The Jacksonville Jaguars gave their best effort when trying to repel the visiting New York Jets in Week 15 but ultimately came up short. The loss isn't very different from others this season, though. They keep things close enough to make you think that they will but ultimately fail to come through. In the end, this is an indictment on the job head coach Doug Pederson has done. Given his consistent inability to seal the deal in close games, the Jags must have already figured out that he needs to go.
After Week 14, Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post posted a picture of how the standings would look if one-score games had gone the other way this season. Below you can see that Jacksonville would have been 8-5 and leading the AFC South. With a win over the Jets, they would've moved to 9-5 in that hypothetical scenario.
There is an alternate universe where NFL games decided by one score go the other direction. This is what the 2024 standings would look like if that happened. pic.twitter.com/KjsvjpagTb
— Neil Greenberg (@ngreenberg) December 9, 2024
Now, you won't always be able to win close games, as the outcome the outcome could be determined by a mistake from either team, whether it's a fumble or a missed field goal. Having said that, the Jaguars are talented enough to win, but they don't have "the juice" to ultimately come out on top. That's on Pederson.
After all, a team is going to take on its head coach's personality, and Jacksonville has routinely failed to deliver in the clutch this season. On defense, they will offer no resistance and will let the other team reach the end zone like they did against the New York Jets. On offense, they'll have a chance to put together one last scoring drive that will earn them a win but won't be able to capitalize. This makes you wonder why the Jags should keep Pederson beyond 2024.
Doug Pederson has proven he doesn't deserve to return to the Jaguars in 2025
Even after being eliminated from playoff contention, the Jacksonville Jaguars didn't want to throw in the towel. They want to finish the season strong and that's commendable, as it would should that the team won't go through the motions even when they don't have much to play for. Doug Pederson would've benefited as well, as he would've shown that he could've kept the Jags afloat when things got dire. However, his case took a massive hit after the loss to the New York Jets.
Keep in mind that there's been chatter throughout the season about Jacksonville potentially dismissing Doug Pederson. There was even a report ahead of Week 12 suggesting that owner Shad Khan could fire the head coach and general manager Trent Baalke if they were embarrassed against the Detroit Lions.
They were ultimately humiliated, but Khan opted to keep both of them around, which makes sense when you take into account his track record of not making rash decisions. It's also worth noting that the Jags were still in contention for a playoff spot at the time, so maybe the owner thought that they could steer the ship in the right direction. They didn't.
Sure, the Jaguars have been hampered by injuries to key players this season, but the best clubs in the league manage to work their way around them, and after the latest loss to the Jets, Doug Pederson has shown he doesn't deserve to stay beyond in 2025. Perhaps it's time the organization begins to do due diligence on Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.