Jaguars announce 10 additions to Doug Pederson’s coaching staff

The hirings of Ryan Nielsen, Kris Richard, and eight other coaches were made official on Thursday.

The Jacksonville Jaguars announced 10 additions to Doug Pederson’s coaching staff for the 2024 season.

Ryan Nielsen was officially hired as defensive coordinator on January 22, two weeks after his predecessor Mike Caldwell was relieved from the team. We noted previous reports on Jerry Mack, Matt House, Kris Richard, Cory Robinson, and Jeremy Garrett in our 2024 coaching search tracker. Those names, plus Mike Gray, Mario Jeberaeel, Greg Austin, and Jamel Mutunga, were finalized as new Jaguars coaches on Thursday.

As John Shipley of Jaguar Report pointed out, Austin was promoted from offensive quality control coach to assistant offensive line coach, and Patrick Reilly was promoted from defensive quality control coach to assistant inside linebackers coach.

As Demetrius Harvey of the Times-Union tweeted, Gray and cornerback Darious Williams played for one season together at Creekside High School. Gray was a two-time All-County safety there.

The new coaches’ titles and bios can be found on the team’s website here.

Since many of the additions were already rumored, the biggest news from this announcement is arguably the lack of a passing game coordinator. Pederson hired Jim Bob Cooter for the position in 2022, but after one season, the Indianapolis Colts hired him as its offensive coordinator. Pederson then hired Nick Holz in 2023, whom the Tennessee Titans made its offensive coordinator last month.

Jacksonville is set to enter 2024 with Pederson, offensive coordinator Press Taylor, and quarterbacks coach Mike McCoy as the main architects of its passing offense.

More from Shipley via Jaguar Report:

Per sources familiar with the situation, at least two former NFL offensive coordinators expressed interest in joining the Jaguars’ staff, but nothing came together. It seems as if the Jaguars, or at least head coach Doug Pederson and specifically offensive coordinator Press Taylor, do not believe they need the help. If they wanted to add coaches to the brain trust, they would have. They had the chance to do so.

Taylor has received flak after his first year as play-caller and league sources were surprised when the Jaguars didn’t make more changes to the offensive staff. And now, it seems like the offensive success will once again come down to Pederson and Taylor alone.

Maybe the Jaguars shift focus and add a coach at some point later this offseason, but it seems unlikely. This seems like a missed opportunity to improve.