Jacksonville continues to put together a strong staff under new head coach Doug Pederson, and now it has added perhaps the best name in coaching to its staff.
According to a report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Jaguars plan to hire Jim Bob Cooter as their next passing game coordinator. Cooter is perhaps best known for his stint as the offensive coordinator in Detroit from 2016-18, where he worked with star quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Cooter is a Tennessee graduate, where he was a backup quarterback in college before beginning his career as a graduate assistant for the Volunteers. He worked with fellow UT alum Peyton Manning in Indianapolis from 2009-11 when he was an offensive assistant for the Colts under coach Jim Caldwell.
He would rejoin Caldwell with the Lions as a quarterbacks coach in 2014 after stints as an assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos. Cooter was elevated to the offensive coordinator role midway through the 2015 season, and he held on to that role through the coaching change in 2018. However, Matt Patricia wouldn’t renew his contract in 2019.
He spent the next two seasons with Adam Gase and the New York Jets as the running backs coach, and he was most recently a consultant for Philadelphia in 2021. Some linked Cooter to an offensive coordinator position when Caldwell was a candidate for the head coaching job, and it seems that the 37-year-old will end up in Jacksonville after all.
Pederson said during his introductory press conference that he intends to call plays this season, meaning that Cooter’s role would be more with developing game plans for Trevor Lawrence and the passing game.
The support structure around Lawrence is now in place, as Pederson — a quarterback specialist in his own right — has added a pair of former NFL offensive coordinators to work with the second-year passer in Cooter and Mike McCoy, who will serve as quarterbacks coach.