doeseatplace
Footballguy
Stealing this idea from Bri, my brother in arms who's a fan of the other miserable AFC South team that no one else cares about.
A win in Indy this Sunday will make them 4-2 in the division, and 1-10 vs the rest of the NFL (including losses to the Browns, Bears, Jets and Raiders)
The first, big question is whether Doug Pederson and Trent Baalke survive Black Monday. The fan base believes owner Shahid Khan has been too loyal to the coaches he likes when they fail to perform, specifically
Gus Bradley (4-12, 3-13, 5-12, fired 14 games into a 3-13 season) and Doug Marrone (10-6, 5-11, 6-10, 1-15). He had not problem kicking Mike Mularkey and Urban Meyer to the curb after one season and 13 games, respectively.
A massively underachieving season had many, many inflection points where it would have been completely understandable to fire Pederson. They started 0-4, giving away a game in MIA, losing to the Cleveland DeShauns at home, getting poleaxed on MNF by the Bills and failing to stop a Texans' game-winning drive. Then they beat the Colts, and were off to London, so a coaching change would have no longer made logistical sense at this point. They were embarrassed by the Bears, and had they not beat up on the hapless Pats the following week, a pink slip likely would have been handed out as the charter crossed the Atlantic.
Then three surprising competitive games against the Pack, Eagles and Vikings, which could have been chalked up as moral victories if that were a real thing in the NFL. But like they have all season (and the second half of last season) the Jags just found a way to lose games that were winnable, with the same set of unforced errors. Then they were humiliated by the Lions going into the bye, and it seemed the gig was up for Doug.
But it wasn't. And my guess there were several reasons for this:
(1) Khan is a decent human being, and firing a former Super Bowl winning coach at the season's 2/3 mark wasn't going to turn this pathetic season around. There was really no value to making that move at that point, especially creating more in-season chaos as the Jags and Jacksonville had just finished negotiating a deal on a new stadium.
(2) There was no better option. OC Press Taylor and DC Ryan Nielsen are terrible at their current jobs. Adding overall management responsibilities of the entire team would have made the situation worse. (See: Woody Johnson, Jeff Ulbrich). Former Chargers HC Mike McCoy is QB's coach, but that doesn't inspire confidence. The best aspect of the Jags is special teams (top 5 in DVOA), so one could argue that Heath Farwell was the most deserving.
(3) I think the firing is a package deal: Pederson AND Baalke. Fan base here HATES Baalke (remember this) so if the HC was dispatched at Thanksgiving, the last 6 weeks of the season would have been 100% Fire Baalke negative energy. No one needs that....this is not Duuval's first loser rodeo, so a double digit loss season is par for the course. You could keep Pederson without Baalke (though his record shows he isn't worthy to be retained) but you absolutely cannot keep Baalke around for a new head coach. Trent is the ultimate look-out-for-yourself-and -screw-the-other guy NFL insider, and his machinations are part of what make him so unlikeable.
I admit that until I sat down and started writing, I thought Khan would stay the course. But a fresh start is needed--your $275 million franchise QB has not developed, the roster is filled with holes on both sides of the ball and under Pederson, the team has been plagued by a lack of physical and mental toughness. Remember, when this team lost to the Chiefs 27-20 at Arrowhead in the 2022 division playoffs, it was touted as an up and coming squad, and football fans should start counting on regular January matchups between Mahomes and Trevor. That's how far, and how fast, this team has fallen.
A win in Indy this Sunday will make them 4-2 in the division, and 1-10 vs the rest of the NFL (including losses to the Browns, Bears, Jets and Raiders)
The first, big question is whether Doug Pederson and Trent Baalke survive Black Monday. The fan base believes owner Shahid Khan has been too loyal to the coaches he likes when they fail to perform, specifically
Gus Bradley (4-12, 3-13, 5-12, fired 14 games into a 3-13 season) and Doug Marrone (10-6, 5-11, 6-10, 1-15). He had not problem kicking Mike Mularkey and Urban Meyer to the curb after one season and 13 games, respectively.
A massively underachieving season had many, many inflection points where it would have been completely understandable to fire Pederson. They started 0-4, giving away a game in MIA, losing to the Cleveland DeShauns at home, getting poleaxed on MNF by the Bills and failing to stop a Texans' game-winning drive. Then they beat the Colts, and were off to London, so a coaching change would have no longer made logistical sense at this point. They were embarrassed by the Bears, and had they not beat up on the hapless Pats the following week, a pink slip likely would have been handed out as the charter crossed the Atlantic.
Then three surprising competitive games against the Pack, Eagles and Vikings, which could have been chalked up as moral victories if that were a real thing in the NFL. But like they have all season (and the second half of last season) the Jags just found a way to lose games that were winnable, with the same set of unforced errors. Then they were humiliated by the Lions going into the bye, and it seemed the gig was up for Doug.
But it wasn't. And my guess there were several reasons for this:
(1) Khan is a decent human being, and firing a former Super Bowl winning coach at the season's 2/3 mark wasn't going to turn this pathetic season around. There was really no value to making that move at that point, especially creating more in-season chaos as the Jags and Jacksonville had just finished negotiating a deal on a new stadium.
(2) There was no better option. OC Press Taylor and DC Ryan Nielsen are terrible at their current jobs. Adding overall management responsibilities of the entire team would have made the situation worse. (See: Woody Johnson, Jeff Ulbrich). Former Chargers HC Mike McCoy is QB's coach, but that doesn't inspire confidence. The best aspect of the Jags is special teams (top 5 in DVOA), so one could argue that Heath Farwell was the most deserving.
(3) I think the firing is a package deal: Pederson AND Baalke. Fan base here HATES Baalke (remember this) so if the HC was dispatched at Thanksgiving, the last 6 weeks of the season would have been 100% Fire Baalke negative energy. No one needs that....this is not Duuval's first loser rodeo, so a double digit loss season is par for the course. You could keep Pederson without Baalke (though his record shows he isn't worthy to be retained) but you absolutely cannot keep Baalke around for a new head coach. Trent is the ultimate look-out-for-yourself-and -screw-the-other guy NFL insider, and his machinations are part of what make him so unlikeable.
I admit that until I sat down and started writing, I thought Khan would stay the course. But a fresh start is needed--your $275 million franchise QB has not developed, the roster is filled with holes on both sides of the ball and under Pederson, the team has been plagued by a lack of physical and mental toughness. Remember, when this team lost to the Chiefs 27-20 at Arrowhead in the 2022 division playoffs, it was touted as an up and coming squad, and football fans should start counting on regular January matchups between Mahomes and Trevor. That's how far, and how fast, this team has fallen.
Last edited: