Does It Matter Who the Jaguars Play-Caller Is?

With the Jacksonville Jaguars still not naming a play-caller a few days before Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins, it is time to ask the question -- does it actually matter?

Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor on the sidelines during the first quarter. The Jaguars led 20 to 10 at the end of the first half. The Jacksonville Jaguars hosted the Kansas City Chiefs in the Jaguars first preseason game of the season Saturday, August10, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. [Bob Self/Florida Times-Union] / Bob Self/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Jacksonville Jaguars kick off the 2024 season in a matter of days against the Miami Dolphins, but they still don't a play-caller.

Or do they?

“Still working through that. Press [Taylor] and I are still talking about it," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Wednesday.

The simple reality is, the Jaguars know who is calling plays Week 1 and for the 2024 season in genera.

When Pederson says at the podium that they are still working through whether it will be him or offensive coordinator Press Taylor, it is simply the Super Bowl-winning head coach's way of being coy and keeping his cards close to his chest.

At the end of the day, the conversation about who is, or should, call plays for the Jaguars should be a moot point. The Jaguars have had a different play-calling operation in each of the last two years, but would anyone know if the Jaguars didn't reveal their plans?

Everyone assumed Pederson called every play in the 2022 season, because he never said otherwise. In reality, Pederson and Taylor split play-calling duties.

For all of the credit Pederson and Trevor Lawrence got for the success of the 2022 offense, Taylor owned some of it as well. But fans didn't know that, because there was no storyline about play-calling.

Fast forward to 2023, and would anyone have known about Taylor calling all of the plays if it wasn't announced on the morning of Week 1?

When Pederson said earlier this week that "you may never know" about who is calling plays, it was likely a playful way for Pederson to show how he really feels about the matter: the answer isn't important, because being the actual play-caller doesn't carry as much weight as fans and media presume.

“Oh, I don't know. I think if you're just looking at the offense, studying that, D-coordinators are looking at personnel, they're looking at formations, motion shifts, just like we do offensively," Pederson said on Wednesday.

"I don't think it's really any—not a whole lot of difference. Press and I think alike a lot of times and converse a lot of times during games and I just think that if you're looking at it, there's probably not a lot of differences.”

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