Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson made his rounds at the 2024 NFL Owner's Meeting. Here’s everything you need to know.

With the first few weeks of NFL Free Agency in the books, Jacksonville Jaguars fans were treated to seemingly all-you-can-watch access to HC Doug Pederson on Monday. Pederson completed his normally scheduled presser with the assembled media from Orlando, where the annual NFL Owners Meeting is being held.

Owners Meeting Presser:

He then later caught up with Mike Garafolo of ‘The Insiders’ on NFL Network to discuss the Jaguars’ offseason.

NFL Network Interview:

Finally, Coach Pederson concluded his day with a few quick updates on Trevor Lawrence via Sirius XM NFL Radio.

Below, we cover some of the more notable comments and takeaways from Pederson’s combined media availability.

Locker room leadership matters:

For those who have never been in an NFL locker room, I'm sure it would not be a surprise to hear that 'cliques' exist.

The guys from each position group mainly hang out together. So, when something like a rough stretch of losses or an end-of-season collapse is in progress, a front office and coaching staff would normally love to have dependable locker room leaders at every level of the team available. These are your glue guys who help the team to turn the tide by showing the right behaviors, giving the right effort, increasing positional communication, doing the dirty work without the fanfare, or just keeping guys locked in when away from the Miller Electric Center practice fields. The Jaguars seemed to have identified this need in their teambuilding plan, bringing in multiple veterans and core guys who have shown an ability to impact much more than their individual roles. Coach Pederson began by touching on these additions.

“I guess, now we’re going back to (being) the hunter again. This is the culture that I want to establish in Jacksonville and this is the reason why you go get guys like [OL] Mitch Morse and [DL] Arik Armstead and the [S] Darnell Savages and guys that have been to the postseason. These guys have been captains on their teams and they’ve been to Super Bowls, they’ve been to AFC championship games. These guys know how to win and that’s the influx of talent that we want to bring onto our young roster. Guys that have been there, done that."

Pederson later mentioned something similar when discussing the recent addition DL Arik Armstead:

"That's the reason why you go get guys like that, that have been there and done it. They're the pinnacle of our sport and I need guys on our team that have had accolades and awards like that, so that our guys can see exactly what that looks like. That's kind of the next step and the next phase for us as a team moving forward.”

As a side note, in my opinion, this trait may be a primary reason not to expect Cam Robinson to be going anywhere this season, without being convincingly beaten out for the job. His vocal leadership is sorta invaluable for an offensive line group that can kinda use all the positive examples available of on-field leadership it can get its hands on at the moment.

Slot corner no longer a draft need?

This offseason there has been much conversation surrounding the state of the Jaguars' defense. Where will Antonio Johnson play with the addition of Darnell Savage? Is Darby the projected starter outside? What defensive front will the team run? On Monday Jaguar fans were treated with answers to many of these questions directly from the head man. Adjust those mock drafts folks.

Pederson began the conversation on defense by praising the recently signed free agent defensive back, Darnell Savage:

"His nickel coverage ability inside, his ability to blitz, he’s a good tackler, he’s a willing tackler, he’s a pretty cover guy, all things that we were looking for at that position. He’s got the versatility to play multiple spots on defense. He does give you that safety flex if you want to do it, he can play that nickel spot if you want to move him in there. We have a young kid, [S] Antonio Johnson, that’s going to be a nice little work in progress in there with these two guys and I’m just excited to get him in and get him working when he can."

Pederson later circled back to explicitly confirm that Savage is the starting slot corner at this time, but will compete for the right to it.

"He will compete at that spot. Right now, as the one right there. We have Antonio [S Antonio Johnson] on the back end with Cisco [S Andre Cisco]. It’s a good little mix of guys.”

Pederson also confirmed that Antonio Johnson would be the likely replacement at strong safety for recently released Rayshawn Jenkins.

"Ryan’s [Defensive Coordinator Ryan Nielsen] scheme is a little more four-down, and look, you’re playing 75-plus percent away of nickel defense. You’re always going to be in four-down fronts and you’re always going to play with a nickel whether it’s a normal nickel or a big nickel as a third safety as teams want to call it sometimes. But it’s all a part of what Ryan wants to do and what he wants to get accomplished.”

Antonio Johnson and Savage's flexibility should help Ryan Neilsen's defense become more multiple, something that Pederson also touched on:

"Having a guy like Darnell who has that ability to play some safety, even Antonio [S Antonio Johnson] who we drafted, Antonio can play safety, he can play nickel. You got the best of both worlds out of those two guys.”

Outside cornerback still a draft need:

When asked about his comfort level about the cornerback room Coach Pederson seemed confident in the current group, while leaving the door open to additional draft additions.

