3 reasons why Doug Pederson should call plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2024

With 10 weeks until Sunday’s NFL opener, the Jacksonville Jaguars have yet to resolve one of the biggest questions in football.

Who calls the shots?

This topic has been written about countless times throughout the preseason, whether in this space or elsewhere. However, the answer likely won’t be revealed until we get a little closer to Week 1.

The two options are obvious: head coach Doug Pederson or offensive coordinator Press Taylor. Which option Pederson could choose to decide the important role is much less obvious, as Pederson, Taylor and the rest of the Jaguars management, staff and players remain silent and non-committal on the issue.

That said, we believe there are compelling reasons for Pederson to take the job. Here are three reasons why.

Pederson is one of the reasons the offense was better in 2022 than in 2023

The main reason Pederson should take over play-calling duties is obvious: He’s good at it. Pederson’s play-calling ability and acumen likely ranks in the top twelve among head coaches. His Super Bowl run in Philadelphia proved it and so did his first year with the Jaguars. While Taylor called plays at times for the 2022 Jaguars, Pederson’s impact cannot be understated.

In 2022, the Jaguars ranked No. 8 in EPA/Play, No. 5 in Hit Rate, No. 6 in Dropback EPA/Play, No. 4 in Dropback Success Rate, 26th in EPA/Play on land and 21. at an accelerated success rate. They were a bad running team, but the offense as a whole was a top 10 unit and a top 6 passing game.

In 2023, the Jaguars took a step back despite having most of the same players. The only differences were injuries at receiver and quarterback, but otherwise, the Jaguars made a giant upgrade at receiver, moving from Marvin Jones to Calvin Ridley.

Despite this, the 2023 Jaguars ranked 19th in EPA/Play, 14th in success rate, 14th in dropback EPA/Play, 7th in dropback success rate, 30th in rushing EPA/Play, and No. 19 in EPA/Play. 31 in rushing success rate. Aside from meaningless volume stats like passing yards, the Jaguars’ defense regressed in every area in 2023. To turn that around, Pederson needs to do what he does best.

Property pressure is already present

The differences between Pederson’s situation in Jacksonville and Pederson’s situation and eventual dismissal in Philadelphia are starkly defined. With the Eagles, Pederson answered to an owner who wanted to put his own stamp on football operations. An owner who wasn’t afraid to make demands and an owner who wasn’t afraid to make changes if he didn’t like what he heard.

In Jacksonville, Pederson doesn’t have that type of ownership. Jaguars owner Shad Khan is known for his patience in his more than a decade as an owner. Khan has evolved and developed with each season, but at heart he is an owner who wants to give his employees the power to do the job he hired them to do.

That said, Khan has already set the standard for the 2024 season. He wants his team to be in the playoffs and clearly wants Pederson to be the play-caller, even if he never says it in so many words. Khan, who never had a play-calling head coach before Pederson, will let Pederson decide the play-calling question. In doing so, he will let Pederson decide his own destiny. With so much pressure already on ownership, why wouldn’t Pederson want to captain the Jaguars’ offensive ship?

“Yeah, I have an opinion, that’s fine. But those are things, like the question about Trevor, I have an opinion and I think, but I don’t want to tell people, look, we have to do it. Because then things don’t work out, they look at me and say, we did it because you wanted it,” Khan said Wednesday. “Okay. So I think there’s been a lot written about that. Heck, the New York Times published an article about it, and you remember the last line of that article. Well, the last sentence of that article on this matter. So I think, but Doug, he’s empowered. I’m going to let him decide.”

This should be why Pederson hired Ryan Nielsen to run the defense.

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons Doug Pederson didn’t call plays in 2023 had to do with the Jaguars’ defense. Yes, Pederson let Taylor call plays at times in 2022, just like Andy Reid did with Pederson when Pederson was his coordinator. And yes, Pederson probably always planned to hand the reins to Taylor sooner rather than later considering he had a similar plan in Philadelphia.

But Pederson’s comments about play-calling at the Combine suggested something was pulling him away from the play sheet, and it makes sense to consider defense as a factor. After all, the lasting impression of the 2022 Jaguars’ defense was of a unit that couldn’t stop a limping Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. So it would make sense for Pederson to take on more of a CEO role in 2023 than a play-calling expert like other head coaches around the NFL.

But Pederson shouldn’t have the same concern with Ryan Nielsen that he perhaps had with Mike Caldwell’s unit entering last season. The Jaguars’ defense has yet to play a single meaningful down for Nielsen, but his reputation and approach speak for themselves. He doesn’t have decades of experience running a defense, but it’s clear he has a different level of coordinator than the Jaguars have had in the past.

Signing Nielsen means Pederson can finally turn over the defense completely. And in doing so, he should open up more opportunities for him to focus on the offensive side of the ball. Nielsen was hired for a reason.