Jacksonville’s quarterback room will be a bit crowded this offseason. The team’s priority is developing Trevor Lawrence, and new coach Doug Pederson isn’t messing around.
He is himself an offensive mind with a background of playing and coaching the quarterback position, and he brought on an army of assistants to support Lawrence.
Pederson hired Colts offensive assistant Press Taylor as his offensive coordinator, and Taylor will be supported by quarterback coach Mike McCoy and passing-game coordinator Jim Bob Cooter. Both have extensive NFL play-calling experience, and the former has been a head coach.
It may sound like there will be a lot of overlap with these roles, and that could certainly prove to be the case. But Pederson explained some of the specific duties each will have in their respective roles.
“Mike McCoy is the quarterback coach. He’s going to coach the quarterbacks,” Pederson said. “He’ll also be involved with game planning. That’s one of the things I like to do in the places I’ve been is we like to interject everybody and their ideas, but Mike will coach the quarterbacks.
“Jim Bob as a pass game coordinator can assist the coordinator. He can assist — it’s just another way of looking at it without coaching a position, right. It’s another way of breaking down defenses, help Press wherever he needs help. He can assist in the tight end room or the receiver room or wherever it might be, and then also help us with game planning.
“Everything will run through Press Taylor. He is the offensive coordinator. Between he and I, we’ll make the final decisions on everything that we do offensively.”
Ultimately, it seems like the roles will be similar, with McCoy focusing on Lawrence and Cooter working with all aspects of the passing game while Taylor oversees it all.
Most teams in the league now have pass and run game coordinators on offense, and some (including the Jags) have those roles filled on the defensive side of the ball.
Pederson said this change is a result of taking advantage of all the resources available to coaches and getting multiple eyes and perspectives on the game plan.
“You know, it’s always the interesting question, right, why a pass game coordinator or a run game coordinator on defense, why a passing game coordinator on offense,” he said. “I just think, too, there’s a lot of — with the technology and the data and the availability of information that’s out there, it’s again, another set of eyes to help us when we put game plans together. It helps us break down all the data, all the information that we’re getting from Exos or PFF or whatever it might be on our players, on our opponents. Some of it’s analytical obviously.
“Having those guys in place to — because as a head coach you’ve got a lot of responsibilities doing other things. You’re diving into the defense, you’re diving into special teams, you’re in a meeting over here, I’m talking with Trent or whatever it might be, so having that extra guy, offense, defense, really benefits the coordinator, but it can really help me, as well.”
After the way the offense looked in 2021, Pederson can’t be too careful. Lawrence struggled as a rookie, tying for the league lead in interceptions, and the receiving corps didn’t give him much help.
Changing things in 2022 starts with the support staff around these players, and when it comes to that, Pederson has done a very solid job so far.
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