Jaguars’ Christian Kirk: Zach Ertz Vouched for Doug Pederson

Former Eagles tight end Zach Ertz went to bad for Doug Pederson when Christian Kirk was a free-agent, which appears to have gone a long way.

There are a number of reasons why the Jacksonville Jaguars were able to elevate their offense with the addition of wide receiver Christian Kirk last March. The biggest one is, obviously, money. 

But the testament of a former teammate may not have been far behind, with Kirk revealing this week that a former Arizona Cardinal teammate went to bat for the Jaguars during Kirk's recruitment. 

“I didn’t even really think about Jacksonville until they reached out,” Kirk said this week on Steve Smith's 'Cut To It' podcast. “They’ve got a solid defense, they’ve got some good guys over there. You could see it with Trevor [Lawrence].

“I remember Zach Ertz telling me ‘Hey, [if] you don’t come back here to Arizona, if you get an opportunity to look at Jacksonville because of Doug Pederson, you should really take it seriously because he’s one of the best.’ Obviously, Zach played for Doug in Philly, won a Super Bowl. So [he said], ‘You should really consider playing for Doug’ and that carried a lot of weight for me.”

Ertz, of course, played under Doug Pederson for five years in Philadelphia. He was traded to the Cardinals in 2021 and spent the rest of that season as Kirk's teammate in Arizona's offense, leading to Ertz having the chance to vouch for Pederson and his ability as a coach.

The Jaguars would of course go on to sign Kirk to a four-year, $72 million deal that helped shift the wide receiver market.

Kirk was everything the Jaguars could have asked for in 2022 during a career year. Kirk finished with career highs in yards (1,108), catches (84), and touchdowns (8) while also catching 15 passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns in the playoffs. Kirk finished tied for 18th in catches, 14th in receiving yards, and tied for 11th in touchdown catches. 

“He’s been awesome,” Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence said during the season. “I think the way that we communicate, the way he communicates with me when he sees things whether that’s in practice, during the week in our prep for whoever, or if it’s during the game. There was some pressure stuff today where it was all about me and him being on the same page. You see a lot of those big conversions and those quick throws that we have because I know how he’s going to be and how he’s going to react based on the look.

“We’re building on that and I think it’s really clicking right now. It’s something we have to build on. I feel like I’m getting there with all of our guys too. I feel in that aspect, we’re in a really good place. We just have to keep building on that and doing that because that’s really important.”