The Jaguars have lost four straight games and they’ve scored 19 points in their last two games, but there won’t be a shakeup to their offensive operations in the final weeks of the season.
Head coach Doug Pederson addressed a question about offensive play calls on Tuesday and said that he does not think the job offensive coordinator Press Taylor is doing on that front is the reason why the team has lost their edge in the AFC South. Pederson pointed to 10 turnovers in the team’s last three games as something that needs to be cleaned up if the team is going to find their way back to a win.
“Everybody wants to point the finger somewhere,” Pederson said, via the team’s website. “We have to do a better job at taking care of the football. It’s not about the plays. We have to tackle better and we have to take care of the football, bottom line. We do those two things, those give us a chance to win football games. If we don’t, then we’re going to be talking about this again. Those are the glaring differences right now between winning and losing.”
Taylor took over the play calling duties this year and no one was complaining about the job he was doing through 11 games. If the next couple of weeks don’t get better, it’s sure to be a topic this offseason even if Pederson remains adamant that it isn’t the issue.
With Trevor Lawrence dealing with an ailing shoulder, the Jaguars have added a quarterback.
Jacksonville has signed Matt Barkley to its 53-man roster off of the Giants practice squad.
Barkley has not appeared in a game since 2020 and not started one since 2018. He was with Buffalo in the preseason and joined the Giants in late October.
C.J. Beatharad is in line to start if Lawrence can’t play. The club also has E.J. Perry at quarterback on the practice squad.
The Jaguars also announced safety Daniel Thomas has been placed on injured reserve.
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s status for this week’s game against the Panthers remains up in the air on Tuesday.
Head coach Doug Pederson said that Lawrence has been diagnosed with a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder after being injured in Sunday’s loss to the Buccaneers. Pederson said that Lawrence is “doing better today than he did yesterday,” but that he doesn’t expect Lawrence to practice on Wednesday.
“It’s a little bit early,” Pederson said, via the team’s website. “He may do a little something tomorrow, but I would doubt that. It’s a little bit too soon, but we’ll see as the day, as the week, goes on.”
It’s the third straight week that Lawrence is dealing with an injury as he suffered a high-ankle sprain in Week 14 and a concussion in Week 15.
“He has been fortunate enough to bounce back from all of them,” Lawrence said. “We’ll see as he goes this week where he’s at. We’ve been fortunate that he has been able to be available every week so far.”
The Jaguars, Colts and Texans all have 8-7 records, but the Jaguars will win the AFC South if they win both of their remaining games and having Lawrence at his best would be good reason to feel confident about their chances of doing that. The repeated injuries and their concurrent four-game losing streak aren’t doing much to inspire that kind of confidence, so they’ll be hoping for some good news in the coming days in Jacksonville.
This December has looked a lot different for Baker Mayfield than last December.
Mayfield was released by the Panthers in early December 2022 and his prospects were uncertain after he played out the final weeks of the regular season with a Rams team that was going nowhere. Mayfield signed with the Buccaneers after Tom Brady retired and it looked like things might go a similar way when the Bucs came into the final month of 2023 with a 4-7 record, but the last four weeks have changed everything in Tampa.
Mayfield has thrown nine touchdowns during a four-game winning streak, including two in Sunday’s 30-12 rout of the Jaguars that put the team on the doorstep of a division title. They will be the NFC South champions with one win in the final two weeks and head coach Todd Bowles credited the quarterback with putting them in that position.
“He’s been outstanding,” Bowles said at his postgame press conference. “He’s been outstanding in December. That’s what you want from your quarterback in December. Everybody knows each other’s plays right about now. But when you’re trying to make a push and your quarterback is playing great, it gives you a chance.”
Mayfield’s play has opened the door to a longer stay in Tampa, but talks on that front aren’t likely to come until the Bucs are finished playing. The last month has given reason to believe that the end of their run might not come until well into January.
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence has had two head coaches in three NFL seasons. The first one, Urban Meyer, had no business being there. The second one, Doug Pederson, has won a Super Bowl.
Based on Lawrence’s comments after a blowout loss to the Buccaneers, Pederson’s future suddenly seems far shakier than it should.
“It just looks like we don’t even practice,” Lawrence told reporters, via ESPN.com. “We look lost. No sense of urgency. The list goes on and on. I feel like we have good weeks of preparation and I feel like we’re prepared going into games and then something happens on game day the last month where it just all falls apart.
“This is our season. We’ve worked hard to be in this position and we’re close to pissing it away so we’ve got to figure it out.”
Although Lawrence surely didn’t intend his comments to be an indictment of coaching, that’s what they kind of are. It’s the coach’s job to create the impression that the team has practiced. That the team doesn’t look lost. That the team has a sense of urgency. That things don’t fall apart on game day. That they don’t piss away a promising season.
The Jaguars still have two chances to turn it around, with a visit from the Panthers and a trip to the Titans. If they can turn it around and make the playoffs, fine. If they don’t, ownership might have some tough questions to ask regarding whether the team is reaching its potential, if not why not, and what can be done to get there.
