SHACK OUT NEXT MONDAY?

We’re told that the Jacksonville Jaguars are expected to terminate V.P. of player personnel James “Shack” Harris next Monday, a day after the team’s season-ending game against the Ravens. Harris was hired in 2003, the same year that Jack Del Rio became the second head coach in franchise history. After several years of in-fighting and turf battles between the two men, at times over the status of quarterback Byron Leftwich, Del Rio secured the approval to dump Leftwich in late August 2007. An 11-5 season and a wild-card playoff win with David Garrard at the helm secured a five-year deal for Del Rio. A season later, the Jags have fallen apart, and now Harris apparently will be taking the fall. If Del Rio stays (and at this point it’s highly likely that he will, due in large part to a $20 million buyout), executive director of college and pro personnel Gene Smith is expected to be promoted into the position Harris held. Arguably, Smith acquired in January much of the authority Harris possessed for the first five years of his employment with the team, as part of the overall spoils of Del Rio’s all-in gamble regarding Leftwich. So, basically, the departure of Harris won’t really change anything. And that’s not necessarily bad news for Jags fans. Given the team’s good year/bad year cycle, they’re due to have a big season in 2009.