Jaguars fire coach Gus Bradley, then have him fly with the team back to Jacksonville

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ flight back from Houston on Sunday could have been a bit awkward.

That’s because the team fired coach Gus Bradley as the players were leaving the locker room following the team’s 21-20 loss to the Texans — but still had him fly home on the team’s charter flight.

“That sucked,” defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks said. “I don’t think that was the right way to do it, that he had to ride the plane back home that way. That isn’t my call. They made the move.”

And that was after not making any kind of announcement to the players about the firing.

“We’re sitting on the bus waiting to go to the airport and then things start popping up on social media,” linebacker Paul Posluszny said. “That’s how we found out. So, it was very surprising.”

Defensive tackle Malik Jackson said: “It sucked when we found out on the buses on social media. We had a lot of questions too. ‘Who’s up next? What’s going to happen?’”

But Bradley tried to make the most of his final couple of hours with the players, walking up and down the plane’s aisle to say goodbye, according to the Florida Times-Union.

“Gus was very cordial about it,” Marks said. “He spoke with everybody and came through the plane shaking hands. Gus has always been a great person in that aspect.”

Posluszny said: “It’s a tough situation. You love the guy and you know this is it. We’re going home for the last time with him and we’re not going to have him in the building again. So, it’s tough. I’ll have to find a way to talk with him more. It was brief.”

Jaguars receiver Allen Hurns said he didn’t get a chance to talk to Bradley on the flight, but he intends to at some point.

“I was asleep and I haven’t talked with him yet,” Hurns said. “I’m sure I’ll talk to him. We had a great relationship off the field.”

charles.schilken@latimes.com

Twitter: @chewkiii