With the regular season kickoff just six days away, the Jacksonville Jaguars are heading into this week with an extra pep in their step as they seek to get the first win of their 2022 campaign. The team’s theme for the season will be improvement. They’ll seek to prove they aren’t the league’s worst team after consecutive years with the first-overall draft pick and to hear their head coach Doug Pederson tell it, preparations are being made to surprise opponents this season.
After two years of nothing but losing and more losing, Pederson told reporters last week that he plans on winning games by emphasizing discipline and fundamentals, especially against the Jaguars’ divisional opponents in the AFC South.
“I think there’s familiarity in your division,” Pederson explained. “Obviously you play these guys twice a year, all the time, so you understand them, they understand you a little bit, and listen, sometimes it does come down to players. They’re the ones out there playing. There’s no magical formula to winning, it’s just putting your pieces against their pieces and out-executing people.
“Familiarity is one thing, I think it’s good, but again, you’re at the beginning of the season where they don’t know much about you, and you don’t know a whole lot about them, and everybody’s roster is different, different personnel, and that’s the exciting part of the game planning aspect for us as coaches and trying to put our players in those positions.”
It’ll take a team effort to make sure the Jaguars are set up for success every week, but with an excellent coaching staff in place and a roster that has veteran leadership in every position group, Jacksonville seems poised to put together a special season. When the first whistle blows against the Washington Commanders in Week 1, the test will officially begin for Pederson and his crew of underdogs as they seek to prove their doubters wrong in 2022.