3 strengths and 2 weaknesses of Jaguars HC Doug Pederson heading into the 2023 season

No. 2 Jaguars HC Doug Pederson's biggest weakness

Aggressiveness, 3rd and 4th-down management

No coach is without his faults. Then again, there are some with fewer weaknesses than others. And those that can do a good job of masking them will find a way to win. In Pederson's case, it's his propensity to go for it on fourth down. You could argue that this is a bit of nitpicking but when you have coached six seasons and made the playoffs in four of them — three with the Eagles, one with the Jags — it's hard to find too many.

Going back to the topic, the Jaguars ranked eighth in the league with 27 attempts on fourth down. Of those 27, they completed 14, good for a 51.9 percent success rate. That's pretty much a flip coin. Make the conversion and get a fresh set of downs. Fail and give the opposing team the ball. Maybe if Jacksonville had had a much better success rate, over 65 percent or better, it would make more sense.

Then again, former kicker Riley Patterson didn't have a good range, so the Jaguars probably chose to go for it on fourth down a few more times than they would've wanted last year. With Brandon McManus also in the mix, the Jaguars might take a more conservative approach on fourth down and settle for field goals.

Another thing that forced the Jags to take more chances was their poor conversion rate on third downs of 41.9 percent. Failing to convert on third down forced Pederson to take more chances in order to stay in the game. The good news is that the Jaguars have more talent in 2023 than they had last year and having the same system in place should lead to more efficiency on offense.

Still, the Jaguars' performance on money downs should be closely monitored next season.