Tag: Doug Pederson

Everything you need to know about the Jaguars’ 2024 draft party

Everything you need to know about the Jaguars’ 2024 draft party

The Jaguars will host a squadron of fans Thursday night to watch the first round of the 2024 NFL draft at Jacksonville’s annual draft party.

The event will begin at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, one hour before the draft starts. Free tickets to the event are available to be reserved online. Fans interested in attending the event must obtain their tickets in advance or at the gate by registering through the 2024 DUUUVAL Draft Party webpage.

Parking, in lots E, J, P and S around the stadium, will open at 6 p.m.

Fans will be invited onto the field to watch the draft on the jumbotrons of EverBank Field and are accordingly encouraged to bring blankets and towels for sitting.

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Limited general and ADA seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis directly in front of the event stage. The Bud Zone and south end zone seating will also be open.

Between 7-8 p.m., Jaguars team reporter Kai Stevens, head coach Doug Pederson, a “legends panel” featuring Leon Searcy, Paul Posluszny and Josh Scobee, DJ Wizkidd, the Jags’ D-Line drum band and ROAR cheerleading team will make on-stage appearances before the draft commences.

At 7:58 p.m., Jacksonville will unveil its 30th anniversary logo, as voted on by fans. The draft will begin two minutes later. Active Jaguars players will be interviewed on stage throughout the first round.

So long as the Jaguars hold onto the No. 17 overall selection, their pick should be announced at approximately 9:50 p.m.

In addition to watching the draft, fans can participate in various activities, including locker room tours, mini golf, cornhole, combine drills, field goal kicks, quarterback toss, obstacle courses and photo opportunities. Vendors will be on-site.

Trevor Lawrence ‘expecting’ Press Taylor to call Jaguars plays in 2024

Trevor Lawrence “expecting” Press Taylor to call Jaguars’ offensive plays in 2024.

“It’s hard as a quarterback to change around and change systems, change play-callers all of the time. That can be difficult. So, I like where we’re at.”

Hours before their 2023 season began on Sept. 10, reports surfaced that Jacksonville head coach Doug Pederson had awarded the Jaguars’ offensive play-calling duties to coordinator Press Taylor, a surprise given Pederson’s success in charge of the unit during his first season with the team.

In an effort to not be caught off guard again, paired with Jacksonville’s step back offensively under Taylor’s tutelage, the question of whether or not Pederson would re-assume the task has persisted from fans and media alike throughout this offseason.

Pederson didn’t exactly shut such inquiries down when they were pitched by reporters at the NFL Combine, instead suggesting the need to review his and Taylor’s responsibilities in the offense moving forward.

“It’s something that’s part of the evaluation process,” Pederson said on Feb. 27. “I have to evaluate myself and Press as decision-makers and play-callers and see what’s best for our team.”

Adding that he had not yet decided who would occupy the role in 2024, Pederson said that further conversations would be had with Taylor to determine an ideal path forward for Jacksonville’s offense.

If quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s outlook offers any indication, it would appear no changes are imminent and that Pederson and Taylor’s discussions have occurred behind closed doors, if at all.

“I haven’t had any conversations about anything necessarily changing or staying the same,” Lawrence said on Tuesday, before noting that he anticipates Taylor holding onto the job.

“I’m excited and I’m expecting it to be Press at this point because that’s kind of the direction we’ve been heading and what I expect, I’m not hearing anything. That’s where we’re going and I’m excited for it.”

Should Lawrence’s read on the situation prove correct, Taylor will be tasked with getting the offense back to the form it showcased under Pederson, if not better. The Jaguars declined in nearly every major statistical category offensively in 2023 compared to 2022.

While the unit generally ranked around league average under Taylor, finishing No. 13 in the NFL in yards (339.5) and points (22.2) per game compared to No. 10 in those categories (357.4 and 23.8) under Pederson, its rushing game production dropped by 27.7 yards per game (falling to No. 24 from No. 14), its yards per play reduced by half a yard (down to No. 15 from No. 8), and its turnover count increased by eight (jumping to No. 5-most from No. 19).

Granted, its signal-caller, Lawrence, was hampered by multiple injuries (knee, ankle, concussion and shoulder) from Week 6 on, after the Jaguars began the campaign averaging 23.7 points per matchup over their first six.

Following his stated March return to full health, Lawrence suggested that the Jaguars’ offense would benefit from the continuity of the system and Taylor’s approach to play-calling as it aims to develop more consistency in 2024.

Should Taylor remain in the position, he would be the first play-calling offensive coordinator to oversee Lawrence in back-to-back years in the passer’s pro career, entering his fourth NFL season.

