Tag: Press Taylor

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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Jaguars front office reportedly ‘looking hard’ at Press Taylor’s offense

Is a power struggle brewing for the Jaguars?

Shortly after the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 2023 disappointing season ended with a skid that cost them a spot in the postseason, head coach Doug Pederson decided to fire defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell.

It seemed that offensive coordinator Press Taylor survived the chopping block and would return in 2024. Pederson even went so far as to say that Taylor “did a nice job” in his first season as the team’s full-time play-caller.

According to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, it appears not everyone in the Jaguars’ organization agrees that Taylor did well.

“There was at least some buzz the past few weeks of the season that the Jacksonville Jaguars’ front office, led by [Trent] Baalke, was looking hard at where the offense is under Taylor,” Breer wrote. “And if you remember, Pederson’s loyalty to his coaches is what, in the end, wound up leading to his firing with the Philadelphia Eagles.”

Pederson has been steadfast in his support of Taylor dating back, as Breer wrote, to their time together coaching the Eagles. It would be a surprise if he reversed course and parted with Taylor now because of pressure from Baalke and/or other Jaguars executives.

If the situation devolved into a power struggle between Baalke and Pederson, it’s hard to imagine the general manager would be safe. While the franchise thrived in 2022 off the back of a free agency spending spree, not enough of the team’s draft picks in three years under Baalke have become impact players.

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Doug Pederson: OC Press Taylor ‘did a nice job’ as play-caller

Don’t expect Press Taylor to follow Mike Caldwell out the door.

The Jacksonville Jaguars made a major coaching change Monday night when Mike Caldwell was fired as defensive coordinator along with several other defensive coaches. Don’t expect offensive coordinator Press Taylor to follow him out the door.

During a press conference Monday, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson was complimentary of the job Taylor did in his first season as the full-time play-caller for the team.

“I thought it went good,” Pederson said. “Can it be better? Yeah, it can be better. I think at times, when you struggle offensively like we did at times, I don’t care who is calling plays, you might as well look at that thing with your eyes closed and just pick a play. Because it’s hard, it’s difficult; I’ve been there.”

Taylor, 35, has been Pederson’s protégé for nearly a decade now. After joining the Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff in 2013 as a quality control coach, he was elevated to assistant quarterbacks coach in Pederson’s first season at the helm of the franchise. Taylor eventually became the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator in Philadelphia before joining Pederson’s staff in Jacksonville as offensive coordinator in 2022.

Last season, Pederson and Taylor split play-calling duties, but those were handed off to the latter on a full-time basis in 2023. But the Jaguars offense didn’t live up to its lofty expectations and instead finished 13th in yards and points.

So what was the issue? According to Pederson, turnovers and a lack of continuity along the offensive line made things challenging for Taylor.

“You go up and down the field, you turn the ball over in the red zone,” Pederson said. “You just can’t do this, it’s not play calling, it’s not the scheme or the design of plays, it’s just having the urgency of ‘we have to protect the football better,’ things of that nature.

“I thought overall, Press did a nice job of organizing the offense, the game planning that we did, and even calling. I would have to go back and look at all the numbers, but I think points and different things like that, we were better (than last year). We can still get better on third down and in the red zone, all of that. He did a nice job.”

The Jaguars will likely spend the offseason trying to upgrade the interior of their offensive line after struggling to get any push at all in the run game. Wholesale changes to the offensive scheme and coaching staff don’t appear to be coming any time soon, though.

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Doug Pederson: Jaguars ‘still locked in and focused,’ not tuned out

Despite four straight losses, Jaguars coach Doug Pederson feels his team hasn’t lost vision of its goals.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are teetering on the edge of, as quarterback Trevor Lawrence aptly put it Sunday, “pissing away” the 2023 season.

After finishing November with an 8-3 record, the Jaguars have lost four straight and are now in jeopardy of losing the AFC South crown to the Indianapolis Colts or Houston Texans. Each of the team’s four December losses have been more painful than the last.

A tight overtime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals was followed by a turnover-filled performance against the Cleveland Browns that still came down to the wire. The Jaguars’ loss to the Baltimore Ravens was close in the second half before turning into a 16-point win for the visitors. But the worst was Jacksonville’s last performance, a blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that was even worse than the 30-12 final score shows.

