New Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Pederson has already made quite a bit of progress in terms of building his new staff in Duval. He has hired all of his coordinators as well as most of his position coaches, with only one notable vacancy, which is at the receivers coach position.
His staff is close to complete, he said on a recent appearance on The Sirius XM Blitz with Brett Favre, but he may still have a few tricks left up his sleeve.
“It’s not 100%,” Pederson said. “I’ve got a couple of spots that I’m interviewing. Obviously, I have my coordinators in place and most of my position guys. It’s a process that I wanted to really take my time and make sure I have the right guys that I want to surround myself with and that we’re going to work closely with here, not just for this season but beyond. We’re getting close and I hope to announce everything here in a couple of days.”
Of former coach Urban Meyer’s many shortcomings in Jacksonville, one of the most noticeable in terms of the on-field product was a staff that felt largely out of its depth. Aside from running backs coach Bernie Parmalee, it hasn’t been reported that any other coaches will be retained, though time will tell.
Jacksonville is still yet to hire a wide receivers coach, which is the position group that arguably needs the most work. It struggled quite a bit in 2021, and Pederson needs to find the right guy to get this hire right as there could be drastic changes in the personnel.
Defensively, the Jaguars’ plans at the inside linebackers coach position aren’t clear and while they’ve hired a special teams coordinator in Heath Farwell, they are still looking for an assistant.
As Pederson said, fans can expect that the final pieces will be in place soon, potentially before the week is out.