Jaguars fire Doug Pederson: Coach’s downfall mirrors his Eagles collapse and exit from years earlier

The Philadelphia Eagles have endured both incredible highs and lows over the last decade, both surging to Super Bowl contention and sinking to major overhauls. Now, one of the coaches from their ongoing boom-or-bust era, Super Bowl LII champion Doug Pederson, has relived history of his own.

The 56-year-old Pederson was resigned to his potential firing as Jacksonville Jaguars coach as early this fall, running out of ways to pretend a flailing staff and lineup — most recently helmed by emergency quarterback Mac Jones — had the belief, energy, strategy and/or talent to reclaim lost pride in the home stretch of a lost 2024 season. On Monday, the Jaguars granted him the release he probably anticipated, pulling the plug on his employment after as ugly a 4-13 finish as you’ll see.

Look back to September, and the writing was already on the wall. Blasted by the Buffalo Bills in a 47-10 Week 3 loss, in which the Jaguars mercifully yanked starters before the buzzer, Pederson admitted, in between vague hints of wholesale change with already festering exhaustion, that “this is who we are.” It was sad then. It’s more notable now, with the Jaguars deflated to the point of literally axing their chief leader. Because, in truth, the 2024 Jaguars were also who Pederson’s teams had been.

Change the names of the players, the colors of the uniforms, the stadiums in which they were trotted out, and you’re left with almost a perfect replica of Pederson’s late-stage Philadelphia Eagles. Not the Super Bowl-winning Eagles. The Eagles who, freshly crowned in 2018, proceeded to crash, burn and require a lightning-speed rebuild.

Let’s start by acknowledging the good, even if it’s the furthest thing on which Duval County cares to dwell: Pederson was generally a respected leader of men. It’s why the Eagles tapped him to replace Chip Kelly almost a decade ago, and it made him the perfect figurehead for a squad full of underdogs in that spirited 2017 title run. It’s also why the Jaguars hired him in 2022, to wash away the stink of a failed Urban Meyer marriage, rebuild locker-room morale and uplift the ailing Trevor Lawrence, whose No. 1 overall selection at quarterback was always meant to usher in a grand turning of the tide.

At both his stops — in Philly, and then in Jacksonville — Pederson’s everyman presence helped produce a contender sooner than anticipated. Former No. 2 overall pick Carson Wentz went from gutsy gunslinger to full-on MVP candidate for the Eagles, earning the No. 1 seed that ultimately helped Nick Foles go the distance back in 2017. Lawrence, meanwhile, went from erratic underachiever to Pro Bowl playmaker in his first year under Pederson, overcoming a four-pick first half against the Los Angeles Chargers in his playoff debut to make a historic 27-point comeback. Jacksonville was rightfully primed to be Pederson’s next great underdog story, complete with a splashy young signal-caller.

So where did it all go wrong? Pederson’s past provides some clues. The post-2017 Eagles suffered from questionable personnel gambles by the front office, to be sure; Wentz practically dragged a collection of backup wide receivers to the postseason in 2019. The present-day Jags have been equally burdened by iffy roster-building, with some of general manager Trent Baalke’s highly priced additions (e.g. Gabe Davis, Arik Armstead) failing to make a meaningful difference.

And yet Pederson’s final Eagles season, when everything went south in a 4-11-1 cratering, primarily stemmed from a total breakdown in offensive infrastructure. He refused to carry a traditional offensive coordinator, perhaps soured by the middling reception to prior promotion Mike Groh. The weekly designs lacked the creative punch that powered the aggressive Eagles of Pederson’s peak. And Wentz succumbed to it all, leaning too much on his big arm and less on timely decisions, becoming a turnover machine before a late-year benching that effectively ended his relationship with the club.

Wentz, mind you, had only cashed in with a lucrative long-term contract extension the previous year. That’s another key to this puzzle: At the time of the Eagles’ big-money commitment to Wentz, the former star was coming off a solid, if unspectacular, 2018 season in which he played just 11 games due to injury. The Eagles were paying partly for his 2017 breakout, but mostly for projection, betting that his durability and occasionally reckless tendencies would subside under the security blanket of a rich new deal. Sound familiar? It was just this summer, immediately upon news of Trevor Lawrence’s mega extension with the Jags, that fans began wondering what, exactly, Jacksonville was paying $275 million for.

That’s not to say Lawrence lacks physical gifts. The way the ball leaves his hand, it’s fairly easy to identify him as a top-10 talent. The problem, as it was with Wentz in the late stage of his what-could-have-been Eagles tenure, has been either an unwillingness or an inability to play smart football, and/or stay healthy, within Pederson’s offense. That’s partly on the quarterback. It’s also on the offense. Pederson, see, only split from the Eagles following that disastrous 2020 campaign after he and the team reportedly failed to agree on plans to install Press Taylor, then a passing game coordinator, as the new chief of offense. And it’s Taylor who served as Pederson’s much-maligned coordinator and play-caller in Jacksonville.

Again, winning just five of 24 games since last December, the Jaguars’ issues ran much deeper than a couple of individuals, be it the guy throwing the ball and the guy dialing up the plays. Where was the vaunted pass rush? Or the hyped speed out wide? Why does Baalke’s power remain intact? For a team that was headlined, however, by an offensive coach in Pederson, a highly paid quarterback in Lawrence and a lineup decorated with former first-round talents at the skill spots, it’s telling that Jacksonville’s most glaring issue was incompetence with the ball in its hands. It’s precisely what put an abrupt end to Pederson’s lightning-in-a-bottle Eagles era not long ago, and, for as beloved as the coach may be personally, it’s what brought his latest chapter to its own painful close.

No one would — or should — blame Pederson if, after two tries at a top job, he retreats to the shadows and basks in the nostalgic glow of his well-earned Lombardi Trophy. This man remains a legend in at least one city. He’ll never have that stripped from him, nor should he. In another city, however, it became clear from all angles that it was time for a fresh start. Jaguars fans can only hope they, like Eagles fans, now benefit from a similar reshaping by the even higher-ups.