At this point, it’s fair to ask if the Jaguars have checked out mentally with two weeks left in the regular season. Head coach Doug Pederson doesn’t think that’s the case, though.

“I’ve had conversations with players the last couple of days and guys are still locked in and focused,” Pederson said Tuesday. “They know, I might’ve said this after the game, it’s not like they’re going out there and trying to make these mistakes.

“We just have to be more aware of what’s happening. As coaches, we’ve got to continue to coach them up and put our players in positions to be successful on game day. I don’t feel like they’re tuning out at all.”

Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor believes the same.

“I don’t think anybody in our group has lost confidence,” Taylor said. “I think there’s frustration because we’re not performing to the level we expect of ourselves and the standard that we hold ourselves at as a unit. I think it’s all that, I don’t think there’s a loss of confidence, a lack of trust, anything like that.”

The Jaguars’ tailspin can’t continue any further if the team still has postseason aspirations. According to NFL.com, a win Sunday against the Carolina Panthers would give Jacksonville an 81 percent chance at making the playoffs. A loss would drop that number all the way to 39 percent.

If the Jaguars are still locked in, focused, and tuned in on their goals, Week 17 is time to show it.

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Doug Pederson not taking play-calling duties: ‘It’s not about the plays’

Doug Pederson says the Jaguars have other things to fix rather than making play-caller changes.

Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Pederson isn’t thinking about taking play-calling duties from offensive coordinator Press Taylor. As far as he’s concerned, the team has other things to worry about.

“I know, being around this league, everybody wants to point the finger somewhere,” Pederson said Tuesday. “We’ve got to do a better job taking care of the football. It’s not about the plays. We’ve got to tackle better and we’ve got to take care of the football. Bottom line. If we do those things, those give us a chance to win football games.”

In the last three weeks, the Jaguars have turned the ball over 10 times. During the team’s four-game losing streak, Pro Football Focus has credited the defense with missing at least a dozen tackles per game. Jacksonville missed 12 or more tackles in just two of the 11 games prior to the recent skid.

Early in the season, Pederson pointed to execution as a more significant issue than play-calling when asked about Taylor. While his answer Tuesday echoed that sentiment, Pederson doesn’t think coaching is blameless for the team’s offensive issues.

Pederson said both of Trevor Lawrence’s interceptions Sunday were due to miscommunications between the quarterback and his receivers.

“We always give Trevor some outs when it comes to the passing game, particularly on third down, and we just missed the signal,” Pederson said. “Those are the things that can’t happen. Again, it makes the play worse. To me that falls back on coaches to make sure our players are prepared that way, that we’ve covered them in meetings, that we’ve covered them in practice, so that when they get in the game, they have all eyes on the quarterback.

“We have to do that. We have to get ourselves into better plays and out of bad ones. A lot of the non-verbal, hand signal communication has to take place. It’s something we’re going to continue to review, continue to have in our game plan, and we’ve got to get better.”

There’s no doubt the Jaguars need something to change in a major way with their season slipping away fast. That won’t include Taylor passing the sticks to Pederson, though.

Doug Pederson: ‘The players, at some point, have to have enough pride’

Doug Pederson is at a loss for what more Jaguars coaches can do to get the team to stop shooting itself in the foot.

Last week, after a third straight loss, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said coaches had “to find the good” and preach positivity to help the team pull out of its slide.

Well, clearly that didn’t work.

After a 30-12 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the coach wasn’t much in the mood for finding silver linings. With 10 turnovers for the Jaguars offense in three games, Pederson instead challenged his team to show a little pride.

“I can’t go out there and do it,” Pederson said. “You know, [offensive coordinator] Press [Taylor] can’t do it. [Defensive coordinator] Mike Caldwell can’t do it. I mean the players at some point have to have enough pride to not turn … listen, they’re not trying to turn the ball over, but there has to be a sense of urgency to have the ball security to protect the football, and it’s not there right now.”

Trevor Lawrence threw two interceptions in the first half Sunday, both of which appeared to be a consequence of miscommunication between the quarterback and his intended targets. That’s been a prevailing theme throughout December for the Jaguars.

