3 things to know about new Jaguars coach Doug Pederson
Jacksonville’s roller coaster of a coaching search finally came to an end on Thursday night as owner Shad Khan announced the hiring of Doug Pederson to replace Urban Meyer. Pederson was previously the head coach in Philadelphia from 2016-20.
It’s hard to see past how disastrous this search truly was. Jacksonville fired Meyer 50 days ago, getting a head start on the coaching search in just Week 15. But that time was mostly wasted.
Pederson was the very first candidate to interview, but he was the last candidate to get a second interview. It was more than a month from the time he first met with the Jags to the time he was announced as the coach, and it’s also apparent that he wasn’t the first choice for the job. The team was reportedly deep in negotiations with Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich before an impasse over the retention of general manager Trent Baalke killed those conversations.
Still, despite the way the search played out, the Jags may have gotten a very good coach in Pederson. Here are a few things you need to know about Jacksonville’s new headman.
He's won a Super Bowl
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Pederson finished his five-year tenure as the Eagles coach with a winning record and three playoff appearances. But his time in Philadelphia is best remembered for the 2017 season when he won Super Bowl LII to bring the city its first football title.
That was an incredibly impressive season all around. It was just Pederson’s second with the team, and he had Carson Wentz playing at an MVP level in just his second season. But when Wentz went down toward the end of the regular season, hopes for the Eagles in the playoffs went out the window despite their 13-3 record.
Enter Nick Foles, a name Jaguars fans may have blocked out of their memory. Foles may not have worked out in Jacksonville, but he delivered excellent play in the postseason in Wentz’s stead, guiding the team to a championship win over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. That made Foles the second quarterback ever to beat Brady in a Super Bowl.
The Pederson era in Philly ended on a sour note with a 4-11-1 finish in 2020, but the Jaguars now have a head coach with a Super Bowl under his belt for the first time in franchise history, and that’s a fact that can’t be understated as the team looks to follow the Eagles’ lead and win its first title.
He knows the quarterback position
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The Jags’ top priority as a franchise is the development of second-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who showed some signs of promise as a rookie that were overshadowed by mistakes and poor play around him. In Pederson, the Jags get a coach that’s very familiar with coaching the position at a high level.
As the Eagles’ coach, Pederson oversaw a massive second-year jump for Wentz in which the passer finished as a Second-Team All-Pro after a rough first season. The Jags will hope for a similar leap from Lawrence, and the rest of Pederson’s history should give fans optimism.
He got the most out of Foles when the backup had to take over as the starter, and in his previous role as the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, he found a lot of success with an aging quarterback in Alex Smith, as well.
Perhaps even more important, though, is the fact that he played the position. Pederson went undrafted coming out of Louisiana-Monroe in 1991, and aside from two years spent playing for the World League of American Football (which later became NFL Europe), he was on an NFL roster until he retired in 2004. During that time, he spent two stints as a backup for Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.
He comes from the Andy Reid coaching tree
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Perhaps the best way to understand what a prospective NFL coach will bring to the table is to look at the coaching tree from which they hail. Pederson comes from the Andy Reid tree, which has a strong argument of being the strongest of any active coach, even more so than Bill Belichick’s.
After a four-year stint as a high school head coach, Pederson was brought in by Reid in Philadelphia to serve as an offensive quality control assistant in 2009. He was promoted to quarterback coach two years later and would follow Reid to Kansas City, where he became offensive coordinator.
Pederson will be one of four Reid acolytes to be a head coach of an NFL team in 2022, and the others on that list are among the best coaches in football: Baltimore’s John Harbaugh (who also has a Super Bowl win), Washington’s Ron Rivera and Buffalo’s Sean McDermott. Reid’s tree also includes a couple of successful active defensive coordinators in the Bills’ Leslie Frazier and Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles.
Coming from a successful coaching tree is not an indication of success, but Reid’s proteges have had a good track record in the league, including Pederson in his prior stint with the Eagles. The Jaguars will hope that the 54-year-old has learned from the mistakes that brought about his premature downfall in Philadelphia.
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