounds as if Marrone more regrets how everything played out during the divorce rather than the divorce itself. After all, he's still standing as an NFL head coach, while Rex Ryan, the man who replaced him in Buffalo, is out of a job. Marrone also got $4 million from the Bills as part of the split.

Marrone had a tight window in which to opt out of his contract. That made it tough to communicate everything he needed to communicate to his players and his staff the exact way he would have wanted. He assessed the situation in Buffalo, decided it wasn't best for his long-term coaching future and moved on. Marrone wasn't exactly wrong, either. The in-fighting in Buffalo over the last two years would have been a tough environment for any coach.

Bills fans have every right to feel jilted by Marrone, but it's tough to criticize the end result in terms of how it worked out for Marrone. He's made his peace with Terry Pegula and even brought some his Buffalo and Syracuse assistants with him to Jacksonville. At this point, it's healthy for everyone to move on.