"I do feel good. [CB] Ronald Darby who we had in Philly, added that piece. With Tyson [CB Tyson Campbell] back there and now with Darnell [S Darnell Savage], adding that mix. We’ve got, as we mentioned Antonio [CB Antonio Johnson] and we’ve got some young players that have played, Montaric [CB Montaric Brown] and stuff like that. It’s a passing league so you’ve got to have defenders and you’ve got to have guys that can cover the pass, but you also have guys too in our division there’s no shortage of running backs so they’re going to have to be physical and tackle as well. But I feel like we’ve improved and we still have the draft ahead of us so we’ll see where this thing shakes out.”

He later noted that the AFC South, as a division, has improved significantly at the quarterback position, and more recently has received an infusion of wide receiver talent. These statements, said back to back (and a cursory review of the current depth chart) are what further support the opinion that the Jaguars will bring in another outside cornerback in the first few rounds of the draft to compete.

Pederson expects more from Lawrence:

Pederson provided his perspective of where Trevor is mentally after the team's end-of-season collapse, in comparison to his Urban Meyer rookie season.

“We’ve got to get better as a football player, but mentally he’s in a good place. Again, I wasn’t here in 2021, so I don’t know, but I can only speculate and say that he couldn’t have been in a very good mental headspace coming out of that year, but now he’s playing meaningful games. He’s taken, the last two years, our team right there, and now we’ve got to push through that. Now it bothers him. That part bothers him. Football bothers him and that’s a good thing. That’s where we’ve got to get him pushing us through that envelope, that wall. The way we ended our season, that’s his motivation too.”

He later touched on Lawrence’s turnover issues.

"Yeah, you can fix it. Obviously, interceptions are going to happen but it’s the pocket stuff. It’s the fumbling in the pocket, out of the pocket. That’s the part that we can help him with, the ball security stuff. It’s hard for young players because they feel like they can make every play. It’s okay to throw the ball away. We just have to keep educating him in these situations. You can coach it. You are the guy that’s touching the ball every snap. We have to make smart decisions too.” (Like telling the rest of the offense he is running a quarterback sneak)

Throughout Coach Pederson’s tenure we have seen a consistent theme of the former Philadelphia Eagles QB, turned HC rarely taking it easy on his QB1, Trevor Lawrence. Pederson, in his end-of-season press conference, his Combine media availability, and today continues to push Trevor to make higher football-IQ plays than he has to date. Doug doesn't shy away from the difficult questions or criticisms of Trevor's play, and I kinda appreciate that. We will see if this continued approach results in measurable improvements on the field.

Make RBs great again:

When discussing the state of the offensive line, Coach Pederson expressed his wish for an improvement in the running game for 2024.

“I feel good (about the offensive line). The biggest thing for us is that we do have to get better in the run game. That’s a given, even as well as TJ [RB Travis Etienne Jr.], he was a 1,000-yard rusher last year. We still have to get better. There’s still more on the table. That helps your quarterback. You’ve got to be able to run the ball in this league as well. It sets up a lot of different things for you. So that’s something as a staff we’ve been focused on this offseason. You know we feel like we’re a pretty good passing team overall. We’re right around a top-10 passing offense and we can improve there."

The fact that Travis Etienne was able to squeeze a one-thousand-yard season out of this 2023 Jaguars interior line, simply put, makes that man a magician. A very big welcome to Duval, Mitch Morse.

Speaking of Morse, Doug had this to say about the Jaguars' new free-agent center from the Buffalo Bills.

“Well, you guys know I was in Kansas City when we drafted him, so obviously I liked him and now that he came available, and this is not a knock on Luke [OL Luke Fortner] at all, it’s just a matter of getting better at a position, getting better as a group. I think Mitch brings a veteran presence, he’s done it for several years now. It’s really somebody that Luke can invest some time in learning from and understanding. I think Mitch’s strengths can be Luke’s weaknesses and vice versa, Luke’s strengths and Mitch’s weaknesses. They can really work together and have that competition that you want. Having a guy like Mitch, a veteran backup come in, much like when we signed Brandon [OL Brandon Scherff] a couple of years ago, just helps us better as an offensive line.”

Editors note: This was, without question a (deserved) knock on Luke Fortner.

Overall, the old ball coach provided just under 40 total minutes of Jaguar front-office insight for fans to chew into. If you have the time throughout this week, it's a worthwhile listen for the Duval Devout.

Be sure to stay up to date on all of the teams’ free agency signings and rumors here. Our NFL Draft prospect interest tracker can be located here.

What were your takeaways from Coach Pederson’s interviews, Duval?