USAT: Jaguars Wire audio clip

USAT: Jaguars Wire

Feb 7, 2022

The Jacksonville Jaguars now have a new coach in former Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson, marking a new era in team history. However, the process the team went through to get him left fans puzzled, but in the end, all that matters is that they didn’t come up with an underwhelming hire.  - Pederson, 54, is a coach who will come into Jacksonville with several accomplishments, including a Super Bowl LII victory. He also won two NFC East titles along the way and finished with a 46–39–1 (.541) record before the Eagles let him go. - Now, after taking the year off, Pederson found his way to Jacksonville and his addition will pair one of the NFL’s better offensive minds with a young quarterback who has a ton of potential in Trevor Lawrence. As a result, ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler gave the Jags high grades on the signing, with the latter assigning the Jags an “A-” and the former giving them an “A.” - Here is what both analysts had to specifically say: - Graziano: A. Pederson brings experience, which matters. He made the playoffs in three of his five years in Philadelphia and won the Super Bowl in the third — with a backup quarterback leading the way after his starter got injured in December. He should be staffed up and ready to go with assistants, since he has had a year out of the league to plan his return. Think about guys such as former Bears coach Matt Nagy and current Colts assistant Press Taylor. Pederson will hit the ground running with a plan for Lawrence’s development and should have some say in the construction of the roster around him. - Fowler: A-. As far as stability goes, Pederson is an easy call. I now expect a better Lawrence in Year 2, along with more offensive pieces around him. Leftwich would have been fun and he’s more than qualified, but he’s smart waiting on the right situation if this one didn’t feel right. Meanwhile, Pederson will have the backing of GM Trent Baalke and Spielman. - As fans witnessed with Pederson in Philly, he’s good with making quarterbacks comfortable, whether it was a young signal-caller like Carson Wentz (at least early in his career), or veterans like Nick Foles. That’s left many confident that he could especially get some quality play out of Lawrence, who was viewed as the NFL’s best prospect since Andrew Luck. - Of course, the big question will be staffing and whether or not general manager Trent Baalke is an issue. However, with the Jags working to add Rick Spielman over Baalke, the Jags could have a setup where Pederson doesn’t necessarily have to report to Baalke, though they said they will collaborate on roster construction Saturday. Spielman could also help the situation tremendously by taking over the draft selection process. - As for the staffing, Pederson said he was confident in his ability to get the right people in the building despite a late start. After all, that would make sense because he was probably working on that during the period when he was away from the league. And with notables who’ve worked with Pederson like Matt Nagy and David Culley available, fans should be optimistic about what Pederson could build. - - - - - - - - - - - - Email - - - - - Sign up - - - - - - - - Like this article? - Sign up for the Jaguars Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning - - - - An error has occured - - - Please re-enter your email address. - - - - - - Thanks for signing up! - - - You'll now receive the top Jaguars Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

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