Doug Pederson Evaluates Press Taylor's First Game as Jaguars' Play-Caller

The second-year offensive coordinator was handed play-calling duties for the first time this season.

For the first time in the Doug Pederson era, the Jacksonville Jaguars had a different play-caller. 

Pederson anointed offense coordinator Press Taylor as the team's primary offensive play-caller this season, a report that was made public hours before the kickoff of the 2023 season vs. the Indianapolis Colts. And in Taylor's first game, there were ups and downs, big plays and turnovers, but also a 31-21 win that showed the offense's potential. 

“Press and I have been talking about this for two years now. It’s something that I thought a lot about, and it’s not an easy decision," Pederson said on Monday. "Like I said after the game, he and I have been together for seven years. We think alike, we know each other, I trust him wholeheartedly and that’s why he’s my offensive coordinator. He makes good decisions, he’s well prepared, it gives me an opportunity to stay engaged within the game and decision making in the game, helping out all three phases a little bit more and dealing with officials and things like that. 

Under Pederson and Taylor, the Jaguars improved from 32nd to 10th in points per game, 28th to 8th in EPA/Play, 19th to 5th in success rate, and 27th to 8th in DVOA. The Jaguars went 9-8, won the AFC South and advanced to the second round of the playoffs after a Wild Card win over the Los Angeles Chargers, with quarterback Trevor Lawrence earning a Pro Bowl nod to top it all off.

Pederson noted on Sunday that Taylor called plays during the second halves of games last year. But Sunday was the first time Taylor was the sole voice. In the performance, Taylor oversaw the offense conduct five scoring drives, averaging 5.0 yards per play and going 3-of-3 in the red-zone. 

"It’s not easy, but at the same time, it felt like this was the right opportunity. He did a good job, he did a great job for us. We scored 31 points and come away with a victory in your first one," Pederson said. "Listen, this is not his first time to call plays. Don’t misunderstand, he did this last year. He’s had a lot of experience doing this.”

There were some lagging issues with the offense too, though, such as failed short-yardage situations, turnovers on rookie mistakes from third-round running back Tank Bigsby, and a third-down offense that saw the Jaguars go 3-of-12.

“Just our execution, honestly. Nothing out of the ordinary, we knew exactly where they were going to be defensively and just execution. We were late off the ball a couple of times with the noise and things like that, things we can correct and fix," Pederson said. 

"Those are all opportunities when you look at the third and fourth down scenarios we had in the game, if you would’ve told me that we would’ve been average third-and-four for the entire game, you’d be in the 60-70 percent range of conversion. Those are things we’ll take a look at and we got to fix.”