![Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson looks on during the fourth quarter Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The Jaguars held off the Titans 20-13. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_320,w_6000,h_3375/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/55/01kfe17sdgzwp69yvmnv.jpg "Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson looks on during the fourth quarter Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The Jaguars held off the Titans 20-13. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]")
When the Jacksonville Jaguars hired Doug Pederson as their head coach in 2022, they enjoyed success right away. They made the playoffs and won the AFC South title in his first season at the helm. They came up short of the postseason the following year but still finished with a winning record. However, it all came to a screeching halt in 2024.
The Jags began to lose, and Pederson didn't seemingly have an answer to steer the ship in the right direction. Moreover, he seemingly lost his grip on the locker room. That's why nobody batted an eye when Jacksonville dismissed him after finishing 4-13 in 2024.
After an extensive search, the Jaguars hired Liam Coen to replace Pederson. Under Coen, they went 13-4 and won the division title in 2025. If that wasn't enough, the decision looks much better in light of the head-coaching turnover across the NFL.
The Jaguars would have had stiff competition to replace Doug Pederson in 2026
In his hiring cycle, 10 NFL teams dismissed their head coaches, which is the most since 2022. While there were several enticing candidates, there were also 10 clubs competing to land the best one.
And if the Jaguars had waited until this year to fire Doug Pederson, they might have ended with a subpar head coach, but more importantly, they would have missed out on Liam Coen. John Shipley of Sports Illustrated first pointed this out on social media.
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Hiring Liam Coen came with an added benefit for the Jaguars
Of course, there's a chance the Jags would also nail their search for a head coach if they had waited until 2026 to fire Doug Pederson. Heck, there's a chance he might have turned things around if he had stayed. That said, they hit it out of the ballpark when they hired Liam Coen.
For starters, the Jags wouldn't have fired Trent Baalke if they had set their sights on Coen. Although Baalke brought in several players who are part of the team's current core, he didn't have a great reputation across the NFL, and several head-coaching candidates weren't seemingly enthused about the prospect of working with him.
It wasn't until Coen first shunned Jacksonville that owner Shad Khan dismissed Baalke. And only when they fired him were they able to lure Coen out of Tampa Bay. Had they waited to fire Pederson, Baalke could still be running the show. This might have complicated their coaching search.
Do you think that John Harbaugh or Mike McDonald would have wanted to work with Baalke? This is just a conjecture, but the Jaguars may not have been an appealing destination for head coaches this hiring cycle if he had stuck around.
Ultimately, the timing couldn't have worked better for the Jaguars. Just one year into the Liam Coen era, they're far ahead in their rebuild than they would've expected. Sure, there's still plenty of work left, but the future couldn't look brighter, and it wouldn't have been possible if they hadn't fired Doug Pederson after the 2024 season ended.