Former Green Bay Packers defensive backs coach Dick Jauron passed away on Saturday morning, per reports. He was 74 years old.
Per Joey Barrett of Item Live, Jauron passed away shortly after learning that he had cancer. “He checked off just about every box the sport of football had to offer,” Barrett wrote. “More importantly, perhaps, he did it with class and character.”
An Ivy League graduate of Yale University, Jauron’s 2,947 rushing yards (in three seasons, as freshman could not play varsity back in the 1970’s) stood as the prestigious school’s record until 2000. When he graduated in 1973, he was drafted into the NFL by the Detroit Lions. At the same time, Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals drafted him as a shortstop in the 25th round.
Jauron chose football, a life journey that took him, for a while, to Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Former Green Bay Packers Coach Dick Jauron Had a Long NFL Career
As a rookie for the Lions in 1973, Jauron played free safety, appearing 14 games, 12 of which were starts. He had four interceptions and led the NFL in reception return yards with 208, which included a 95-yard pick six. Jauron also recovered five fumbles on his way to finishing second in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting.
In 1974, he made his first and only Pro Bowl, starting all 14 games and finishing with a single interception that season.
After three more years in Detroit, Jauron played three seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals, with whom he notched a career-high six interceptions in 1979, his second-to-last year in the NFL as a player.
In 1985, Jauron was hired as the defensive backs coach of the Buffalo Bills, a team he would later serve as head coach from 2006-2009. However, he was only there a year before being hired to the same position by Packers head coach Forrest Gregg in 1986.
Jauron served as Green Bay’s defensive backs coach from 1986-1994, a tenure that saw three different head coaches lead the Packers: Gregg, Lindy Infante, and Mike Holmgren.
In 1995, another former Packers coach Tom Coughlin (who was the team’s wide receivers coach from 1986-1987) was named as the head coach of the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars. He chose Jauron to be the franchise’s first ever defensive coordinator.
The Jaguars defense was incredibly solid under Jauron, and the team made the playoffs in three of his four seasons. In 1999, though, he departed Jacksonville to become the head coach of the Chicago Bears.
Jauron led the Bears from 1999-2003, winning NFL Coach of the Year in 2001 when his team finished 13-3. However, he was only 35-45 in five seasons and had just one season with a winning record.
Following his tenure in Chicago, Jauron was hired by his former team, the Lions, to serve as their defensive coordinator. He held that position from 2004-2005, also serving as interim head coach in the final five games of the 2005 season.
In 2006, Jauron was hired as the head coach of the Bills. However, he had a record of just 24-33 and was fired before the end of the 2009 season.
He spent 2010 as a senior assistant and defensive backs coach of the Philadelphia Eagles before ending his coaching career with two seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns.
After retiring from coaching, Jauron and his wife moved back to his hometown of Swampscott, Massachusetts.
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