Jaguars' Doug Pederson using 2023 collapse as motivation

It sounds like head coach Doug Pederson won't shy away from discussing the collapse his Jacksonville Jaguars suffered during the second half of the 2023 season when players report for training camp later this month.

"It's going to burn for a long time until we get to meaningful games again and start playing in September," Pederson said about the events of the past campaign during a Wednesday appearance on NFL Network's "The Insiders," as shared by Michael Baca of the league's website. "But I think that's the same fuel and 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."

The 2023 Jaguars entered December at 8-3 but ultimately fell to 9-8 en route to missing the playoffs, in part because star quarterback Trevor Lawrence dealt with multiple injury-related setbacks across the team's critical stretch of games. 

Despite questions about Lawrence's abilities to become an elite player at the position, he inked a five-year contract extension this offseason that could be worth up to $275M and included $142M fully guaranteed at signing.

Ironically, Pederson and Lawrence were somewhat responsible for a different type of collapse when they helped Jacksonville turn a 27-0 deficit into a 31-30 wild-card playoff victory over the Los Angeles Chargers in January 2023. Then-Chargers head coach Brandon Staley vowed last summer that his club would bounce back from that disappointment. He's no longer with the organization.

Following Week 18 of the 2023 season, the Jaguars made wholesale changes to their defensive coaching staff before they hired former Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen as their new DC. Pederson hopes such decisions will help Jacksonville move on from what occurred late last season.

"I think trust is everything with a football team," Pederson said about his defense. "You got to lean on your brother, you got to lean on your coaches, coaches got to lean on each other. Not only in the good times but the bad. ...You'll see some differences with our defense. I think it's all positive, but at the same time we got to get it all gelled on the same page as we move forward."

As of Thursday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Jaguars at +130 betting odds to make the playoffs for the upcoming season. History shows that Pederson could be shown the door in January if the club misses the postseason for a second straight year.