The Jaguars hired Doug Pederson to win and develop quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Neither happens. (Video)

Nearly three years ago, it seemed perfect. The Jacksonville Jaguars experienced a near-mutiny under head coach Urban Meyer, quarterback Trevor Lawrence looked like a mess, and the franchise was headed for another double-digit losing season. With the extent of Shad Khan’s ownership on the team, it felt like a rarefied opportunity with a generational quarterback was in jeopardy.

In response, Khan hired Doug Pederson, then explained the decision to the outside world.

“Why Doug Pederson?” This is a man who has accomplished a lot,” Khan said in February 2022, sitting next to Pederson during his introductory press conference. “The best offensive coordinator, experienced head coach, won three division titles in five years – a man who won the Super Bowl just four years ago. And he did it for the Philadelphia Eagles, a city very much like Jacksonville, who were looking to win their first championship. So in the end, we have someone who has been there. A head coach, quarterback developer. A man who creates a culture for players and coaches. A culture in which they will thrive and a leader who commands respect and inspires those around them. And a man who wins.

Imagine Khan’s dismay on Sunday, after watching his Jaguars lose a agonizing 24-20 game to a Houston Texans team that was following the precise trajectory the Jaguars set when Pederson took over the team. By the third year of his mandate? Jacksonville was supposed to be battling for AFC supremacy and Lawrence should have been making big strides toward the league’s elite level of quarterbacks. Instead, time in Jacksonville is a flat circle and the Jaguars are mired in the trench of Friedrich Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence.

It’s just another way of saying that the Jaguars are what they were…and could inevitably become what they once were.

This is what that 0-4 start looks like. Just the latest promised seasonal horizons marathon taking place on a treadmill. When Sunday offered a familiar landmark to nowhere, Pederson was asked if he was concerned about his employment status after the loss to the Texans.

“My status? No,” Pederson said, before adding, “It’s a bit of a strange question, but okay. »

That Pederson thinks it’s a strange question betrays his own message during that 2022 press conference, when he took a moment during his introduction to send a message to his new team.

“For our players – and I think this is very important – for our players, my only goal, from the minute I was hired, is to really help them do their best, to help our team to winning football games,” Pederson said. . “And it’s our job as coaches to put our players in a position to succeed, to develop their talent one player at a time, one unit at a time, and that’s how you win games in the National Football League.”

On Sunday, Pederson appeared to send a new message, following a question about whether he would consider taking over for offensive coordinator Press Taylor.

“For what? I thought he called a good game,” Pederson said of Taylor. “As coaches, we can’t go out there and make plays, right? It’s a two-way street. So you can sit here and point all you want and that’s fine. Point it directly at me. I can take it.

In reality, no one has to point the finger at Pederson at the moment. The results do it for him. He is 1-9 in his last 10 games, with this win coming against the league-worst Panthers in 2023. His offense has one of the worst third-down conversion rates in the league. And while he’s finally healthy again, his franchise quarterback is completing a career-low 53.2 percent of his passes in four games, demonstrating an inability to be consistent or effective on intermediate passes and some familiar ineffectiveness in the red zone, all of which harkens back to his rookie season.

As of Monday, Lawrence will have gone an inexplicable 309 days since he won a football game, which is an alarming statistic for a presumed generational quarterback who just signed a five-year, $275 million extension. Especially when you focus him on some of the throws he misses. Like the third-quarter deep shot to a streaking Christian Kirk, who had enough spacing to have a clear path for a touchdown, but not enough speed to catch the ball that Lawrence passed 4 yards over of his head.

If the two most important factors in hiring Pederson were winning and consistently developing his franchise quarterback, the results aren’t great. Taylor’s offense is among the worst in the league. He’s in the bottom third in total yards and passing yards. Lawrence is in the middle of this attack. Which means if Pederson thinks Taylor is calling good plays, someone else isn’t meeting the standards. And the first person in line to turn the wrench on an offense is the quarterback. And if the quarterback isn’t the problem, it’s the surrounding elements of the offense that his general manager, Trent Baalke, built from the ground up. And if it’s not Press Taylor… not Trevor Lawrence… not Baalke’s roster… then who is the problem in the middle of this operation?

As Pederson asked, point the finger. He’s the one who took responsibility for getting this thing on track, so the responsibility ultimately lies with him until he wants to clarify where the breakdown is occurring. Not for nothing, but Philadelphia Eagles sources have divulged the issues owner Jeffrey Lurie had with Taylor when he was on Pederson’s staff in Philadelphia. The headbutts against Taylor ultimately became part of the mutual separation between the Eagles and Pederson in 2021.

That’s not to say Pederson shouldn’t be able to run his coaching staff however he sees fit. But it clearly shows how far he will go to defend Taylor’s position or performance as an assistant coach. Which should at the very least raise the question of whether Pederson can honestly evaluate the job Taylor is doing, or take over the playing duties that Pederson himself said were a point of personal pride when he got the job with the Jaguars.

Regardless, the results are what they are. The Jaguars are in an 0-4 hole that is virtually impossible to recover from in the NFL, with only the 1992 San Diego Chargers managing to make the playoffs after losing their first four games. Now compare that to the expectations of Khan, who not only hired Pederson to bring Lawrence in and win games, but also said before the season that expectations were now winning with what he believed to be the best Jaguars team he ever seen.

Perhaps the only thing the Jaguars have going for them is that Houston is a quality team in the AFC – maybe even one of the best in the conference. And the Jaguars took them until the final minute of regulation. If this indicates that Jacksonville is on the verge of breaking through, then the schedule could provide an opportunity. The Indianapolis Colts come to town next week amid their own problems. Star running back Jonathan Taylor is nursing a high ankle sprain, and quarterback Anthony Richardson suffered a hip injury Sunday and was replaced by 39-year-old (but very effective) Joe Flacco.

While it’s not exactly a good opportunity, it’s the kind of game the Jaguars should be able to win at home. If they don’t, that 0-5 gap is going to start to look like where Pederson’s job is buried.