NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
The Jacksonville Jaguars will go into next season with a new head coach. The Jags fired Doug Pederson on Monday after another rough season by the Jags. Jacksonville is sticking with the NFL standard of bad teams firing HC quickly with no turnaround. The average time for a head coach with little to no results continues to be around 2.5 years and Pederson was let go after 3 with a 22-29 record, yet Trent Baalke remains employed.
Despite the failures of the Jags, Pederson was just the scapegoat for this poor performance. Not only did he enjoy success with the Kansas City Chiefs but he later took the Philadelphia Eagles to their first Super Bowl championship. In that same time frame, he won Coach of the Year in 2017, so he already has an impressive resume. Unfortunately, the NFL is a “what have you done for me lately” league, and what he’s done lately is led the Jags to disappointment.
Yet, you have to wonder, how much of this was him playing the hand he was dealt? The Jags finished 24th in the league in total offense, understandable since their QB1 was lost to injury toward the end of the season. The Jags’ defense was 31st in the league in total yards allowed per game. In both cases, you can place blame on the staff the Pederson hired, after all, he’s the one who hires all the coordinators and coaches along the way right?
But why is there no pressure on the man who put together these teams?
If you look at statistics alone, Jacksonville didn’t have enough playmakers to be successful. If you remove Trevor Lawrence from the equation solely because he was hurt, they had one top-20 player on offense statistically. Tank Bigsby had a good season for them but didn’t hit the 1,000 rushing plateau finishing 30th in the league in yards, 33rd in yards per game, but he barely hit the top 20 in TDs with 7.
Brian Thomas Jr. finished the league in 3rd place receiving with 1,282 yards, 11th in yards/game, and tied for 6th with 10 TDs. Their next close receiver was their Tight End with just 411 yards and 2 TDs. Of their 19 receiving TDs, Thomas Jr. scores 10 of them. Your top WR accounted for 33% of your total passing yards and 50% of your receiving TDs, 33% if you include rushing TDs. Where was the help on offense?
Travis Ettienne Jr. was supposed to be a big get for the Jags. He finished with just 558 yards and 2 TDs. Christian Kirk was supposed to be another playmaker for Jacksonville. He finished with 379 yards and 1 TD. Gabe Davis? 239 yards and 2 TDs. Evan Engram? 365 yards and 1 TD.
What no one wants to talk about is even with how bad the Jaguars were this year, their backup QB played as well as their starter who they just paid $50 mil/year. Trevor Lawrence finished the season with 172/284 with 2,045 yards, 11 TDs, and 7 INTs. Mac Jones finished 171/262 for 1672 yards, 8 TDs, and 8 INTs. Yes, in the same amount of games played, Lawrence through just shy of 400 yards better than Jones, only 3 more TDs, and just 1 INT, and is paid like a top 3 QB in the league. Are the Jacksonville Jaguars going to hand $45-$50 million to Mac Jones for that kind of production? Obviously not, so why would they hand that money over to Lawrence? They gave him this massive contract based on potential, despite winning just 36% of his games?
That’s where the problem is, not with Doug Pederson, but with Trent Baalke. Baalke was hired a year before Doug and he’s the one who went out and built the Jaguars. He’s put together this team based on potential instead of merit. He fell in love with Trevor Lawrence from his success at college and gave him a massive contract extension. Ettienne is the same story. Christian Kirk wasn’t a bad signing but he barely made a name for himself in Arizona before the Jags pounced. His best season was his first as a Jag and has fallen off since.
Gabe Davis was a playmaker in Buffalo and would make explosive plays. You have to give credit where it is due as he would consistently average 7 TDs a year, but aside from that he averaged 685 yards/season. Now he never was a 1 or 2 WR but you have to factor that in as a whole when you assemble a roster looking to make a turnaround.
Evan Engram never cracked 750 yards as a TE with the Giants and only put up more than 5 TDs after his first season, yet Jacksonville brought him in to be their main TE. He’s had productive seasons as a Jag with 766 yards his first season and just shy of 1,000 the next. However, if you’re on a team struggling to put up points and be productive in the passing game, and you have a QB who just got paid top 5 money, he should have upwards of 10 TDs/season.
I will grant you Doug Pederson’s playcalling, ability to assemble a staff, and lack of wins could’ve led to his firing, so long as ownership is accountable for the pieces he was handed to get him there as well. No disrespect to the players, but the Jags were built by Trent Baalke bargain-shopping for players who make the occasional explosive play and not guys who can be a consistent game changer. If Doug Pederson deserved to be fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars then so did Trent Baalke and the fact he wasn’t is why the organization never grows past potential.
