Nearly three years ago, it felt like a perfect fit. The Jacksonville Jaguars had a near-mutiny under head coach Urban Meyer, quarterback Trevor Lawrence looked like a mess, and the franchise was spiraling toward yet another double-digit loss season. In the expanse of Shad Khan’s ownership of the team, it felt like a rarefied opportunity with a generational quarterback was in jeopardy.
In response, Khan hired Doug Pederson, and then explained the decision to the outside world.
“Why Doug Pederson? He’s a man who’s accomplished a lot,” Khan said in February of 2022, sitting beside Pederson during his introductory news conference. “Top offensive coordinator, experienced head coach, won three division titles in five years — a man who just four years ago won the Super Bowl. And he did it for the Philadelphia Eagles, a city very much like Jacksonville, that was looking for their first championship. So in the end, we have someone who’s been there. A head coach, developer of quarterbacks. A man who creates a culture for players and coaches alike. A culture they’ll thrive in, and a leader who commands respect and inspires those around him. And a man who wins.”
Imagine Khan’s dismay Sunday, after watching his Jaguars lose a 24-20 agony game to a Houston Texans team that is following the precise trajectory that was charted by the Jaguars when Pederson got his hands onto the team. By Year 3 of his tenure? Jacksonville was supposed to be battling for AFC supremacy and Lawrence should have taken lengthy strides toward the league’s elite tier of quarterbacks. Instead, time in Jacksonville is a flat circle and the Jaguars are mired in Friedrich Nietzsche’s trench of eternal recurrence.
This is just another way of saying the Jaguars are what they were … and may inevitably become what they have already been.
Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson has some tough questions to answer after the team fell to 0-4 while highly paid QB Trevor Lawrence continues to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/the-jaguars-hired-doug-pederson-to-win-and-develop-qb-trevor-lawrence-neither-is-happening-053934609.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-09-30 05:39:34
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