That’s tough. Just two teams interviewed Doug Pederson for their head coach vacancy last offseason — the New Orleans Saints, who went with Dennis Allen instead; and the Jacksonville Jaguars, who Pederson rallied to upset the Los Angeles Chargers after falling behind by a 27 points on Saturday night. It’s a brutal look at what-could-have-been for New Orleans had they hired the Super Bowl winner and proud Louisiana-Monroe product.
Sure, having Trevor Lawrence at quarterback certainly helped. But Pederson deserves a ton of credit for settling Lawrence down after the second-year quarterback threw four interceptions to open the game; he made things look easy with intelligent play designs and effective running from Travis Etienne Jr. (who averaged 5.5 yards per carry). Lawrence completed touchdown passes to four different receivers and scored a crucial two-point conversion to cut into the Chargers’ deficit.
