Shortly before Doug Pederson was formally announced as the new head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars in a press conference on Saturday, he had the opportunity to meet with several key players. One of those players was Josh Allen, a former top-10 pick who just finished up his third season in the league.
Though the pair weren’t able to get into the nitty-gritty, Allen had positive things to say about his first interaction with the new head coach.
“It went good,” he said. “It sucks that we can’t really talk football because I’m still kind of in that mode, wanting to move on and keep going. But great introduction meeting. Can’t wait to be around him a little bit more, just get to know him. He already seems like a good person, seems like somebody that’s going to help a lot of people build up.”
“Now we can move forward.”@JoshAllen41_ reacts to Coach Pederson’s arrival. pic.twitter.com/97YgebUmOJ
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) February 7, 2022
Allen wasn’t the only hopeful franchise player to meet with Pederson on Saturday. Among the others was quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who said he also had a productive first meeting with the coach.
The one-time Pro Bowler said that the enthusiasm among the team about Pederson’s arrival is a sign that the team is ready to look to the future and put a disastrous 2021 season, which saw a 3-14 record and the early firing of Urban Meyer, behind it.
“We want to move forward, we want to put last year and the last couple years in the past,” Allen said. “We want to move forward, we want to win now. We want to get this ball going… I’m excited about this.”
“Now we can move forward, now we can just stay focused on what we need to do.”
Pederson is the seventh full-time head coach in Jaguars history, and he doesn’t exactly have big shoes to fill. Of those seven, only inaugural coach Tom Coughlin has a winning record in Jacksonville, and Pederson is already just three wins away from passing Meyer and Mike Mularkey as the fifth-winningest coach in franchise history.
It’s been a rough decade for the Jags, but the players seem to think they’ve finally gotten it right with Pederson.