Did This Unique Move Before the Season Help or Hurt the Jaguars?

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson made a unique move inside the locker room shortly before the season started to help improve team chemistry. At 0-4, its fair to question whether or not the move worked.

Sep 29, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson looks on during the fourth quarter against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

With the Jacksonville Jaguars yet to win a game, everything they do is fair to question. Especially as they are the only winless team in the National Football League. The team’s play on the field is one thing that has many questions that need answered.

However, head coach Doug Pederson’s decision to move the players lockers around shortly before the season has come into question as well, as the team seems to out of synch.

“I knew you were going to ask me one day,” Pederson said. “I think when you get to a locker room downstairs, I think it goes to, to [Florida Times-Union columnist, Gene Frenette]'s question earlier about being able to coach players and being hard on them. I think it's good that you mix your team up.”

Pederson elaborated on the results he was hoping the locker relocations would have on the team. He believes there are positives that can come from players mixing and mingling with teammates they do not normally spend time with.

“I think it's good that they don't just pod up – your O-line is in this corner, your D-line is in that corner, your linebackers,” Pederson said. “If you mix your team up, they're going to bond. You talk about having a strong locker room – that's where the strong locker room comes in. Now, position groups can't position themselves against each other. It's not O-line versus D-line. 

“When you get the O-line and D-line together, they work together, they talk together, they live together, they build relationships together. You can't do it over here [EverBank Stadium] because game day is different. You’ve got to be able to be offense, defense and all that on game day. But during the week where we come to work every single day. 

Pederson quickly noted that the idea to move the players’ lockers around to improve things was not an idea he came up with himself. He said it was simply an idea he had received from a few of the players, and that it was an idea he liked. 

“I think it's important that—and this wasn't my idea,” Pederson said. “Don't confuse it. It was not my idea. Some of the players had brought this to my attention in places they had been colleges, things like that. So, I thought it was a great idea. I did it right after the offseason program, heading into camp”

As admirable as the move was, the team is still winless and it is fair to wonder whether or not moving the team’s lockers around did more harm than good. It seems as if the mixture of player and positions resembles the team’s unorganized play on the field.

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