(Image credit Jasen Vinlove/USA Today Sports)
Written by: Nicholas Mullick
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-mullick-354076184
Ever since last season occurred which was a disasterpiece from the tenure of Urban Meyer as the head coach many questioned who was going to be the head coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The NFL world and Jags fans got that answer as the Jaguars announced that they will be hiring Doug Pederson as the head coach for this team.
Before Doug Pederson became a coach in the league he actually was a decent player as a backup QB in the league. He spent time with the Miami Dolphins, New York/New Jersey Knights in the NFL Europe League, Carolina Panthers, Rhein Fire, Philadelphia Eagles, Cleveland Browns, and Green Bay Packers. The Peak of his playing career was as a backup to QB Brett Farve. In fact, Doug Pederson has already had a Super Bowl ring with the Green Bay Packers when they defeated the New England Patriots Super Bowl XXXI (31).
Once he ended his playing career in 2004 Doug Pederson would then transition into a coaching career. In 2005 he was the Head Coach of the Calvary Baptist Academy which is a private Christian high school located in Louisiana. He coached there until 2008 where he would join Andy Reid’s coaching staff in 2009 as an offensive quality control coach. Peterson would later get promoted as the Quarterbacks coach in 2011 for the Philadelphia Eagles. Then once Reid left with the Kansas City Chiefs Pederson joined as the Offensive Coordinator for the Chiefs in 2013-2015. Pederson would then join the Philadelphia Eagles in his most memorable role as the Head coach until he was let go in 2020. Now we get today as he is hired as the head coach for the Jaguars.
Now the Jacksonville Jaguars are my second favorite team and I will admit Pederson was not on the top of my list for coaches that I wanted the Jaguars to hire. In fact, I really wanted the Jaguars to hire Jim Caldwell as head coach as I feel he was fantastic when he coached the Lions and it still made no sense when the Lions fired him after a 9-7 season. But Pederson was a better candidate than Bill O’Brian was and even interviewed Josh McCowen at the Role (We will get to the whole Josh McCowen interviews whenever the Texans hire their head coach).
Now originally this was supposed to be Byron Leftwich that was getting the coaching role but there was a big disagreement with the GM. It is clear that Leftwich does not want to work with Trent Baalke at GM especially as Baalke was the same man that self-destructed the 49ers team years ago and made some awful moves during his tenure with the team. I am not shocked that the Jaguars did not want to move on from Trent Baalke. Especially as Shad Khan reportedly asked many coaching candidates if they would work with Baalke while he was in the room. When that came out I knew the Jaguars were not going to part ways with Baalke after one season. In fact, I don’t agree with any GM being fired after one season with the team unless the GM wants out with the organization. But it is clear that even coaching candidates have low confidence in Baalke getting the job done and making this team successful. Now I am not going to give up on Baalke yet because I believe that everyone deserves a second chance in the NFL including executives in the NFL and but he is going to need to have a strong offseason.
As for Doug Pederson, I am so-so with this hire. I want to get some of the positives out of the way with this hire. First, obviously, you can’t take that Superbowl ring away from him as he and the Eagles also defeated the Patriots in Super Bowl 52. Another positive is with the development of Carson Wentz (Before his regression) and I think Trevor Lawrence will be properly developed with Peterson as head coach.
However, you can’t ignore the negatives that come with Doug Pederson. Especially in Week 17 of the 2020 season where he tanked the season by benching Jalen Hurts for Nate Sudfeld. That basically blew up the locker room and there was no chance that the Eagles would bring him back for the next season unless the organization wanted a revolt of players requesting to be released or traded from the organization. Another problem was the abysmal play calling and lack of trusting others. The biggest problem and his latest years proved it was that his surrounding coach was more of a reason why the Eagles were successful in Superbowl 52 than Peterson was.
However, despite me not being a big fan of this move I want to say congratulations to Mr. Pederson for acquiring the position as the head coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Hopefully, he proves my concerns wrong and has success with the Jaguars organization.