Jaguars' Doug Pederson Finishes 3rd in Coach of Year Voting

The Jaguars' head coach had all of the success of a coach of the year winner, but ultimately finished third in voting after a 9-8 season.

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson finished third in Coach of the Year voting during the NFL Honors award show on Thursday night, a surprising placement for the coach who turned the Jaguars from worst to first. 

Pederson received five votes for the award. Winning the award was New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll with 16 first-place votes. San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was second with 12 votes, followed by Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott's seven votes and Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni's six votes.

The Jaguars went 9-8 and won the AFC South in their first year under Pederson, finishing his first season with a playoff win vs. the Los Angeles Chargers and a narrow 27-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Divisional Round. 

The Jaguars' nine wins were a six-game win improvement from 2021. In the previous three years combined, the Jaguars won 10 games. Despite this, and despite having the fourth-youngest roster in the NFL, Pederson turned the Jaguars into a winning team that nobody wanted to play by season's end. 

Jacksonville earned their eighth postseason bid in franchise history and won the AFC South for the second time since the division was formed in 2002. Jacksonville began the regular season 3-7 prior to winning six of their last seven. The Jaguars five-game winning streak was the second time the Jaguars closed the season on a five-game winning streak to make the postseason. 

The Jaguars totaled 404 points with Pederson calling the plays and were one of just 10 NFL teams to reach the 400-point plateau. 2022 was the third time Jacksonville reached 400 total points and the first time since 2017.

"This has been great for me. Kind of re-energized, this is a great group. It’s fun to coach younger players. A good, young group that’s eager and energetic and just wants to win," Pederson said at the end of the season. 

"That’s the biggest thing with this group, back in February when I was here, the ones I met, they just wanted to win. They work hard, that’s where I can appreciate them. It’s fun, it was fun to come to work every day and be around the staff and be around the guys and looking forward to year two.”