Will Jaguars fire Doug Pederson? Shad Khan looking to support Jacksonville coach

The Jacksonville Jaguars entered the 2024 NFL season hoping to bounce back after a disappointing finish to the 2023 campaign.

The Jaguars posted an 8-3 record through 11 games to start the 2023 season and looked like a shoo-in playoff team before dropping five of their last six games to finish 9-8. Many wrote off Jacksonville's struggles as a product of several injuries that weakened the team, including several to quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

As such, there was hope that the Jaguars would return to playoff contender form with a fully healthy squad.

Instead, they have continued to scuffle, posting a 1-5 record through the first six games of the season. That has led many to wonder how hot third-year coach Doug Pederson's seat is and whether he will make it through the campaign if Jacksonville can't start winning soon.

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Will Jaguars fire Doug Pederson?

Jaguars owner Shad Khan came to Pederson's defense ahead of Jacksonville's first London game of the season in Week 6.

Khan indicated that while he wasn't necessarily happy with the team's slow start to the season – and even noted he was "embarrassed" by the team's 47-10 Week 2 loss to the Buffalo Bills – he wanted to see how the team finished.

"To me, every game you go to, you want to do everything to win it and this is the NFL, that's hard," Khan told the Florida Times-Union in an interview before Week 6. "Every game is competitive. A loss is a loss, but [it's about] how you lose. To me, the three games we lost early in the season, it's disappointing, [but] we could have won them."

Khan also noted that Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke had led the Jaguars to back-to-back winning seasons in their first two years together. That's something the team hadn't achieved since 2004 and 2005, Jack Del Rio's second and third seasons as the team's head coach.

That's why Khan is remaining steadfast in his approach and is looking to position Baalke and Pederson success amid the team's struggles.

"I admire what Trent's done, Doug's done and I think, how do we support them to have better results, more wins?" Khan said.

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Speculation that Khan could be interested in parting with Pederson has partly stemmed from comments in the offseason where the 74-year-old said "winning now is the expectation" for the Jaguars. He lauded the team's roster, coaching staff and front office in those remarks and iterated that his thoughts about the team have not changed even despite its slow start in 2024.

"I still believe in them," Khan said of his comments about the Jacksonville organization. "I believe in the players, I believe in the coaching staff. I believe in Trent [Baalke]. Obviously, the results are disappointing for all of them, just as well as me or any other Jaguar fan, but, the key thing one has to understand [is] we have evolved and really got to a level. I think we've got the players, we've got the coaching, we've got the facilities."

That doesn't sound like an owner who is eager to part ways with his head coach, but things can change on a dime in the NFL. Keep in mind that Khan's comments came after Jacksonville's first win of the season against the Indianapolis Colts and just days before its fifth loss, a 35-16 defeat against the Chicago Bears in London.

As such, Khan could change his mind if Jacksonville continues to lose. And Jacksonville's Week 7 matchup with the New England Patriots – its second consecutive game in London – could represent a boiling point if Pederson and Co. can't guide the Jaguars to a win. Coaches have often been fired after unsuccessful trips overseas, much like Robert Saleh was by the New York Jets earlier in the 2024 season.

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Khan has hired five head coaches since buying the Jaguars in 2012. Of them, two coaches – Gus Bradley and Urban Meyer – were fired in-season. Thus, a midseason dismissal of Pederson can't be ruled out, though it still seems that Khan's lean for now is toward giving the Super Bowl 52 winner at least the rest of the season to prove he can turn things around.

Doug Pederson record

Pederson entered the 2024 NFL season with a 60-53-1 record in seven seasons as an NFL head coach. He had a winning record with both the Eagles (42-37-1) and Jaguars (18-16) before 2024.

Pederson posted winning records in five of his seven seasons, including a 13-3 record in their Super Bowl-winning season in 2017. He is on pace for a losing season in 2024 and may see his career record dip below .500 if the Jaguars continue to scuffle.

Doug Pederson playoff record

Pederson has a 5-3 playoff record in four career appearances. Three of his victories came during the 2018 postseason, when the Eagles beat the Patriots in Super Bowl 52. Since then, Pederson is just 2-3 in the playoffs.

Pederson does have a 1-1 playoff record with the Jaguars. They beat the Los Angeles Chargers in the wild-card round in 2023 after rallying back from a 27-0 deficit before falling 27-20 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Doug Pederson hot seat: Jaguars coach has support of owner Shad Khan