“I think we’ve had success with both guys calling plays in the past, even last year, we could’ve been better offensively, but we did have some success. I do like the continuity, the consistency that I have with Press, I know him really well. I think that’s a good thing, that we’re keeping that intact. It’s hard as a quarterback to change around and change systems, change play-callers all of the time. That can be difficult.

“So, I like where we’re at, I think that we’ve made some really necessary changes this offseason already, now we’ve just got to implement them and get great at it. I think it’s about creating an identity and being really good at what we do. I think we have a clear vision and picture of what that is.”

Carson Wentz: Experience with Doug Pederson will help transition to Chiefs offense

Kansas City #Chiefs QB Carson Wentz believes experience with Doug Pederson will help him transition seamlessly into Andy Reid’s offense.

The NFL circles regarding coach relationships and front-office personnel are small, leading to familiarity. The head coaching trees of many all-time great staffs have influenced generations while creating opportunities for new or former players to keep their careers alive.

The Kansas City Chiefs have experienced extreme success and consistency under head coach Andy Reid, who has influenced many future NFL coaches by working with his staff. One of his proteges is current Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson. He won a Super Bowl and had success with quarterback Carson Wentz during their five seasons together in Philadelphia.

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know the X’s and O’s yet,” Wentz told reporters on Thursday. “I see them from afar watching film or games, you know, whenever I’d see the Chiefs on, on film and those types of things.

“But I would imagine it’ll make sense to me pretty quick because of that, you know, being five years with Coach [Doug] Pederson. And that offense is, you know, there’s always little intricacies and differences.”

Wentz was a Pro Bowler under Pederson and was considered one of the best quarterbacks in the league before injury. Pederson has served under Reid for years as a coordinator and has played for him as a quarterback in Philadelphia.

“I think a lot of it will make sense to me and kind of resonate with me pretty quickly,” Wentz explained. “That part I’m looking forward to, you know, the last couple of years, offenses have been very different than I’ve been in. I’ve goten to see a lot, experience a lot. So I think this one will hit home and be the most familiar for me over the last couple of years.”

The similarity in styles could benefit the Chiefs in getting Wentz up to speed as Patrick Mahomes’ backup. This would be a solid situation for the veteran quarterback trying to get his career back on track.

Doug Pederson on Jags’ running game in 2024: ‘We have to get Tank going, bottom line’

Doug Pederson says Tank Bigsby is “too good” to not be on the field more for the Jaguars.

Earlier in the offseason, Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said he wants to “knock the reps down” for Travis Etienne Jr. after the running back finished third in the NFL in touches. The solution sounds like it’ll be a lot more opportunities for 2023 third-round pick Tank Bigsby.

“We have to get Tank going, bottom line,” Pederson said in March. “He is too good — that’s why we drafted him. I think early he had some ‘what is that?’-type plays for whatever reason, right or wrong. Again, in and out of the lineup. He is a young player that we’re excited about. Like we talked about last year, we take some burden off of Etienne a little bit, keep him healthy for the remainder of the season.”

Bigsby had seven carries and one passing target in the Jaguars’ Week 1 game against the Indianapolis Colts. But a mental error by the rookie in his debut resulted in a fumble that was returned for a go-ahead touchdown by the Colts, forcing the Jaguars to pull off a fourth-quarter comeback.

After that, Bigsby had no more than three rushing attempts in the Jaguars’ next eight games. That stretch included another fumble in Jacksonville’s October game against the Pittsburgh Steelers and an interception that bounced off Bigsby’s hands against the San Francisco 49ers.

By the end of the year, Bigsby had 132 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 50 attempts.

So far in the 2024 offseason, the Jaguars haven’t done anything to change up their running backs room. They brought back D’Ernest Johnson on another one-year deal and didn’t acquire any additional talent at the position. While there’s still a chance the Jaguars will add a back in the 2024 NFL draft, it sure looks like Jacksonville is planning big things for Bigsby.

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Doug Pederson: ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever get over’ 2023 collapse

The late-season collapse that cost the Jaguars a spot in the playoffs won’t be forgotten any time soon.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ 2023 season ended in Nashville in January when a 28-20 loss to the Tennessee Titans left the AFC South open for the Houston Texans to take the division.

With just over seven minutes left in that Week 18 loss, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence lunged for the goal line, but came up about a foot short. One last possession for Jacksonville ended with three straight incompletions. It was a frustrating end to a season that once looked promising for the Jaguars.

“Well for me, it’s not so much that loss as much as it is the last six games,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said Monday at the NFL’s annual meeting. “When we were sitting there at 8-3 and we had everything going for us and right in front of us. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over it. I think for me it’s going to be my motivation, my fuel, moving forward. I’m not going to let it cloud the vision but at the same time it’s going to be close in my mind as I move forward with the team this spring.”

