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Jacksonville Jaguars fire Doug Pederson after 4-13 season, with 10 games lost by one score
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- Jacksonville Jaguars fire Doug Pederson after 4-13 season, with 10 games lost by one score
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
The Jacksonville Jaguars have fired Doug Pederson following the conclusion of his third season with the team.
The Jaguars finished 4-13 on the 2024 season after a 26-23 overtime loss to the Colts in Indianapolis on Sunday.
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The team will retain general manager Trent Baalke.
Jaguars owner Shad Khan released a statement at 8:20 a.m. Monday morning:
"I had the difficult task this morning of informing Doug Pederson of my intention to hire a new head coach to lead the Jacksonville Jaguars . Doug is an accomplished football man who will undoubtedly enjoy another chapter in his impressive NFL career, and I will be rooting for Doug and his wife Jeannie when that occasion arrives. As much as Doug and I both wish his experience here in Jacksonville would have ended better, I have an obligation first and foremost to serve the best interests of our team and especially our fans, who faithfully support our team and are overdue to be rewarded. In that spirit, the time to summon new leadership is now.
WHO'S NEXT? Jaguars coaching candidates: Who should replace Doug Pederson?
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"I strongly believe it is possible next season to restore the winning environment we had here not long ago. I will collaborate with General Manager Trent Baalke and others, within and close to our organization, to hire a leader who shares my ambition and is ready to seize the extraordinary opportunity we will offer in Jacksonville."
Pederson took over the Jaguars in 2022 after Urban Meyer's embarrassing 2021 campaign , one where he was fired after 13 games.
Why was Jaguars coach Doug Pederson fired?
Pederson's tenure began rocky , with the team going 3-7 in his first 10 games.
However, the Jaguars won 6 of their final 7 games to close out 2022, winning the AFC South and earning a wild card playoff home game.
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In the wild-card round, the Jaguars were trailing the Los Angeles Chargers 27-0 before making a miraculous comeback to win 31-30 . They lost the following week to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs .
The Jaguars' momentum continued into 2023 when the team won 8 of its first 11 games. However, the Jaguars went 1-5 after that and missed the playoffs despite a 9-8 record.
This led to Pederson firing defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell and several other coordinators on that side of the ball. He hired Ryan Nielsen , who was with Atlanta last season, but he didn't fare much better.
The Jaguars had high hopes heading into the 2024 season after inking big deals for Trevor Lawrence , Josh Hines-Allen , Tyson Campbell and Foye Oluokun , among others.
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However, after an 0-4 start, the team never quite got back in the saddle even after wins over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 5 and the New England Patriots in Week 7.
Several weeks ago, Jaguars owner Shad Khan continued to support Pederson. In an exclusive interview with the Times-Union before the Bears game in London, Khan said what matters most is how the team finishes.
What's next for Jaguars after Doug Pederson?
Khan cited Jacksonville's past two seasons as part of his thought process.
"To me, every game you go to, you want to do everything to win it and this is the NFL, that's hard. Every game is competitive. A loss is a loss, but [it's about] how you lose," Khan said at the time. "To me, the three games we lost early in the season, it's disappointing, [but] we could have won them."
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The Jaguars were in most of their games in 2024, playing 13 one-score games. They were 3-10 in games decided by eight points or fewer. Those 10 one-score losses are the most by any team in a single season in the Super Bowl era (since 1966).
In Pederson's only other head coaching job, he won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017. In five years in Philly, he was 42-37-1.
In his time in Jacksonville, he was 22-29.
Jaguars head coaching candidates
National perception is that the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach position is a coveted one in the NFL. Khan has shown a propensity to spend and stay out of the way. The Jaguars also have a franchise quarterback in Lawrence and other solid building blocks.
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Some of the top head coaching candidates in this hiring cycle include former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, Detroit Lions offensive and defensive coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, and Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Molken.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars fire Doug Pederson after completing 4-13 season
