JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson referred to as 2024 the toughest season he has had in his teaching profession, and the Tremendous Bowl LII winner acknowledged it might be his final, too.
The Jaguars (4-12) head into Sunday’s season finale at Indianapolis having tied an NFL file with 9 one-score losses this season. They have not crushed a group with a successful file, have scored 17 or fewer factors eight occasions, are final within the NFL in cross protection and thirty first in complete protection, and endured season-ending accidents to 4 key offensive starters (together with quarterback Trevor Lawrence).
They’ve additionally misplaced 17 of their previous 22 video games after an 8-3 begin to the 2023 season that had them in rivalry for the No. 1 seed within the AFC.
All of that has put Pederson’s job in jeopardy as his third season with the Jaguars involves an in depth.
“You go all the way in which again to highschool, center college, have a season the place you had 12 losses — and it is laborious to do,” Pederson mentioned Friday. “The toughest factor most likely is simply protecting the blokes in it every week mentally. It would be simple for them to type of try. So, from that standpoint, it is laborious. Clearly, the pandemic yr in ’20 was one other troublesome one with the challenges of COVID and the safeguards in place that we needed to do, the social distancing and all that, that made it troublesome.
“However this one was powerful. It was powerful simply to keep up the main focus and the drive and every week be aggressive, and nonetheless give ourselves alternatives to win video games.”
Proprietor Shad Khan has not given any indication about his plans concerning Pederson and basic supervisor Trent Baalke. Khan instructed the group in a pre-training camp assembly that this was the perfect Jaguars group ever assembled and his expectation was to make the playoffs, so the group’s failure to take action might imply each might be let go subsequent week.
Pederson mentioned he is conscious of the hypothesis that he might be fired however that he hasn’t let that impression him — his religion helps preserve him and his household grounded, he mentioned — and is working below the premise that he’ll be again in 2025 till he learns in any other case.
“[My family has] been round this league nearly 30 years, participant and coach, and you have seen lots of issues,” Pederson mentioned. “If that is the final one, then I can look again and go, ‘Hey, it was an awesome run. You had an opportunity to do lots of nice issues. You had an opportunity to win a Tremendous Bowl. You have coached some nice gamers. You performed on this league for a very long time.’
“So, no matter occurs, occurs. However we preserve shifting ahead.”