Jacksonville lost five of its last six games, including the Week 18 defeat that proved to be a nail in the coffin.

“As a coach, you’re hopeful that’s the motivation,” Pederson said. “The way we finished the last month and a half is not our standard and it’s not what we talk about. It goes against everything we talk about, really. We still had opportunities all the way to the 18th week of the regular season. We’re there at the end, we just got to figure out a way to push through that.”

Injuries played a big factor in that slide with Lawrence struggling through knee, ankle, and shoulder issues as well as a concussion. The team also lost wide receiver Christian Kirk late in the year and was missing offensive lineman Cam Robinson for a stretch.

But the team’s inexperience proved costly too. In free agency, the Jaguars added veterans with leadership credentials and postseason experience to provide a boost.

“These guys have been captains on their teams and they’ve been to Super Bowls, they’ve been to AFC championship games,” Pederson said. “These guys know how to win and that’s the influx of talent that we want to bring onto our young roster. Guys that have been there, done that.”

Those players include former San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Arik Armstead, former Buffalo Bills center Mitch Morse, and former Baltimore Ravens cornerback Ronald Darby. The Jaguars hope that’ll be enough to avoid a similar fate in the future.

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Doug Pederson ‘really feels comfortable’ with current offensive linemen

Yes, it’s lying season, but it sure doesn’t sound like the Jaguars are planning to make big changes to their offensive line.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ offensive line was one of the worst in the NFL during the 2023 season. It struggled to protect Trevor Lawrence despite rarely facing blitzes and allowed Travis Etienne to be stuffed for no gain at a league-high rate.

But Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson doesn’t seem too concerned about finding replacements up front.

“Cam [Robinson] missed eight games last year, our left guard was a little bit of an injury revolving door type thing, Luke Fortner at center, Brandon Scherff, and then Anton [Harrison], the rookie, was learning every week and played every game for us,” Pederson said during an NFL Network appearance during the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine.

“We really feel comfortable with the guys we have there, we just have to get back to what they do best. To me, that’s kind of simplifying, put it on their shoulders, but at the same time, as coaches, putting them in position to just go out and execute.”

Earlier in the week, Pederson noted that continuity was a big issue for the line too.

“If you think about it, Cam, Ezra [Cleveland], Luke, Brandon and [Anton Harrison] played one game together,” Pederson said. “We didn’t have consistency; we didn’t have continuity. That affects five guys up front. That’s what we have to get back to, we have to get back to a little bit more consistency there.”

Should Pederson be taking at face value? Maybe not. There’s little incentive for the coach to throw his linemen under the bus in late February when there’s still plenty of offseason to sort out changes on the roster.

Yet, Jaguars brass has also had no issue with underlining cornerback as a spot on the roster that needs work.

Trent Baalke told reporters he expects Cam Robinson to stay on the roster, he’s in negotiations to bring Ezra Cleveland back, and the Jaguars appear to be in no rush to part with Scherff either.

It seems Fortner is the Jaguars offensive lineman most in danger of being replaced, but wholesale changes up and down the line are looking increasingly unlikely.

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Jaguars seemingly eliminate passing game coordinator position

At least for now, it seems there will be one less coach in Trevor Lawrence’s ear next season.

When the Jacksonville Jaguars rounded out their coaching staff with a flurry of additions Thursday, it was mostly defensive coaches hired.

Ryan Nielsen filled the void left by the firing of Mike Caldwell as defensive coordinator, and several assistants who were colleagues of Nielsen’s in Atlanta or New Orleans followed him on to the staff.

Interestingly, one position that wasn’t filled was a spot on the offensive staff. At least for now, the Jaguars’ passing game coordinator role sits vacant.

In 2022, it was Jim Bob Cooter who held the title until he left to become the offensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts. Nick Holz took over the position in 2023, but that only lasted one season before he became offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans.

It’s certainly possible that another hire will happen to round out the staff, but it seems more likely that the coaches will get to work without a replacement for Holz.

The Jaguars passing game wasn’t exactly a smooth operation during the 2023 season. Third-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw 14 interceptions — a jump from his eight picks in 2022 — and he was sacked a career-high 35 times. Still, the team finished ninth in passing yards.

Perhaps Doug Pederson feels there were simply too many cooks in the kitchen. Between Pederson, offensive coordinator Press Taylor, and quarterbacks coach Mike McCoy, and assistant quarterbacks coach Andrew Breiner, there are already a handful of coaches in Lawrence’s ear. While the head coach felt a pass game coordinator was necessary the last couple years, the team’s sloppy performance in 2023 may have changed his mind.

