Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson refuted a report that he has lost the respect of Jacksonville’s locker room, citing his daily communications with players and the response he has seen from his group to the club’s 0-4 start to the 2024 season.
NFL reporter Jordan Schultz shared Tuesday on the Sharp Football Show that, per conversations he has had with “a few guys in that locker room over the last two weeks,” the locker room is “gone in regards to the head coach.”
Schultz referenced Pederson’s statement following Jacksonville’s Sunday loss to Houston that “as coaches, we can’t go out there and make the plays,” suggesting Pederson had blamed Jaguars players for the result.
Asked by a reporter Wednesday if Schultz’s report was accurate and if he would be aware in the event it was, Pederson issued a clear denial.
“Yeah, I would know, I talk to these guys every day. I see them every day. And no, I have not lost the locker room,” Pederson said.
“I think these guys have done everything I’ve asked. They continue to play and practice hard and battle. It’s a good group, the right leaders [are] in there. They know, they know what we need to know. They’re not making excuses for it and I’m not going to make excuses. We’ve just got to go do it.”
Jacksonville blew a second-half comeback against Houston in Week 4, falling 24-20 after taking a 20-17 lead with 6:21 remaining in the third quarter.
It marked the latest disappointment for the Jaguars after similarly losing their grip on a Week 1 lead against Miami, being defeated in their Week 2 home opener versus the Browns and getting blown out of their Monday Night Football matchup with the Bills in Week 3.
The reporter later pressed Pederson on his response to a question post-game Sunday about his job security, which the head coach deemed “kind of a strange question” at the time.
The comment drew attention paired with the context of Pederson’s boss, Jaguars owner Shad Khan, saying roughly two months prior in a team-released documentary that “winning now is the expectation” for Jacksonville, stating his belief that the 2024 team is the best the franchise has ever fielded.
“I mean, that’s a good question. But I think, obviously you’re going to go through some setbacks in this league,” Pederson acknowledged. “There’s going to be some times where, you know, you’re going to come on some hard times. That’s just part of this game. I’ve been there before, I’ve done that before and we’ve always battled back.”
Pederson floated the beginning of his Jacksonville tenure for comparison.
The Jaguars opened the 2022 regular season 2-6 and entered Week 9 on a five-game losing streak, before going 2-2 over their next four games and undefeated in their final five, clinching an AFC Wild Card berth and a miraculous win over the Los Angeles Chargers in the first round of the playoffs.
“Even when we were 3-7 in ’22, we found a way to win a game and win multiple games. That’s all it takes,” Pederson said.
“I think too, when you look at it, and if you really look at these games 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, 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 just have to continue to work.”
The NFL’s lone winless team through Week 4, Jacksonville will have a chance to snap its losing skid Sunday, at home against Indianapolis.