Jaguars HC Doug Pederson not letting 2023's failure define the team

If you had said before the start of the 2023 season that the Jacksonville Jaguars were a Super Bowl sleeper, most analysts would've nodded. After all, they reached the divisional round of the playoffs the year prior. Unfortunately, the Jags weren't able to live up to expectations, failing to qualify for the postseason for the second year in a row. But as bad as things ended for his team, head coach Doug Pederson isn't letting their failure define them.

Pederson made an appearance on NFL Media and said that the 2023 season isn't a reflection of who the Jaguars truly are.

"Bucky, I had conversations after games last year about it and I think for myself, it's going to burn," Pederson told analyst Bucky Brooks. "It's going to burn for a long time until we get to meaningful games again and start playing in September. But that's the same fuel, the motivating factor for our players, that the way we ended is not us."

"And no matter what you go through as a football team, everybody goes through adversity. There's always going to be injuries, but you can't make excuses. You got to go play football. For us, we got to learn from that, roll up our sleeves or training camp, work hard, and one game at a
time," Brooks said.

The Jaguars were the early favorites to win the AFC South and make a deep playoff run in 2023. They went 8-3 to start the season but fell apart as the season went on, winning just one of their five last games. Despite their struggles, they entered the finale with a chance to make the playoffs and win the divison. All they had to do was beat the Tennessee Titans but they couldn't get the job done and were eliminated from contention.

Following their late-season collapse, Jacksonville is now flying under the radar. That said, there's plenty of internal pressure to bounce back in 2024. They made an aggressive effort to address several needs in free agency and locked up core players such as Trevor Lawrence and Josh Hines-Allen in the offseason.

Moreover, Pederson has been given free rein to do whatever he needs to steer the ship in the right direction. He revamped the defensive staff in the offseason and has a final say on how to run the team. That kind of power comes with big expectations, and if he doesn't live up to them, he could be in the hot season in 2025. Here's Doug P's full exchange with Brooks and Steve Wyche.

The Jaguars are in a position to rebound in 2024, have no excuses

As Doug Pederson noted, injuries hurt the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2023 but can't be used as an excuse. The Cleveland Brownssucceeded and the Indianapolis Colts also lost key contributors throughout the season but succeed in spite of their absence. The former managed to qualify for the postseason and the latter was in the thick of the race until the very end.

Simply put, how can Pederson cite injuries as the reason for the Jags' collapse when other teams were able to overcome them?

On the other hand, it's great to see Pederson understand that the 2023 season still stings but doesn't define Jacksonville. Instead of dwelling on the team's failure, he's using it as fuel to move forward. As the saying goes, there's nothing wrong with falling. What matters is that you stand up and how you respond to it.

Based on Pederson's comments, the Jacksonville Jaguars are ready to put the 2023 season behind.

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