Shad Khan Brings Jaguars’ EVP Search to a Halt, Places Power With Pederson and Baalke

The Jaguars won't be hiring an Executive Vice President of Football after all -- at least not for now.

The Jacksonville Jaguars' search for an Executive Vice President of Football has officially come to a screeching halt, with owner Shad Khan announcing the pausing of the search three weeks after he stated the search would begin.

"I am pausing on the consideration of introducing an executive vice president of football," Khan said in a statement released on Tuesday, per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. 

"In just over three weeks, Doug Pederson has instilled a structured and disciplined approach that is clearly making a difference in our culture and mindset. I feel we're best served at this time by allowing Doug, [General Manager] Trent [Baalke] and their assistants to take ownership of our path moving forward. We will continue to explore the addition of personnel to other areas of our football operations to provide everyone the best chance to win."

A statement from owner Shad Khan: https://t.co/izdHYAypfx pic.twitter.com/mdzTiKrTkY

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 1, 2022

Khan's decision to not hire an EVP means the Jaguars' entire direction will now be decided by Pederson and embattled general manager Trent Baalke, whose position of power was a point of contention during the search for a head coach.

Pederson was hired to replace former Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer on Feb. 3, with Khan, Baalke and co-owner Tony Khan leading a month-long search that saw more than 10 candidates get interviewed. 

Two days after Pederson's hiring, Khan announced at Pederson's introductory press conference that the Jaguars would be making changes to the front office without changing Baalke's title and ultimate role. At the time, one of those changes was set to be an EVP.

I think both of those," Khan said when asked if he would be hiring an EVP or personnel members under Baalke. 

"We have filed request with the NFL for EVP, so we'll be doing that process. But definitely I think the interview process, I mean, we got great insights on how the organization under Trent is structured. So we need depth there, simple as that, experience. Both of those are what we're working on."

"Well, one of the reasons we had the search was not only looking for the head coaching candidate but really to learn about other organizations. I mean, that's a by-product of the coaching search," Khan said on Feb. 5. "So some of the practices, some of the structure that works, we got a great insight into it. So strengthening the football operations, more staff, definitely, that's part of our goal. So I mean, we've had too flat an organization, and we want to add brainpower and more people to strengthen that. 

With the NFL Scouting Combine kicking off this week and free agency set to begin in 13 days, the Jaguars will now maintain the status quo and keep the front office the same. 

"The thing that I learned coming out of Philadelphia too was just -- and Shad has alluded to it, even Trent. We had such a collaborative approach. We had open dialogue. We had tough conversations," Pederson said at his introductory press conference. 

"That's why we get put in these positions to make hard, hard, hard choices. It's never going to be in my favor. It's probably not going to be in Trent's favor or Shad's favor. At the end of the day, when we walk out on that practice field or that game field, we're Jaguars."

This will be Baalke's second season as general manager after serving as director of player personnel in 2020 before being named interim general manager for the final month of the season. After a search for a general manager to pair with Meyer, Khan ultimately decided on retaining Baalke and named him the team's full-time general manager last offseason.

The Jaguars went 3-14 in Baalke's first year as general manager, finishing with the worst record in the NFL and ending up with the No. 1 overall pick for the second consecutive year. Before 2021, the Jaguars had never once picked No. 1 overall.