Gene Frenette: Jaguars' Doug Pederson in prime spot to attain exalted place in NFL history

Doug Pederson has a rich appreciation for NFL history, so he’s well aware he has a chance to achieve something nobody in his position has ever done before during his remaining time as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Pederson is one of three current NFL bosses — along with the Denver Broncos’ Sean Payton and the Dallas Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy — who has an opportunity to win a Super Bowl with his second team.

Seven coaches have taken two different teams to a Super Bowl, including the Kansas City Chiefs’ Andy Reid, but nobody has raised a Lombardi trophy with two franchises.

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The only coach to win both an NFL championship and a Super Bowl with different teams was Weeb Ewbank, capturing two titles with the Baltimore Colts in the 1950s before leading the New York Jets to a historic upset over his former employer in Super Bowl III.

But in 57 previous Super Bowls, only Bill Parcells (New England Patriots, 1996) and Mike Holmgren (Seattle Seahawks, 2005) went into the big game with a chance to win it all with their second team but came up short. Three others (Don Shula, Dick Vermeil, Reid) lost a Super Bowl with their first team, then prevailed roaming a different sideline.

It should be a fascinating race to see which of the three current eligible NFL coaches might win a Super Bowl with his second team, but the Jaguars’ Pederson looks to be in the best situation to pull it off.

“I don’t think there’s any question, it’s Doug [Pederson], because he has the best quarterback and probably the best overall roster and the other two are in tougher divisions,” said Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy, who won a Super Bowl with the Colts after taking the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to an NFC Championship game. “Put it all together and I’d want to be in Doug’s position.

“Payton will do good things [in Denver], but you’re in a [AFC West] division with [quarterbacks] Justin Herbert and Patrick Mahomes. That’s tough sledding.”

The biggest reason Pederson, who won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017, could make NFL history is he has one of the best quarterback situations in the league. He pursued the Jaguars’ job, in large part, because he felt promising No. 1 draft pick Trevor Lawrence would give his team chances to win more often.

In their first season together, Lawrence’s ascension was launched in the second half of 2022 when the Jaguars rallied from a four-game deficit to win the AFC South title, then dug out of a 27-point hole to beat the Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC wild-card round.

A 27-20 loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs the following week ended the Jaguars’ season, but it only reinforced Dungy’s point about why he likes Pederson to become the first coach to raise a Lombardi trophy with two different teams.

For whatever reason, it's a harder feat to pull off in the NFL. In the three other major pro sports (NBA, MLB and NHL), a total of eight coaches have won two championships with two different franchises, and the NHL's Scotty Bowman did it with three teams (Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings).

It’s a matter of trust

From the moment Pederson was hired in Feb. 2022, and started building relationships with the players, he had two things working heavily in his favor: leading a team to a Super Bowl crown and being an NFL backup quarterback with four different teams for parts of 13 seasons.

Players tend to develop better bonds with coaches who have lived through the highs and lows of an NFL life. With Pederson also taking the Eagles to their first championship since 1960, it added to his credibility.

“What Doug has done a phenomenal job of is he’s built a complete team in a sense,” said Jaguars receiver Zay Jones. “He has a system he’s put in place, his players are bought in. He sees the game well. He’s just a detailed man.

“The first thing I trust with Doug is his character. The second is that he knows what it means to play in this league, and the third is he’s coached at a high level. He never forgets what it means to be a player, but he still commands authority and respect because he’s a winner.”

Nobody in the NFL has spent more time working with Pederson than Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor, who begins his seventh season in eight years working in various roles under the 55-year-old boss.

Taylor was on the Indianapolis Colts’ staff in 2021 while Pederson took a year off after the Eagles fired him, then eagerly reunited with him because the opportunity to coach Lawrence was too good to pass up.

Taylor has earned three promotions from Pederson, and since both of their specialties are offense and working with quarterbacks, nobody has a better feel of why the former NFL QB is moving the Jaguars’ franchise along at warp speed.

“Doug treats people the same way, the same consistency every day,” said Taylor. “I have a pretty good feel for adjustments he wants to make. He’s pretty true to what he is as a head coach. He doesn’t change with circumstances. The biggest thing is you can trust what Doug tells you is what he’s going to do.

“He’s not going to overreact or underreact to anything. He’s going to present a message to the team to move forward. Everybody respects and appreciates that. He doesn’t sweat the small stuff, but he has a big-picture plan of what he wants to do. It’s easy to buy into.”

NFL pedigree is big for players

It cannot be overstated how much a factor Pederson’s background plays into his coaching success. He’s one of only eight current NFL head coaches to play in the NFL, and the only former quarterback besides Hall of Famer Tom Flores — 10 seasons playing for the Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills and Kansas City — to win a Super Bowl as a head coach.

Pederson acknowledges his playing experience as a backup to iconic QBs like Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins) and Brett Favre (Green Bay Packers) were instrumental in preparing him to lead an NFL team in a different capacity. The only current coaches who have played in more NFL games than Pederson’s 100 are Ron Rivera (Washington Commanders, 137 games), Frank Reich (Carolina Panthers, 118 games) and Dan Campbell (Detroit Lions, 114 games).

“I do believe that being a backup and being in the quarterback position, I feel like one of my strengths is the awareness, the surroundings of what’s around me, watching people and watching players,” said Pederson. “The interaction of things, I think, is part of what a head coach goes through.

“I think the preparation of being a backup quarterback, I think about those days in Green Bay and you’re assisting the starter, yet you’re preparing as a starter. You’re having to know everything. You’re just watching and observing. I think that has really prepared me and as the years go on, I get better at it.”

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Shortly after Payton got the Broncos’ job, he told the Denver media that winning his first Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints in 2009 only increases his appetite to win another with a new team.

Being in his first season, Payton isn’t as far along in rebuilding the Broncos — seven straight years without a playoff appearance — as Pederson is with the Jaguars.

While he has a Super Bowl-winning quarterback in 34-year-old Russell Wilson, the Broncos finished 5-12 last year after acquiring him in a trade from the Seattle Seahawks and scored fewer points (16.9 per game) than anybody in the league.

Undoubtedly, Denver should have a better offense under Payton, but will it be potent enough with an aging Wilson to be a legitimate playoff contender? That’s a big ask in a difficult AFC West.

McCarthy, starting his third season in Dallas, has won 12 games each of the last two years, but bowed out in the NFC playoffs both times to the San Francisco 49ers. While Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has a splendid 61-36 record as a starter over seven seasons, he’s 2-4 in the postseason and plays in the same division with the Eagles, the presumed NFC favorite.

Not that the Jaguars have an easy path in the quarterback-loaded AFC, but being in a weak division certainly gives Pederson an edge over Payton and McCarthy for playoff access and chasing another Super Bowl ring.

'A force to be reckoned with'

When NFL analyst Dungy was preparing to do the Jaguars-Chargers game for NBC, he says he “probably talked to 40 players and coaches” with the Jaguars over a two-day period to get a feel for the team.

He remembered pass-rusher Josh Allen telling him before the Hall of Fame game in August that Jacksonville would be good enough to warrant having NBC flex one of their Sunday Night Football telecasts to a Jaguars’ game.

It didn’t happen, but Dungy came away from the playoff win over the Chargers convinced that Pederson could be on another Super Bowl path in the future.

“When you’re calling a game, you get to talk to a ton of players in preparation,” said Dungy. “It was quite interesting to see the belief Doug brought, the culture was pretty impressive. It was ingrained so quickly. So many guys told me Doug was the right person for where they were.

“[Jaguars assistant offensive line coach] Todd Washington played for me in Tampa. He said that they needed honesty and day-to-day consistency, and Doug brings that. The Jaguars are going to be tough to deal with now because everybody comes in believing.

“Winning that game like they did against the Chargers, that will go a long way. You win games like that, then all of a sudden, you’re down a touchdown with eight minutes left in a playoff game, you believe you can win.”

That belief goes beyond having the right quarterback-coach combination. Taylor is quick to point out the Jaguars, who struggled on offense until the last two months of 2022, had only four skill players besides Lawrence — Travis Etienne, Jamal Agnew, Luke Farrell and Tim Jones — that were Jaguars holdovers from when Pederson took over.

Since then, the Jaguars’ offense has been bolstered by the shrewd acquisition of free agents (Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, Brandon Scherff), draft picks (Anton Harrison, Tank Bigsby, Brenton Strange) and trading for dynamic receiver Calvin Ridley.

“It’s a quarterback-driven league and we have one,” said Taylor. “But when you look at the pieces Doug and Trent [GM Baalke] have acquired since we’ve been here, it puts us in a good place. We have the right players with the right skill set and attitude.”

It’s not guaranteed Pederson will deliver a Super Bowl title to Jacksonville, but when Dungy looks at the Jaguars’ roster, he likes their chances better than in Denver or Dallas.

“They’ve got a lot of pieces to the puzzle in place for a good long while,” said Dungy. “You add more firepower with Ridley and the draft picks, there should be a lot of optimism. They’re going to score a lot of points. Jacksonville is going to be a force to be reckoned with.”

Quite possibly at some point, Doug Pederson will raise another Lombardi trophy. And earn an exalted place in NFL history.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540     

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Winning Super Bowl with Jaguars would put Doug Pederson among NFL giants