Another two turnovers came via fumbles by Lawrence and tight end Evan Engram. There was also a fumbled exchange between Lawrence and running back D’Ernest Johnson that was recovered by Johnson for a five-yard loss.

“You can’t pin this all on the quarterback, right?” Pederson said. “I mean, everybody else practiced. As a team, it wasn’t good. The sense of urgency wasn’t there, we didn’t execute very well on offense, the turnovers keep piling up, the run game, all that kind of stuff. It just affects the whole process. So, it’s not one guy, it’s the coaches, myself, the players, we’re all in this together.”

Thanks to a terrible day for the entire AFC South, the Jaguars are still first in the division with two weeks left. It may even take just one more win for Jacksonville to get into the playoffs. But unless things change significantly soon, it doesn’t look like it’ll matter much either way.

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Trevor Lawrence’s goal line stretch is ‘terrifying’ to Jaguars coaches

Trevor Lawrence is four-for-four on his favorite stretch over the goal line, but Press Taylor would love it if he found a different way.

If it was up to Press Taylor, quarterback Trevor Lawrence would find a different way to get into the end zone. But as long as the 6’6 quarterback keeps scoring touchdowns and not fumbling on his leaping stretches across the goal line, the Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator can live with the play that is quickly becoming a Lawrence trademark.

“I like when he scores, otherwise I really don’t like it,” Taylor said with a smile Thursday. “We’ve talked about it a lot, we’ve showed Baltimore last year had the one and then … it was the playoff game, you see a lot of bad things happen. He knows that, we’ve talked about it a million times, I don’t necessarily love it, but I love scoring touchdowns.

“I’ve seen so many bad examples of that. Now, it’s worked and it’s great, but it’s terrifying.”

Lawrence, 24, is a perfect four-for-four on the play in his career, including two 1-yard rushing touchdowns in the last three weeks. His most recent came against the Cincinnati Bengals, although it also showed exactly why the play makes Taylor so nervous. While the ball was knocked out of Lawrence’s hand, officials determined he crossed the goal line first.

Lawrence isn’t exactly freelancing on the call. Taylor said that the play call is a quarterback sneak and it’s up to the third-year quarterback to figure out the clearest path to the end zone.

“If he has determined going over the top is the best course of action for him, as long as he scores and he knows that, we’ve clearly stated that we are hesitant about the over the top,” Taylor said. “But I think he’s four-for-four. It’s hard to argue with results.”

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Press Taylor: ‘Nobody ran a wrong route’ on 3 interceptions vs. Browns

Jaguars coaches refuted the notion that Calvin Ridley and Zay Jones ran the wrong routes Sunday.

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence wasn’t on the same page with his receivers on three plays that resulted in interceptions against the Cleveland Browns. That doesn’t mean Calvin Ridley and/or Zay Jones were running the wrong routes, according to offensive coordinator Press Taylor.

“There’s a big difference in running the wrong route and not being on the exact same page with how you’re running a route. We have not had wrong routes.” Taylor said Thursday. “There has not been ‘this person doesn’t know what they’re doing, they’re running the wrong route,’ things like that.”

Jaguars wide receivers coach Chad Hall echoed the sentiment in an interview with Gene Frenette of the Florida Times-Union:

So what was amiss on the three turnovers? Taylor explained each of the interceptions in a lengthy answer.

“One of them, we didn’t expect the ball at the time the ball came out, head wasn’t around,” Taylor said. “It’s a missed opportunity and unfortunately turned into an interception.”

“Just [need to] get my head around a little faster,” Ridley said Wednesday. “I thought I had a certain look and I was trying to get up on the DB and take him a certain way so we could get another person to pop open. It was a different look and I didn’t get my head around fast enough and the ball came out a little faster than I thought.”

A second interception thrown Ridley’s direction didn’t look to have much of a chance

“We had a zero blitz, ball’s gotta come out,” Taylor explained. “They’re bringing more pressures than we have protectors. Quarterback threw a go ball, I think the receiver thought the ball would get thrown earlier because of where the coverage was, but again, it’s understanding the entire situation and what the quarterback is dealing with. The ball comes out early, turned into an interception as well.”

Lawrence took the blame for that one after the game.

“That one is on me,” Lawrence said Sunday. “They brought a pressure that we weren’t able to pick up. They brought too many and I was trying to take a shot outside and the corner did a good job playing it. I put it out there a little too far and he made a good play.”

