The Jacksonville Jaguars‘ (clown show) search for a head coach — replacing the disaster that was Urban Meyer — has finally come to an end.
Just hours after it was reported that Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator and former Jacksonville quarterback Byron Leftwich was removing his name from consideration for the job (after being viewed as the favorite), the Jaguars have chosen Doug Pederson to be the new head coach.
Jacksonville made the news official on Thursday night, shortly after reports of the agreement emerged:
ESPN’s Adam Schefter adds that Pederson and quarterback Trevor Lawrence — who will enter his second season in 2022 — already spoke on the phone on Thursday evening to discuss their future together.
Pederson, 54, led the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles to a 13-3 record and Super Bowl title. He has as 42-37-1 regular-season record (and 4-2 in the postseason) career record as head coach (all with the Eagles, from 2016-20).
As Schefter notes, Pederson was actually the first candidate the Jaguars spoke to about the job.
Earlier on Thursday, Pederson and Rich Bisaccia — who served as the Las Vegas Raiders’ interim head coach following Jon Gruden’s exit were rumored to be the leading candidates for the job.
After a chaotic, and frankly embarrassing coaching search from the Jacksonville front office, the Jaguars actually landed on a Super Bowl-winning coach, and one that could particularly be a good mentor for the highly talented Lawrence.
Here’s some reaction to the hiring from the football world:
The Jaguars have won 15 games since 2017.
Doug Pederson won 16 games in 2017.— Reuben Frank (@RoobNBCS) February 4, 2022
https://twitter.com/_John_Shipley/status/1489443750548025347
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.