Thanks to a coaching change and what appears to be a successful offseason, the Jacksonville Jaguars are on the verge of going from a club of chaos to a real playoff contender. Key to the tremendous development is quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who has thrived under Doug Pederson.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are probably the biggest surprise of the current NFL season. Unlike before, they play refreshing offensive football, show a clear plan and have a young quarterback in Trevor Lawrence, who can already be said to have made a huge leap in his second year. And that is also reflected in the table – they lead the AFC South 2-1 and are a serious contender in this division for the first time since 2017.
“What a difference a year makes,” the American likes to say in a version of this famous saying. A year ago at this time, the Jaguars were 0-3 on their way to an overall devastating 3-14 season. Not much worked and head coach Urban Meyer’s team made a desolate impression even then.
Oh yes, Urban Meyer. The hugely successful college football coach, who won three national championships with Florida and Ohio State, was team owner Shahid Khan’s big solution as the successor to the staid Doug Marrone, who didn’t have much to show for himself apart from his championship game trip in 2017 would have.
Meyer was to bring new splendor and impetus to Duval. Meyer’s big name seemed just the right thing to usher in better times for an organization that had had sporadic success since its inaugural season in 1995, but in between had been abysmal.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Meyer already caused displeasure at Camp
Meyer came along with some skeletons in the closet to the observant observer, but all of the stories were years old and didn’t happen in the NFL orbit anyway, so who cared? However, as we now know, they were harbingers of what happened next. Meyer turned out to be a disaster early on.
It was already clear from the training camp that his style was not particularly well received by the players. When the season started, it became all the more clear how difficult the conditions were for everyone involved under Meyer. There was talk of assistant coaches who were under constant pressure because Meyer threatened to fire them in front of the entire team. And he didn’t stop at players with this behavior either.
It got really embarrassing when Meyer didn’t fly home with the team in Cincinnati in week 4, but stayed in his restaurant there, partied into the night and was ultimately filmed as he was a young woman – not his wife ! – publicly groped. The action prompted Khan to even make a public statement counting his coach down.
On the field, meanwhile, there was a mostly confused squad that appeared with little plan and especially the highly acclaimed number 1 draft pick Trevor Lawrence seemed out of place. He made countless mistakes, mostly looked overwhelmed. There was no sign of progress and so the team lost game following game, but that didn’t result in Meyer’s chair being sawed.
No, Meyer took care of that himself! It turns out Meyer Kicker kicked Josh Lambo in practice. That triggered the next scandal. For that he was released. The final four games were eventually led by interim head coach Darrell Bevell.
Bevell and Brian Schottenheimer were the offensive coaches hired by Meyer to develop and lead the offense and Lawrence. Both were not known for designing modern offenses, as a look at their Vita reveals. Both were part of the problem, as we now know.
Jacksonville Jaguars: New coaching staff helps Trevor Lawrence
Because today under head coach Doug Pederson, Press Taylor, a recognized QB whisperer, is the offensive coordinator and thus directly responsible for Lawrence and his development.
In general, Pederson, who once sensationally led the Eagles to success in Super Bowl LII, seemed to be just the right person to sweep up the shambles of this organization.
Pederson knows from his days in Philly how to build successful teams. The most important point in addition to a well thought-out offensive scheme that is now in place is the trappings. When you have a quarterback who is still under rookie contract, the best way to maximize their talent is to surround them with good players.
The Jaguars did just that in the offseason. Incidentally, an offseason that wasn’t easy at all, because from a neutral point of view, the Jaguars spent a lot of money, but didn’t necessarily get the big difference players. Symbol is wide receiver Christian Kirk, who got the most valuable contract of all receivers in this free agency. While he’s not a star, he seems to be Lawrence’s top receiver at the moment, helping this offense keep the ball moving consistently throughout the slot.
Guard Brandon Scherff helped to stabilize the offensive line and defensively the supposedly overpriced newcomers defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi and linebacker Foyesade Oluokun rose to top performers early on, on which the young neighbors such as edge rusher Travon Walker and linebacker Devin Lloyd can stand up.
The latter, in turn, are representative of the overall good draft class of the team. This resulted in three early starters if you include center Luke Fortner. And linebacker Chad Muma also plays a good role as far as special teams go.