The coaching industry is a brutal business, tough on good people, their families and players. And right now, things are tough for Doug Pederson and every assistant on his Jaguars staff.
Jacksonville (0-4) is suddenly the league’s only winless team as the club hosts Indianapolis (2-2) on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS).
“Obviously you’re going to go through some setbacks in this league and there’s going to be some times where you’re going to come on some hard times,” Pederson said Wednesday. “I mean, that’s just part of this game. I’ve been there before; I’ve done that before and we’ve always battled back.”
Pederson pointed to the 2022 season when Jacksonville overcame a 3-7 start, won its division and advanced to the AFC Divisional Playoffs. Pederson is approaching this week just as he did before overcoming that start in 2022.
“I think too, when you look at it and if you really look at these games, like with a calm eye, and study the tape and see, I mean, there’s mistakes, yeah, there’s mistakes. Are they critical at times? Yeah. I mean, they’re critical at times, but there’s a lot of good, as we talked about the other day. That’s what we have to lean on, and we’ve just got to continue to work.”
This week is different, though. The team is wearing throwback uniforms and inducting Tom Coughlin into its hall of fame, the Pride of the Jaguars. Jacksonville’s first head coach, Coughlin from 1995-2002 led the team to a 72-64 record, including four straight playoff berths and two AFC Championship Game appearances.
In each of Pederson’s first two years at the helm, the Jaguars have finished 9-8, their first consecutive winning seasons since 2004-05. And like Coughlin with the Giants, Pederson owns a Super Bowl ring as a head coach. But owner Shad Khan told his coaches and players, captured in a team-produced documentary during training camp, that winning now is the expectation. Jacksonville enters Sunday having lost nine of its last 10 games, its only win a victory over Carolina.
CBS insider Jonathan Jones reported last week that Pederson and offensive coordinator Press Taylor have a strong relationship but Pederson’s communication with general manager Trent Baalke is strained. Jones also said there’s misalignment from the ownership level with regard to Baalke and Pederson. Jones didn’t expect changes because without Pederson or Taylor, assembling offensive gameplans would be difficult.
But this is the NFL. One win can do wonders for Jacksonville. Pederson has stacked wins with the Eagles and can turn around the Jaguars as he did in 2022. And in a week filled with NFL revenge games, they can certainly get there this week against Pederson’s former Eagles assistant Shane Steichen and former Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley, now Steichen’s Colts offensive coordinator.
And give Pederson credit. Despite the difficult start, he still had the Jaguars within one score of the Texans in the fourth quarter last week before C.J. Stroud orchestrated a game-winning drive.
At the very least, the Jags will have great threads on Sunday.