The Jacksonville Jaguars finally named a new coach Thursday in former Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson after a process that concluded over a month removed from their first interview. With him now in place, though, there is still work to be done by Pederson, who now has to fill out his staff.
Thanks to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, we now know of two candidates who are getting looks from Pederson and those two coaches are Press Taylor of the Indianapolis Colts and Mike Caldwell of the Tampa Bay Bucs.
Expect Doug Pederson to give Press Taylor (now a #Colts offensive assistant) consideration for a role with the #Jaguars and Mike Caldwell (#Buccaneers ILBs coach) as a candidate for defensive coordinator. Caldwell played and coached with Pederson with the #Eagles.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) February 4, 2022
Taylor was almost a given to receive interest to join the Jags’ staff. He was an assistant under Pederson with the Eagles and held roles as an offensive quality control, assistant quarterbacks, quarterbacks, and passing game coach during that run. He’s now with the Jags’ divisional rivals in the Indianapolis Colts where he holds a senior offensive assistant role under Frank Reich, who was once Pederson’s offensive coordinator.
As pointed out by Garafolo, Caldwell knew Pederson dating back to his days as a player. They were a part of the 1999 Eagles roster under Andy Reid, though Pederson was a quarterback on the offensive side and Caldwell was a linebacker on the defensive side. The two also were on the same coaching staff under Reid with the Eagles from 2009-12.
Caldwell’s coaching career started in 2008 under Reid as he was a defensive quality control coach from then to 2009. He became an assistant linebackers coach for the Eagles in 2010 and a linebackers coach the two following seasons.
After that run with Reid, Caldwell joined Bruce Arians’ staff with the Arizona Cardinals in 2013, and also joined him in 2019 when he made the decision to join the Bucs and has remained there ever since. Between those runs with Arians, Caldwell also was an assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach with the New York Jets under another Arians disciple in Todd Bowles (2015-18).
With almost 15 years of coaching experience, Caldwell seems due to become a defensive coordinator and has learned from a variety of great minds. Just this past season, he helped aid the Bucs to a No. 3 ranking against the run and could help the Jags take another step towards cracking the top-15 after they were ranked 23rd in the category this past season.
