Jaguars offense would get a huge boost if Doug Pederson takes over playcalling duty

The Jacksonville Jaguars' offense underperformed in 2023. This has led to questions about offensive coordinator Press Taylor's viability as a playcaller. While Doug Pederson has stood up for Taylor, citing turnovers as the reason for the team's offensive woes, he's considered stripping Taylor from playcalling duty.

Pederson held a media availability session at this year's NFL Scouting Combine and met with reporters for a smaller session afterward. The head coach touched on several topics and one he discussed in detail was the possibility of taking over playcalling in 2024.

"I think those are things that I need to consider this offseason, this spring," Pederson said via 1010 XL. "There were things out of my control that I had to deal with more last year that takes you away from some of that stuff. I'm not gonna get into those. But it's something that I have to do as part of the evaluation process. I have to evaluate myself and Press as decision-makers and playcallers and see what's best for our team."

But even if Doug Pederson calls plays in 2024, he says his confidence level in Taylor is still high.

It's high, it's really high. We're a top-10 passing offense. Press called plays. Now, we were a bottom third or three teams running the football. Press called plays. We had lots of injuries. Our left side of our offensive line, there was inconsistency there. We lost Christian, we lost Zay, Cam, like I said, all that kind of stuff. So some of that is not the playcaller. Some of that is just by circumstance," Pederson said.

"So are there things we need to address and fix? Yes, there are. And we've done that already this offseason, the last six, seven weeks being in the building. Do we have to get better? Yes, we do. Coaches have to, and it starts with us. It starts with me, and it starts with the coordinators and trickles down. So my confidence is high. There's still a lot of collaboration between him and I in-game, offseason."

Taylor was Pederson's quarterbacks coach during his stint as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. When Pederson joined the Jags in 2022, he brought in Taylor with him and made him his offensive coordinator. Taylor took over playcalling duty full-time last year and had mixed results.

As Pederson noted, the Jags had no trouble moving the ball through the air but the offense often stalled and couldn't run the ball in the second half of the season. And given that Taylor was leading the playcaller, he got plenty of blame for the Jaguars' offensive shortcomings.

There's value in Doug Pederson calling plays for the Jaguars' offense

In Press Taylor's defense, 2023 was the first time he was calling the offensive plays and it's fair to assume that he'll get better once he gets a better grasp of what the job entails That said, he looked overwhelmed last year, and playcalling is one of Doug Pederson's strenghts, so it would make sense for him to do it again next season.

As Pederson noted, playcalling may not have been on the table for him last year given how much he had on his plate. However, defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen is a grizzled veteran. With him in the fold, Pederson could have better oversight of the offense in 2024. Heck, Aaron Schatz of FTN Fantasy believes that taking playcalling away from Taylor could help the Jags bounce back next season.

It's not a given that Doug Pederson will take over playcalling duty but it's telling that he's at least considering it. All things considered, this could turn out to be one of the biggest storylines surrounding the Jaguars in 2024.

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