The third was thrown deep to Jones.

“We took a post route a little flatter across the field where we were expecting maybe a little deeper angle than that,” Taylor said.

According to Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson, it “was just an overthrow.”

“Nobody ran a wrong route in those instances,” Taylor reiterated Thursday. “Just in terms of the details of it, where we thought the ball was gonna go, or where we thought the ball was gonna be thrown, or at a certain time, just barely off. Unfortunately, on all of those plays it turned into interceptions.”

There’s no doubt there are issues that need ironing out for the Jaguars, especially with Christian Kirk not coming back any time soon. Those problems may not fall on the shoulders of the team’s wide receivers as much as it seems, though.

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Press Taylor: ‘I’m just trying to grow and get better’ every game

Press Taylor is trying to learn each week in his first year calling the Jaguars’ plays full-time.

Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor called plays on a limited basis during the 2022 season before taking the duties full-time in 2023. And just as the Jaguars offense is full of young players trying to find steady improvement, the 35-year-old coach is hoping to do the same.

“I feel like each week I’m getting a little more comfortable, I’m just trying to grow and get better every single thing,” Taylor said Thursday. “Learn from every single call we make, the one thing I’ve learned just talking with Doug [Pederson], talking to people that call plays around the league, you really can’t have any regrets. You can learn, you can look back and learn from it.

“I don’t really have a lot of regrets in a lot of the calls that have come and I just want to continue to learn. I want to be better for this team in Week 10 than I was in Week 8 just like our players and what we ask of them.”

With the Jaguars often stalling out on offense, Taylor has been the frequent subject of criticism during his first season calling the plays full-time. Pederson has defended his offensive coordinator, though.

“Sometimes it’s not about the plays,” Pederson said after a loss back in September. “I learned a long time ago that the players — you know, players play this football game and coaches coach. … We’re going to evaluate everything and make sure that we’re putting our guys in the right places. But I thought Press did a nice job today.”

Jacksonville scored at least 20 points in all five games during their October winning streak and now rank 10th in the NFL with 24.1 points per game. Taylor is hoping to see those numbers get even better in the second half of the season.

“I think everybody understands one of the things we’ve been saying is we’re getting better, but we have to get better,” Taylor said. “That’s something of the approach we’ve all had, as a coaching staff, as players, as an individual unit, or as individual positions within our unit, that’s a big thing for us.

“We got to continue to get better, but we make no bones about it, we want to win games. If we can contribute to winning, we’re proud of that fact but we need to play better as this thing continues to grow and in Week 10, we need to be better than we were in Week 8.”

The Jaguars’ record for points in a season was set in 2017 when they scored 417 (26.1 per game). In 2022, the team averaged 23.8 points.

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Jaguars WR Zay Jones to miss Week 8 vs. Steelers

Doug Pederson said Friday that Zay Jones will miss a third straight game due to his knee injury.

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Zay Jones will miss the team’s Week 8 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but coach Doug Pederson said Friday that he’s hopeful the receiver will be available to the team after its Week 9 bye.

“Zay is still working through the knee injury,” Pederson said. “I don’t expect him Sunday, hopefully next week with the bye and we’ll see where he’s at after that.”

Jones, 28, suffered a knee injury in the Jaguars’ Week 2 loss against the Kansas City Chiefs that kept him out for two games. While he returned in Week 5 against the Buffalo Bills and caught a first quarter touchdown, Jones re-injured the same knee and has been sidelined since.

While the Jaguars have kept winning in his absence and scored at least 31 points in the last two games, the loss of Jones has still been damaging for the Jacksonville offense.

“Zay is so versatile for us, he has the vertical threat with the speed, he’s got length that we don’t necessarily have in the receiver room,” Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor said Thursday. “The combination of length, speed and blocking ability without him, we can piece it together with a couple of other people. Then, he’s got experience that some of those other guys in the backend don’t necessarily have.

“Again, Zay is a huge part of our offense, so certainly it’s somebody we miss.”

Last season, Jones was the Jaguars’ second leading receiver with 82 receptions for 823 yards and five touchdowns. In limited time this year, Jones has eight receptions for 78 yards and two touchdowns.

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