5 Potential Options For the Jaguars to Replace Nick Holz

Which coaches with Doug Pederson ties could become their new passing game coordinator?

For the second year in a row, the Jacksonville Jaguars will be looking for a replacement for their passing game coordinator. 

A year after the Indianapolis Colts hired Jim Bob Cooter as offensive coordinator, the Tennessee Titans followed suit and hired Nick Holz as their coordinator. 

With a vacancy now on the coaching staff alongside Press Taylor -- who is already entering a make-or-break season -- it makes sense for the Jaguars to explore options to replace Holz. 

So, which names could potentially make sense as Holz's replacement? We take a look below.

Frank Reich 

This is the most obvious name people will come up with, though it would make more sense if he was also named assistant head coach so as to not put him completely under Taylor on the hierarchy. Reich and Pederson have plenty of respect for each other after their run together with the Eagles and their battles in the AFC South in 2022. 

Reich has shown he can orchestrate a passing game and his work with Nick Foles during the Eagles' Super Bowl run should do enough to justify this fit, though there would obviously be some dissenters after his disastrous tenure with the Panthers. After being fired twice as a head coach in a 12-month span, being an assistant seems like the best fit for Reich.

John DeFilippo 

The current head coach of the UFL's Memphis Showboats, a passing coordinator gig could be what John DeFilippo needs to enter back into the NFL. The last coaching job he held was passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach with the Chicago Bears in 2021, where he worked for two years under Matt Nagy -- another Andy Reid disciple. 

DeFilippo spent two years with Pederson in Philadelphia as quarterbacks coach before he left for offensive coordinator roles, so there is familiarity here between them and with DeFilippo and Taylor, who any hire will have to work closely alongside. 

Mike Groh 

Another name with Pederson ties, Mike Groh spent three years with Pederson in Philadelphia and was Pederson's choice to replace Reich as offensive coordinator after Reich left for the Colts. Groh was fired by Pederson after the 2020 season and then spent the next two years as Reich's receivers coach before taking the same job with the Giants in 2022. 

This wouldn't be a hire that would necessarily bring new ideas, but it would give the Jaguars an experienced coach who has already been a coordinator under Pederson.

Mike McCoy/Andrew Breiner

What about an internal promotion? If the Jaguars were to try to keep the hire in-house, then quarterbacks coach Mike McCoy and assistant quarterbacks coach Andrew Breiner would both make a lot of sense. Each has worked with Trevor Lawrence for two years now, and the Jaguars know how each would work alongside Taylor. 

The Jaguars might not want to rock the boat with Lawrence's development and take away his quarterbacks coach, which could mean Breiner gets the promotion. It would create an interesting dynamic, though, to see Breiner go from McCoy's assistant to essentially above him on the food chain.

Parks Frazier

This isn't another coach in the NFL that Frank Reich could deliver a scouting report on better. After all, Reich literally officiated Parks Fraizer's wedding. Fraizer got his first NFL gig as Reich's assistant in 2018 before being promoted to quality control coach in 2020 and then assistant quarterbacks coach in 2021. He took over as interim play-caller under Jeff Saturday after Reich's firing, and then followed Reich to Carolina as the Panthers passing game coordinator in 2023. 

This isn't a hire that would bring a lot of fanfare considering how bad things went for the Panthers and their passing game in 2023, but relationships matter in the NFL. If Reich were to go to bat for Fraizer to Pederson, it would likely go a long way.