Press Taylor appears ready for success as Jacksonville Jaguars' new offensive coordinator

When Doug Pederson spent last year away from NFL football, Press Taylor didn't let him escape totally from the game without having a few in-depth phone conversations on offensive terminology.

Taylor stayed in contact with Pederson to get any valuable advice he could use when he served as the Indianapolis Colts' senior offensive assistant last season and worked directly with quarterback Carson Wentz, whom he coached with the Philadelphia Eagles. .

Pederson sees Taylor as a rising star at 34 — detailed oriented, brilliant and organized. Taylor views Pederson as his mentor.

''He's a guy that I've been able to learn from a lot in terms of maybe it's his experience as a player or his experience as a coach,'' Taylor said. ''We kept in contact last year just throughout the season and all that just because I enjoy talking football with

Doug. I think it's important to learn from people that have gone before you and done these things.''

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Reunited with Pederson

Now, after spending five seasons together with the Philadelphia Eagles with Taylor serving on Pederson's staff in a variety of capacities that included assistant quarterbacks coach (2016-17), quarterbacks coach (2018-19), and passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach in 2020, they have reunited in Jacksonville.

Pederson hired Taylor to handle the most critical job on his offensive staff.

Taylor is the younger brother of Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, who led the franchise to a Super Bowl appearance earlier this month, losing to the Los Angeles Rams 23-20.

Taylor has been an NFL assistant since 2013 when former Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly hired him as his offensive quality control coach, but this will be his first job as offensive coordinator.

Though Pederson will call the plays, everything will run through Taylor.

''Between he and I, we'll make the final decisions on everything that we do offensively,'' Pederson said.

Together they will be tasked to help develop quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who had a 59 percent completion rate last season as a rookie with 17 interceptions and 12 touchdowns.

Wanting to put coaching experience around Lawrence, Pederson hired former Chargers head coach Mike McCoy as quarterbacks coach and Joe Bob Cooter as his passing game coordinator.

Experienced NFL coaches will help develop Lawrence

There is a combined 53 years of NFL coaching experience between the four coaches.

The plan is to collaborate with everyone having free reign to inject their ideas.

''Mike is going to coach the quarterbacks,'' Pederson said. "He'll also be involved with game planning. Jim Bob as a pass game coordinator, can assist the coordinator. He can assist — it's just another way of looking at it without coaching a position, right. It's another way of breaking down defenses, help Press wherever he needs help.''

But after Pederson was hired on Feb. 3, Taylor appeared to be a lock to become his offensive coordinator. Because of his work ethic and knack to learn quickly Pederson said Taylor was one of those guys that he kept his eye on.

''I knew that one day I think he was going to be an offensive coordinator,'' Pederson said. ''I felt that in my heart that he could be. I was going to eventually make him a coordinator possibly in Philadelphia, and things changed.

''Yeah, I'm so excited for him because of the working relationship we've had and how we think alike and bounce ideas off each other, and just looking forward to watching him flourish from here.''

Jaguars OC job has become a black hole

From his straight-to-the-point demeanor to having a sense of humor, Taylor carries himself like someone who won't have a long wait to become a head coach eventually.

But he's coming into a situation in Jacksonville where the last three offensive coordinators — Darrell Bevell, Jay Gruden and John DeFilippo — didn't last beyond a season. All three had problems turning the Jaguars into an effective scoring offense.

How is Taylor going to be different, and what is his plan?

''We're going to work with whatever we have, and we're going to identify the strengths and weaknesses of those players, put them in position to do what they do well within the scheme of what we'd like to do,'' Taylor said.

Taylor is also a realist like Pederson. With a 4-29 record combined during the past two seasons, they know it's not going to be an overnight fix. They are going have build from the draft and free agency and then be responsible for developing the talent.

''Obviously, we want everybody to be big, tall, strong, fast, can run by everybody, can catch everything,'' Taylor said. ''That's the ideal. But until you get everybody that looks like that or plays like that, if we could have five Calvin Johnsons out on the field, that would be great. We'll take that. But until then, it's about building, maximizing the strengths and weaknesses of the people we have. So we'll do our best to try to utilize that or build around that.''

Like his brother's situation in Cincinnati, the Jaguars already have the most significant piece in place to center their rebuild around, and that's Lawrence.

''I'm very excited about the opportunity to work with Trevor. All of us are,'' Taylor said. ''There's an opportunity here with the Jaguars; everybody talks about Trevor, the character he has. Really just watching him from afar and kind of gathering information from people, I think he is well ahead of what you would expect from a 22 year old.''

Who is Taylor?

Fourteen years ago, Taylor was a promising quarterback prospect. He led Butler (Kansas) Community College to two national championships in 2008 and 2009.

During his second season at Butler, Taylor emerged as a dual-threat quarterback, passing for more than 2,300 yards and rushing for more than 300.

A highly-rated junior college prospect, Taylor signed with Marshall. However, he never flourished into a star for the Thundering Herd, which led him to pursue coaching.

He got his first coaching job in 2011 with Tulsa as a graduate assistant. He spent two seasons at Tulsa before the Philadelphia Eagles hired him.

Taylor named after Pistol Pete Maravich's father

During the Pederson's coaching staff introductory news conference, Taylor recalled how the origin of his first name Press came about.

He acknowledged that his first name is Sherwood, but his father was a big fan of former NBA star Pete Maravich.

''My middle name is Press, and all it was my dad,'' Taylor said. ''So my mom is like a month from delivering me, they're at maybe the Big 8 basketball tournament, and for whatever reason Pete Maravich is there walking down the stands next to my dad and my mom. He's telling her the story of who he is, his dad Press coached him, so Pete Maravich's dad is named Press. My dad was just a big fan, liked the name. When he said it, my mom said, 'That's his name.'"

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Press Taylor to help develop Trevor Lawrence as Jacksonville Jaguars new OC