Jacksonville needs a much sharper fourth season out of Lawrence, and it looks like it’ll be a smaller coaching staff tasked with helping him accomplish that.

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The Chiefs keep winning Super Bowls with a play taken from the Jaguars

The Chiefs keep scoring Super Bowl touchdowns with “Corn Dog,” a play they took straight out of the Jaguars’ playbook.

For the second year in a row and the third time in five seasons, the Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champions. On Sunday, the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers by scoring a walk-off touchdown in overtime.

If the 3-yard pass to Mecole Hardman that ended the game looked a little familiar, it’s because it was essentially the same play-call that resulted in two Chiefs touchdowns against the Philadelphia Eagles last year in Super Bowl LVII.

“Believe it or not, we had ‘Corn Dog’ last year and that was ‘Corn Dog’ [this year],” Chiefs coach Andy Reid told ESPN’s Booger McFarland after the game. “This was ‘Corn Dog’ with a little mustard and ketchup.”

So what’s “Corn Dog”? Well, it’s a play the Chiefs snagged straight from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ playbook.

Shortly after Kansas City beat Philadelphia last year, The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd was told by then-Chiefs quarterback Chad Henne that offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy showed the team a play from the Jaguars’ October 2022 game against the Eagles.

On Saturday night, Bieniemy had put a play up on the screen for everyone on the Chiefs’ offense to see. It came from the Eagles’ game against the Jaguars earlier this season, and it featured Jacksonville receiver Jamal Agnew faking as if he were going in motion before stopping, reversing course and getting open for a touchdown.

“(Bieniemy) put it on tape and said: ‘Hey, like, if they do this, this guy is wide open. It’s man (coverage),'” Henne said. “They’re just trying to protect themselves from the jet sweep and trying to bubble over the top and get an extra player (on the other side of the field). But we faked the jet twice, and they didn’t figure it out.”

Here’s what that play looked like in action when the Jaguars used it:

And here it is all three times the Chiefs have used it for Super Bowl touchdowns:

Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson began his NFL coaching career as an assistant on Reid’s staff in Philadelphia and eventually worked his way up to quarterbacks coach. He then followed Reid to Kansas City and served as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator for three seasons.

While it’s now been eight years since they’ve been on the same staff, it seems Pederson’s offensive designs are still helping Reid find ways to get his team into the end zone.

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Doug Pederson on the ‘No. 1 thing’ Trevor Lawrence needs to improve on

Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson touched on what Trevor Lawrence needs to improve this offseason.

The Jacksonville Jaguars fell short of the playoffs in the 2023-24 season, with the team looking to bounce back next season and make a return to the playoffs.

To do so, the Jaguars will have to improve a ton this offseason and work to correct the things that caused their second-half-of-the-season collapse. Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson identified that Lawrence needs to improve on limiting turnovers.

“It’s the biggest thing that he has to focus on moving forward,” Pederson said. “We just can’t have this amount of turnovers. How we turn the ball over, where we turn the ball over, it doesn’t matter — we’ve got to protect the football. That’s the No. 1 thing.

For the quarterback, obviously, the person that touches the ball every snap, we got to make sure the emphasis is taking care of the ball,” Pederson said.

Lawrence is an excellent quarterback with a tremendous ceiling, but turnovers have been a big part of his story early in his NFL career. Since entering the NFL, Lawrence has thrown 39 interceptions and fumbled 33 times. If he can cut down the turnovers, he’ll contend for the top quarterback in the NFL.

Saints to interview a tenth OC candidate in Ravens WR coach Greg Lewis

The Saints will interview a tenth offensive coordinator candidate in Ravens wide receivers coach Greg Lewis, formerly of the Chiefs:

The New Orleans Saints are still combing through their list of offensive coordinator candidates before hiring a new play caller for the 2024 season, and they’re interviewing a tenth option for the job, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero: Baltimore Ravens wide receivers coach Greg Lewis.

Lewis, 43, started his NFL coaching career with the Saints as an offensive assistant in 2015, but he’s worked with some very successful coaches in the years since: he coached wide receivers on the Philadelphia Eagles in 2016 (under Doug Pederson) and the Kansas City Chiefs from 2017 to 2022 (under Andy Reid) before joining Todd Monken’s staff on the Ravens this season. Before that, he enjoyed an eight-year playing career with the Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, and New England Patriots.

So while he hasn’t called plays before, Lewis has been around the NFL a long time and he’s earned valuable experience in some successful systems. The Saints are considering all options before naming their new offensive coordinator to replace Pete Carmichael. We’ll just have to wait and see who emerges out in front.

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