Aside from a flukey 2017 season in which Jacksonville made it to the AFC Championship Game, the Jaguars have experienced a decade of bad play.
The club has finished in last place in the AFC South in each of the last four seasons, never reaching more than six wins. And in the six years before that 2017 aberration, Jacksonville never won more than five games a year.
The Jaguars hired head coach Doug Pederson to try and change all that. And there’s reason to believe he can, as Pederson compiled a 42-37-1 record in five seasons as the Eagles’ head coach, winning Super Bowl LII. But there’s also something to be said for such long-term futility.
Still, Pederson said last week that he’s unconcerned about what’s happened with Jacksonville in the past.
“It’s hard for me to speak to what has gone wrong or is wrong or whatever. I don’t know, quite frankly, and I really don’t care about that,” Pederson said in a Friday press conference. “What I care about is moving forward from two weeks ago when I was hired. That’s what we’re trying to change. That’s what I’m trying to change. I’m trying to turn this into a winning program, a winning organization.
“Do you learn from the past? Of course. You study it, of course. But at the same time, my focus has always been a forward-thinking approach to everything we do.”
The most important aspect of Pederson’s tenure with the Jags will be if he gets the most out of 2021 No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence. Pederson’s hired a quality staff to do so. But if Lawrence doesn’t turn into a franchise quarterback, Jacksonville’s run of futility is likely to continue.
