Doug Pederson embraces new lease on life in Jacksonville, draws on Super Bowl experience with

Publish date: 2024-06-07

INDIANAPOLIS — If only Doug Pederson brought his Super Bowl ring and a video of the Philly Special as props.

The new Jacksonville Jaguars head coach is not approaching his second act as an NFL head coach as a chance to change what sunk him in Philadelphia. Asked on Tuesday what he wants to do differently after five years with the Eagles, Pederson flexed.

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“Besides win another championship?” Pederson shot back.

The comment was part jest and part truth. Win a Super Bowl and you’re allowed to strut. Pederson couldn’t sustain what he said at the Eagles’ 2018 championship parade would be the “new normal,” which is why his new normal is in Jacksonville, but he’s different from most other new head coaches. He doesn’t need to sell a vision as much as a replay.

“Obviously, what we did there are things I can take into this new chapter, new job,” Pederson said. “I’m motivated, I’m excited. I’m looking forward to working with a new team and really having a new lease on life.”

It was striking to think that when the NFL last hosted the scouting combine, Pederson had just reached his third consecutive postseason in four years as the Eagles coach. Two turbulent years later, the combine is back in Indianapolis. So is Pederson. Except the logo on his chest now is a slightly different shade of green.

It’s been two long years for everyone. Pederson’s no different.

The Eagles collapsed to a four-win campaign in 2020 while Pederson benched then-franchise quarterback Carson Wentz, complicating a relationship he had previously compared to a marriage. Pederson lost his job after the season even though his boss, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, confessed Pederson didn’t deserve to be fired. They had a “difference in vision.” Lurie wanted to think long term and feared Pederson would focus on maximizing 2021.

Pederson took a year away from football. He became a grandfather. He watched his son get married. He also lost his brother to cancer. For a man in his mid-50s who didn’t have a job for the first time in his adult life, it proved to be an opportune time to bypass spending weeknights worrying about converting third-and-8.

“I think it happened for a reason,” Pederson said. “It was a great time to be away. A great time to recharge. I’m looking forward to this next chapter.”

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But he wanted back in. He said he was attracted to the Jaguars job from the beginning, noting the franchise’s young talent and his fondness for quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Yet 35 days passed between Pederson’s first and second interviews. If there was mutual admiration from the beginning, one would have thought it wouldn’t have taken a month to speak again. The hiring process is prologue once the contract is signed, and the honeymoon period is now in effect.

In fact, the Jaguars halted their search for an executive vice president of football operations this week and will rely on Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke as the principal members of their brain trust. The stated reason is because of what Pederson has brought to Jacksonville.

“In just over three weeks, Doug Pederson has instilled a structured and disciplined approach that is clearly making a difference in our culture and mindset,” Jaguars owner Shad Khan said in a statement. “I feel we’re best served at this time by allowing Doug, Trent and their assistants to take ownership of our path forward.”

When asked what he’s done behind the scenes to engender this type of confidence, Pederson said it’s from “coming in and being me.” There’s a gravitas to Pederson that he lacked when the Eagles hired him in 2016. At that point, he was a first-year head coach who had only been a coordinator for three seasons. Nobody else interviewed him for a head coaching job. His credibility came from more than a decade in the NFL as a player. He can now walk into the facility of a franchise with 10 losing seasons in 11 years with the authority of someone who has more postseason wins in five years than Jacksonville has had since 2000. Part of his task, he insisted, was turning around the negativity within the franchise.

“There’s a cloud, and you’ve got to lift that cloud,” Pederson said. “And Jacksonville right now, until we prove otherwise, that’s who we are.”

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For whatever shortcomings Pederson might possess, his likeability has often been a hallmark. He has taken pride in being a mood setter with the team, and Baalke has already found Pederson’s optimism to be infectious.

“Doug’s a natural leader. He comes into the building and is positive every day,” Baalke said. “I like to tell him, he’s the optimist and I’m the pessimist. And then I like to say I’m a realist. What’s a realist? It’s really a pessimist in hiding. It’s been a good mix. He’s got a great personality. You like being around it every day.”

Pederson emphasized collaboration with Baalke, which is easy to say one month into a job without any major roster decisions having been made. But he insisted there was no issue working with Baalke, who has not been a stranger to power struggles.

When Pederson was in Philadelphia, he insisted he did not want personnel control. He would voice his opinion when necessary, and the Eagles made personnel moves to accommodate Pederson and his coaching staff, but he didn’t use the team’s success as leverage to gain more power. He stopped short Tuesday of suggesting that he’s seeking roster control, although he wasn’t as quick to distance himself from roster decisions as he was in Philadelphia.

“I’m always gonna be a coach,” Pederson said. “And that’s the part I love about the game is being with the players and coaching the game. But you also know, too, that you want to coach the players that you can hopefully bring onto your football team. And so … I definitely want to have input and I really feel like what Trent and I have built so far in less than a month is something that we can continue through free agency, through the draft process.”

Knowing Pederson, his top priority will be developing and supporting Lawrence. As the Eagles coach, he was hands-on with the quarterback. He made comparisons to developing Lawrence the way the Eagles developed Wentz, noting the MVP leap Wentz made in Year 2 before injuries affected his career.

“Build Trevor from the ground up,” said Pederson, adding that “last year is last year,” Lawrence is “starting fresh” and the “sky’s the limit.”

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Pederson is relying on a coaching staff with ties to his time as an Eagles coach. The composition of his staff is proof Pederson isn’t set on rectifying perceived mistakes from his first tour. Part of his undoing in Philadelphia was a disagreement about the direction of the coaching staff, with Press Taylor’s role one of the questions.

Pederson remained loyal to Taylor, the brother of Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, who grew into a close confidant of Pederson’s in five years in Philadelphia. That’s why Pederson wanted Taylor as his offensive coordinator in Jacksonville.

“I know this: I’ve been around Press now for five years in Philly,” Pederson said. “I’ve seen and worked with him, his intelligence, his insight, he’s a hard worker. He studies the game. Really a guy I had my eye on for a long time to put in this role.”

His defensive coordinator, Mike Caldwell, is a former teammate in Philadelphia who was on Andy Reid’s staff when Reid was the quarterbacks coach. Pederson has four assistants who worked for him in Philadelphia and others with whom he worked as an assistant.

This, too, seems by design. When Pederson reflected on his time between the last combine and this one, he said he focuses on his strengths but realizes he has weaknesses. He wants coaches who can fill in the blanks. One can counter that he’s relying on coaches with whom he’s comfortable, but Pederson prefers strong relationships as a way to support him rather than unknowns.

“I know I’m not perfect and I made mistakes in my career,” Pederson said. “That’s why you hire a Press Taylor and Mike Caldwell and guys like that.”

Then again, Pederson isn’t coming to Jacksonville trying to reinvent himself. He knows what works. As he said, what does he need to do differently besides win another championship?

(Photo: Zach Bolinger / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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