The Jacksonville Jaguars landed Doug Pederson as the team’s new head coach, but only after a number of reports suggesting that GM Trent Baalke was a mitigating factor in trying to attract other candidates.
Even before the Jaguars embarked on their coaching search, there were reports indicating that some candidates were hesitant to work under Baalke . On Saturday, Jaguars owner Shad Khan said Baalke had not come up as a negative factor in interviews with candidates.
Khan may well be telling the truth here. On the other hand, he’s only speaking about candidates the Jaguars interviewed. There were some indications that some would-be candidates turned down the chance to even speak to Jacksonville about the job. That may or may not have had to do with Baalke.
There were reports that even Pederson himself had some reservations about the Jaguars’ setup. He may have taken the job anyway, but it certainly doesn’t look like Baalke was a non-factor in the search.
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