The Jacksonville Jaguars have been in the basement of the NFL for quite some time. Jacksonville has won over six games once in a season since the start of 2011 -- an NFL worst 47-130 in that span (.266 win percentage) -- finishing last in the AFC South for four consecutive years.
Doug Pederson, a Super Bowl championship coach, has a tough road ahead in Jacksonville. Pederson brought the Philadelphia Eagles a Super Bowl, so why can't he do the same in Jacksonville?
Just because the Jaguars have a losing culture doesn't mean Pederson won't stop trying to build a dormant franchise into a winner.
"It's hard for me to speak to what has gone wrong or is wrong or whatever. I don't know, quite frankly, and I really don't care about that," Pederson said last week. "What I care about is moving forward from two weeks ago when I was hired. That's what we're trying to change. That's what I'm trying to change.
"I'm trying to turn this into a winning program, a winning organization. Do you learn from the past? Of course. You study it, of course. But at the same time, my focus has always been a forward-thinking approach to everything we do."
Pederson may be actually what the Jaguars need to turn things around, given the quick turnaround he experienced in Philadelphia. He went 42-37-1 in his five seasons with the Eagles, winning two NFC East titles and taking the franchise to three consecutive playoff appearances (2017 to 2019). He turned the Eagles around in a hurry, becoming one of just 11 head coaches to win the Super Bowl in his first two seasons as a head coach.
The Jaguars have hired six head coaches in their franchise's short history. None of which had the credentials as Pederson when he took the job. Pederson wouldn't have taken the Jaguars job if he thought the franchise was a lost cause.
"I see talent, honestly. I see -- is it perfect? No," Pederson said. "But when I see -- you see flashes. You see the offense taking
strides throughout the course of the year. You see the defense making those strides. Now it's about just we've got to be consistent every week. There's got to be consistency, and there's got to be ownership with that.
"Are we going to go out and add talent? Yeah, we're going to add talent. We're going to add competition. We're going to bring value to the roster. Every team does that, and we're no exception to that. But I see talent here. I said I think in my opening remarks a couple weeks ago that it's not an overnight fix, and it's going to be a fix that we've got to do it one player at a time, one coach at a time, and get it turned around."
