CBS analyst Cody Benjamin views Jacksonville head coach Doug Pederson as something of an enigma.
Pederson stood in the middle of Benjamin’s ranking of the NFL’s head coaches, at No. 16.
While he is one of three “Class B” coaches — deemed “accomplished, with questions” — with a Super Bowl victory on his résumé, Benjamin pointed out Pederson’s firing by Philadelphia three years after that win and his up-and-down two seasons with Jacksonville thus far.
Nothing, it seems, is ever boring when it comes to Pederson’s teams: He experienced ultimate highs (a Super Bowl triumph) and lows (an early dismissal) in Philadelphia before rejuvenating Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville, only to then oversee a turnover-riddled step back in 2023. The player-friendly pizzazz remains, but he’s got to prove again he’s got an innovative handle on the offense.
Pederson is 60-53-1 in the regular season as an NFL head coach and has 18-16 in two seasons leading Jacksonville. He’s 5-3 postseason, including a 1-1 playoff record with the Jaguars from their trip to the 2022-23 AFC Divisional Round.
Pederson’s pairing with Lawrence in 2022 immediately lifted the Jaguars out of a five-year playoff drought, quickly washing away the stink of Jacksonville’s Urban Meyer experiment at head coach in 2021. Meyer went 2-11 and was fired before his first season in charge concluded, following allegations that he kicked a player and created a toxic work environment, amid other controversies.
Although the Jaguars collapsed last season, finishing 1-5 and missing the playoffs after opening 8-3, the club finished with a winning record (9-8) for a second-consecutive season, Jacksonville’s first such stretch since 2004-05.
The Jaguars would argue their slide was at least in part due to Lawrence suffering three separate injuries between Weeks 13-16. Lawrence’s top receiver, Christian Kirk, endured a season-ending injury the same week Lawrence first went down in that stretch.
Seven of the 13 coaches in Benjamin’s “Class A” have yet to appear in a Super Bowl. Only four have raised the Lombardi Trophy.