In the first season of their latest rebuild, the Jacksonville Jaguars are leaning on first-year head coach Doug Pederson to develop the talent on their roster enough to improve on their disgraceful 2021 campaign. He has led teams to success before, but the dire situation he came into in Duval County may make this the most harrowing situation he’s had to deal with in his decade of NFL coaching.
Since joining the Jaguars in the offseason, Pederson has been focused on building chemistry between himself and Jacksonville’s roster, with a special emphasis on building a rapport with his second-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence. The preseason wasn’t the best opportunity for the two to experiment with in-game situations given the limited time Lawrence played. Still, the time spent together in training camp seems to have left the signal-caller with confidence in the coach’s system that may translate to regular season wins.
When asked about the communication between himself and Pederson, Lawrence responded with a positivity that left no doubt about how prepared he feels before the season kicks off against the Washington Commanders.
“It’s been great,” He said of his budding relationship with Pederson. “We’ve had a couple weeks, all the meetings leading up to the games and discussing the call sheet, the plan, third down, red zone, and all that and us being able to communicate. I think he does a great job, then to hear him on game day, how he approaches things, and to have him calling the plays, it’s been good. It’s gone really well. Him and Press [OC Press Taylor] have done a good job at really putting their minds together for everything, and all the other coaches, too. We’ve got so much experience, so many smart coaches, it’s been cool to see it all come together.”
Jacksonville’s underdog offense will only stand to benefit from the clear lines of communication that have been built between their quarterback and head coach, and as the regular season draws nearer, their laborious training camp is finally starting to bear fruit.
Whether they’ll get off to a hot start in 2022 remains to be seen, but with so many improvements, even just in the way they stay on the same page, the Jaguars could sneak up on some opponents to steal some close games in 2022.