The Jacksonville Jaguars finally wrapped up their search for coaching staff members on Doug Pederson’s team this past week, and the group is one with a good mix of player experience. Among those who have played in the NFL is the Jags’ new defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell, who has a lot of history with Pederson due to playing alongside him and coaching with him as both were assistants under Andy Reid.
On Friday, Caldwell was introduced to the Jacksonville media for the first time and spoke on being an assistant for Philadelphia with Pederson and how it helped him realize how sharp of a coach he was.
“Well, you know, anytime you’re dealing with a quarterback they’re going to make an impression on you,” Caldwell said. “So he was the guy and we were going through that transition period, and he did a great job, and you can see the knowledge as a player, and it just transitioned to him being a coach.”
Caldwell and Pederson almost started coaching at the same time in the NFL, with Caldwell getting his start in Philadelphia as a defensive quality control coach in 2008. Then Pederson came along a year later for the same role on offense. Both eventually received multiple promotions by the time the Reid era was up, allowing Caldwell and Pederson to have an appreciation for each other after witnessing the other work hard to succeed.
Caldwell, of course, was asked about the direction of the Jags’ defense in terms of a scheme, and the first-year coordinator said it would be a work in progress. However, he also added that he would be evaluating what the team does best from now on through training camp, which will define how the defense operates heading forward.
“Really that question in Jacksonville, what the Jaguar players do well, we’ll let them do that,” Caldwell said. “It’s really not going to be we’re going to be this type of defense. That one, I’m going to look at the personnel, understand what they do well, let them go out there and do it well, and that’s where success comes from.”
When looking at what the Jags did last season under former defensive coordinator Joe Cullen, they were a team that blitzed a lot. Many don’t expect that to change too much when looking at Caldwell’s background as he’s been a part of some aggressive coaching groups, with the most recent being Todd Bowles.
This was something Caldwell eluded to later in the press conference when asked about the Jags’ struggles with turnovers.
“That’s the thing, turnovers, it’s such an important part of the game. Every defense is going to work it,” said Caldwell. “But you have to work it a certain way. You work it and you have to stress getting the ball out, stress the different types of coverages you’re going to play. Again, it goes back to attacking, affecting the quarterback. So when you affect the quarterback and speed his process up, that enables you to get a chance to break on a ball here and get a pick or break on a ball and knock it down or get a ball tipped up in the air and be able to get a turnover that way.
“But speeding up the quarterback is key to doing that, and then flying around, understanding what you’re supposed to do, getting there, getting there nasty, turnovers happen.”
Hearing Caldwell’s willingness to attack quarterbacks and put his players in the best position is great, but other key factors will play into the Jags’ defense getting to where it needs to be. One of them is talent acquisition, and that’s a situation controlled by the front office.
In a season where the Jags need a ton of offensive help, it’s unknown how much talent they will be able to add defensively, but getting the best pass-rusher possible needs to be on the Jags’ agenda, too. If they can do that, Caldwell would have a good foundation to work with and only time will tell if Pederson and the front office help him with that this season.
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