Observations on Doug Pederson’s NFL Combine interviews

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson had three interviews at the 2024 NFL Combine. Here’s everything you need to know.

With NFL Draft season in full swing, Jacksonville Jaguars’ brain trust is in Indianapolis this week to join in on the organized chaos we call the annual NFL Scouting Combine. Head coach Doug Pederson (and later, General Manager Trent Baalke) spoke with the assembled media on Tuesday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Full Presser:

After his primary media presser, Pederson hung around to answer additional questions from the assembled media. Interestingly, this impromptu, pop-up presser provided potentially one of the bigger topics of discussion, with Doug being asked about the potential for him to call plays in 2024.

Full Interview:

Doug finally wrapped up his day by dropping in on 1010xl’s ‘The Frangie Show’ for a one-on-one with Frank.

Full interview:

Below, we cover some of the more notable comments and takeaways from Pederson’s various Tuesday media interviews.

Is Pederson taking back playcalling?

During Doug’s post-presser media scrum, Pederson was asked the following via Action Sports Jax’s Brent Martineau: “You established yourself as maybe the best playcaller in the game when you won a Super Bowl. Doesn’t matter how good Press is at it. Is this organization better off with you doing it (calling plays), in terms of success?”

“I think those are things that I need to, you know, consider this off season, this spring. You know, there were things out of my control that I had to deal with more you know, the last last year. It takes you away from some of that stuff. And I’m not going to get into those, but you know. So yeah, it’s something that I have to (look at) as part of the evaluation process. And I have to evaluate myself and Press as decision makers and play callers and see what’s best for our team.”

Unlike in previous occurrences throughout 2023 when this exact subject was broached, on Tuesday Doug did not immediately shoot down the idea of him calling plays next season. However, Pederson later clarified that no decision has been made on who will be calling plays at this time. He advised this is currently an ongoing conversation.

“I mean, those are again, I haven’t decided, for those are all ongoing conversations that Press and I will have and we’ll go from there.”

The overall takeaway is that the head ball coach seems to be conflicted on where his skills could be best served for the team, at this time. With an incoming new defensive staff, a potential warming up of his coaching seat in the coming season, and a lot of questions being asked surrounding the what and the whys of the organization’s past and current decisions every decision is understandably under scrutiny. Doug discussed his thoughts on what he felt was gained from stepping back from being the primary play caller in 2023 on a follow-up question.

“When you’re a head coach and calling plays too, it pulls you away from some of the in-game decisions where you might see something a little more clearly. Like, I mean, last year I was seeing the game differently. You know, I’ve been able to manage the game differently. And so it does affect you. It affects you in a positive way. You know when something is removed at the same time you still want your hand on it right? And you still want to make those decisions.”

Also, to circle back to the first comment, I am a little curious as to what things were out of Doug’s control that he ‘had to deal with more’ over the past year versus the 2022 Jaguars season. Could this be related to the now relieved defensive coaching staff in-game management? Was it something locker room or player-related? This was just a very curious statement overall that, it seems, at least partially swayed Pederson’s decision on whether or not he had the capacity to call plays in 2023.

Doug and Trent in alignment:

If we recall Trent Baalke’s end-of-season press conference, you might remember a main impression from management seemed to be that this Jaguars team, as built was thought to have been good enough to be in the post-season if not for injuries and coaching failures. The messaging from both Baalke and Pederson in today’s various interviews seemed to indicate an agreement with this stance. Pederson, in his presser first touched on this in speaking on offensive line continuity.

If you think about it Cam, Ezra, Luke, Brandon, and Ton (Anton Harrison) played one game together – last game of the regular season, right? So we’ve had that kind of revolving door on the left side, you know, for whenever reason. Injury, performance, whatever it might be and, you know, Cam the suspension, and then the injury later in season, so he missed eight games. We didn’t have consistency. We didn’t have continuity. And that affects five guys up front, right? And so, that’s where we have to get back to. We’ve got to get back to a little more consistency there, but we can also help them as coaches, and prepare them better, starting this off-season.”

Pederson again stated something similar during his one-on-one with Frangie when discussing the in-season losses of Christian Kirk, DaVon Hamilton, and Cam Robinson.

“Those are our best guys. And when they’re not on the field, it’s gonna affect you. You know, say what you want around the league. A lot of teams played with backup quarterbacks and back ups on the offensive lines. But, for us specifically, those were our best players and, you know, it affected us. It affected us in many ways. Zay (Jones) was never healthy. The entire season, right in. Christian, got hurt in the Cincinnati game. I feel like we’re going down to your point. We’re going to score an opening possession. Touchdown right there and still had a chance to win that football game late. DaVon Hamilton missed half the season, never himself, you know. Cam misses half the games, 8 games. And the inconsistency we had the left side of our offensive line. I just think all of that all of that affects you as a team. Um, it weighs on you as a team and you don’t want to make the excuse. But, it’s something that we have to learn from and just understand that injury is going to happen. Next man up mentality and we got to make sure the next guy is coached just as hard just as well as that starter is. Trevor’s one of the guys that played, he had the knee, the ankle, the shoulder, he had the concussion.”

