Doug Pederson: Jaguars offense is ‘running out of the early excuse’

The Jacksonville Jaguars have a lot of football ahead of them and it’s way too early to panic about the team’s sluggish start on offense, says head coach Doug Pederson. On the other hand, the Jaguars can’t exactly afford to be stuck in neutral for long.

“I know it’s early, but we’re running out of the early excuse a little bit,” Pederson told reporters in a Wednesday press conference. “We need to get it addressed pretty quick. … It’s got to be a now mentality, obviously we got to continue to work to improve.”

While the Jaguars started their season with a 31-21 win against the Indianapolis Colts, the offense didn’t exactly fire on all cylinders in that game either. Exactly like the Week 2 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Jaguars were 3-of-12 on third down and turned the ball over on downs twice.

According to Pederson, part of the issue is a Jaguars offensive line that didn’t have a ton of opportunities to work together before the regular season got started earlier this month.

“They don’t get a ton of work during the preseason, it’s why I play the starters,” Pederson said. “There is some continuity that has to be worked through with the offensive line, there’s communication that has to be worked through.

“Ben [Bartch] is working himself back in as a starter again, missing a few games from last season. Walker [Little] is playing tackle for the first time full-time over there right now. We got a young right tackle [in Anton Harrison], so there are some pieces that still need to work together, but they’re coached well, and they practice hard and we’ll work through those.”

Last year, a Jaguars team that didn’t need to do any shuffling up front began the year with 28 points and 375.7 yards per game through the first three weeks of the year. The strong start was spoiled by a five-game losing streak with 11 turnovers.

The 2023 Jaguars have turned the ball over three times and have averaged 306.5 yards through their first two games.