How Secure is Doug Pederson's Job with Jaguars?

Doug Pederson's Jacksonville Jaguars are 0-4 so far in 2024, a season that had high expectations. Is it enough to be his demise in Duval?

Sep 8, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson looks on from the sideline against the Miami Dolphins during the first quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

It's a part of football, right? Falling into a hole, maybe a few games back?

But the Jacksonville Jaguars are in a stickier situation than that. They lost three winnable games and an embarrassing blowout. They are 0-4 with a team the owner, Shad Khan, heavily invested in and pinned the highest of expectations on -- a win-now mindset and the title of the franchise's finest edition.

This team isn't supposed to be an upswinging underdog like it was in 2022, when head coach Doug Pederson led the Jaguars to the playoffs and a playoff victory, no less. It has to follow a 2023 campaign that began 8-3 and ended 9-8 -- with no playoffs.

Third time's the charm, this was supposed to be it for Pederson's Jaguars. Time to be a real contender. Not a pretender. But as it turns out, pretending might have been what they were doing all along.

The offense is anemic with seemingly no answers, and the defense is banged up and underperforming where it is healthy.

Pederson's seat is hot. But despite all of the aforementioned issues, piled onto reports that he and general manager Trent Baalke have a fractured relationship, the coach feels secure in his spot at the helm. He's done this before.

"I think obviously you're going to go through some setbacks in this league and there's going to be some times where you're going to come on some hard times," Pederson told reporters on Wednesday. "I mean, that's just part of this game. I've been there before; I've done that before and we've always battled back. I mean even when we were 3-7 in ‘22, we found a way to win a game and win multiple games and that's all it takes. I think too, when you look at it and if you really look at these games, like with a calm eye, and study the tape and see, I mean, there's mistakes, yeah, there's  mistakes. Are they critical at times? Yeah. I mean, they’re critical at times, but there's a lot of good, as we talked about the other day. That's what we have to lean on, and we’ve just  got to continue to work."

Pederson has to turn it around, fast. Even then, it might not be enough. With a plethora of options to replace him -- what will Khan do?

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