I can agree with Doug that these injuries were reasonably large losses for the team, in some ways. DaVon Hamilton was the team’s best defensive lineman, Cam Robinson was the team’s best offensive lineman, and Christian Kirk was arguably the best and most consistent wide receiver on the roster. One for one, it’s not a bad argument. The San Francisco 49ers went on a three-game skid while going through a similar skid. However, this is where the differences become apparent for these franchises.

The 49ers lost an All-Pro offensive lineman, an All-Pro Running Back, and a Pro-Bowl wide receiver, in addition to multiple defenders during their skid. The Jaguars lost a combined total of zero 2022 All-Pro or Pro-Bowl players on offense or defense. Additionally, other franchises went through similar injury issues in 2023 and didn’t lose five out of six games to end their seasons. This information, added to the reported issues on rookie development would seem to confirm that this result was either more of an issue of an overall lack of quality depth (a GM issue), a lack of an ability to develop (a coaching issue), or both. Doug touched on the team’s rookie onboarding process with the media after his presser.

“I think the onboarding for us is how we handle our young players, particular draft picks, and our undrafted guys, you know, new to the roster. How well we kind of catch them up to speed and indoctrinate them. You know, in what we’re trying to get done and there’s things that we’re going to put in place this spring and just make sure that they’re ready to play football. They may not be ready to help us in September, but they may be ready in like October, November, December. And that’s that’s the ultimate goal, you know, and making sure that these guys are prepared to do that.”

After a lot of offseason discussion, it seems that the brain trust is in alignment with what they view as the issues for the 2023 Jaguars – a mixture of injuries, a lack of quality depth, and opportunities in coaching and development.

Defensive Scheme Change:

In his interview with Frangie, Doug provided a few more details on his view of what the defense may look like in 2024, now that coach Ryan Neilsen has been officially hired.

“I mean, you’re gonna see more (four-man fronts) and onto your point. I mean, it’s, you’re spending 75, almost 80 percent, in nickel defense, which is a four down, four down line anyway. Yeah, and um, you know, with the opportunity to have Josh and Travon on the edges, and then you continue to get Roy (Robinson) and DaVon (Hamilton) in the middle and you can play that four-down front. We’ll steal from time to time. Be a 3-4 base defense, you know, and have some guys stand up on the edge, things like that. But, you know, primarily it’s where you spend all your time and it’s going to be a nickel defense. And that’s why I think when you say scheme change, it’s not maybe the scheme as much as it is the look of the defense and who’s actually on the field.”

We previously touched on this when coach Neilsen was initially hired. The team will likely still show a solid amount of 3-4 within the scheme, but will likely look to often be multiple to dictate to opposing offenses instead of being consistently reactive. This should allow an array of packages, looks, and additional opportunities for bubble players to carve out a few rotational roles within the defense.

Draft prospect trait to look for – physicality:

“It’s hard in today’s game because you don’t put the pads on the spring, right? You only have certain things to do in training camp and all that. But, it (having a sense of physicality) is a mindset and you gotta just keep talking about it every single day. You got to put your players in those positions every single day in camp and, you know, you just kind of drill it. And I think that’s the only way to really. You know, focus on creating an edge and creating that physicality that you want.”

A consistent message that has come out of the Jaguars locker room and front office this offseason has been a need to become a more physical football team. Whether that means the team will be looking at drafting or bringing in a designated fullback, bringing in a bigger-bodied, blocking wide receiver option, or mainly just rebuilding the trenches remains to be seen. However, it sounds as if the team will be planning to at minimum have a more physical camp than in past years, and seems that there will definitely be an emphasis in the draft and free agency on players that show an edge on film.

Doug later circled back to provide additional insight on how that needed physicality helps to shape the team’s overall identity. While the team’s identity is currently in flux, this vision would seem to be the end goal.

“Did we want to get back to running the ball like we did in 22 a little bit? Yeah, we need to, right? And then that’s part of the identity. That’s part of being physical up front. That’s part of the receiver going into blocking. That’s, that’s the quarterback putting us in better place. It’s us calling better plays, you know, and that’s all part of the identity. But I think overall Being an attacking style, you want to be aggressive, you want to be smart and well-conditioned football. Those are all the signs that you’ve got the identity that you want.”

Pederson on Trevor Lawrence:

“I just think, (the next step for Trevor is) you know, continuing to understand our offense, right? Get better with the scheme and really still put more of an impact to his voice in our offense. You know, because he’s the one out there, executing a play. So, you know, I want him to speak up and really take ownership in that with us and just, you know, the situational part of football, too. Just understanding game situations. You know, managing the game in a certain way, at certain times throughout the course of the game. And you know, these are all areas that we can continue as a staff to assist him and help him to get where we want to be.”

It would seem that Doug would like to see Trevor increase his ownership of the playbook while executing more high football-IQ situational football plays – which, I’m sure includes fewer 2023 turnovers in Doug’s preference.

Combine On-Field Schedule:

The NFL Scouting Combine prospect on-field testing and drills begin on Thursday. You can catch the action on NFL Network, on NFL.com/watch, on NFL+, or the NFL app.

2024 NFL Scouting Combine Testing:

• Thursday, Feb. 29: DL and LBs testing, starting at 3 p.m. ET

• Friday, March 1: DBs and TEs testing, starting at 3 p.m. ET

• Saturday, March 2: RBs, QBs, WRs testing, starting at 1 p.m. ET

• Sunday, March 3: OL testing, starting at 1 p.m. ET