JAGUARS HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2023
(On if QB Trevor Lawrence needs to have a much better game than he did on Saturday) “I think the
offense needs to have a better game than the other night, quite frankly. We didn’t do enough. We had
opportunities, obviously missed some opportunities in the game that we can learn from, but sometimes
that’s the way games go. Tight games like that, it’s going to come down to, it could be a defensive
battle, or something of that nature. Special teams did a nice job, but I think overall, offensively, as a
group, coaches included, need to do a little better.”
(On the last game against the Chargers being several months ago) “About four months ago, three
months ago. They’re different. We’re different. It’s postseason football, everything matters. We’ve just
got to prepare and get ready for a good game Saturday night.
(On OLB Josh Allen playing better in the later part of the season) “He’s really picked it up. It’s good to
see. It’s good to see him play his best football this time of the year. Great players do that, and we’ve just
got to keep him coming that way.”
(On many factors he may have looked at related to maintaining successful seasons before taking this
job) “Yeah, that’s part of the process, just seeing where the team currently sits and what the future
holds in draft picks and capital and stuff like that, but that’s why I appreciate what the Patriots have
done, what Coach Belichick (New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick) has done and some of the
top. Andy Reid (Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach) has had consistency, whether he was in Philly or now in
Kansas City. There’s just coaches and teams that have figured that out. To be consistent each year, it’s
every man, it’s every player, it’s every coach just flipping the switch and turning the page, regardless of
what happened the year before, it’s over. You’ve got to start sort of from ground zero again and build it
back up, and that’s what the top programs have done, the top teams have done in this league. That’s
kind of been the standard when you look at the history of the NFL and the teams that have consistently
won year in and year out, they’ve had that ability to just flip the script quickly.”
(On how it helps if you don’t have to flip the quarterback when you are rebuilding a team in a new
season) “That’s probably the biggest key, when you have the quarterback piece and making sure that he
understands that we’ve got to move on and move on quickly. That’s a big part of it.”
(On how impressive or rare it is for three new players like TE Evan Engram, WR Zay Jones, and WR
Christian Kirk to come in and be successful) “It is rare. Maybe one guy can do that, but when you have
three guys come in and do that, it is rare, and I think they’ve since set some good benchmarks for
themselves and obviously for our team. They’ve done an outstanding job, and it’s just a credit to each
individual man for their work ethic, coming in and plugging in with Trevor right away, working and
paying attention to detail, as we talk about. They’re all good players, and they’ve had impacts for us, and
[we] probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for those three on offense, for sure.”
(On how quickly he knew the chemistry between QB Trevor Lawrence and his new receivers would be so
tight) “It doesn’t start day one, but obviously as we built through the offseason and training camp you
kind of see the rapport that they were having on the football field and away from the field, and just the
communication that I saw out there. You knew it wasn’t going to take long, that they would eventually
get on the same page and really kind of figure each other out.”
(On if a young team really needs to understand the speed of postseason games) “You do. It’s one thing
to get through the regular season. Really, last week was a playoff game for us, and we understand that.
The physicality and speed of that game is just going to carry over to this game. Having gone through it
now with this team, I think it prepares you for what’s coming next, but you have to constantly remind
guys that everything we do—it’s not a panic situation, but you’ve got to remind them that everything we
do on and off the football field this week can matter, and not only can affect your performance, but it
can affect the team and the game as well.”
(On if the Chargers play similar to the Jaguars) “Probably similar in numbers, but I think their passing
numbers are a little better than ours. Justin (QB Justin Herbert) is just a tremendous quarterback
obviously, but you see some of the similarities there. Even with some of the skill receivers and what they
have, running the ball similar. Even defensively, they’ve got really good players over there that play
hard, and again, they’ve got two of the best pass rushers in the game. There are some similarities. I think
we talked about this way back when, looking at this team and understanding that you kind of have to
know where 13 (WR Keenan Allen) is on offense, you’ve got to kind of know where 97 (OLB Joey Bosa),
52 (OLB Khalil Mack), maybe number 3 (S Derwin James Jr.) on defense, some of these guys. Just making
sure that you’re locked into your job and focused on what you need to do, especially when there are
some similarities of this magnitude.”
(On similarities between QB Trevor Lawrence and Chargers QB Justin Herbert) “They’re very similar.
They’re within a couple touchdown passes of each other and yards, I think Justin (Chargers QB Justin
Herbert) has a few more yards, obviously. They’re very similar, both athletic guys, both can run, extend
plays, good vision. Obviously he’s been in these moments before with his team, so he’s got a little
experience over Trevor (QB Trevor Lawrence) in that way. It should be a fun game to watch both of
these guys play.”
(On NBC wanting this game based on the quarterbacks) “Yeah, it’s an exciting game.”
(On QB Trevor Lawrence’s progression) “Well, you want him to have these moments. That’s the winning
culture we’re trying to build here and establish. We want to be here in the conversation at the end of
the season, right? Have the team playing in these meaningful games, and that’s credit to the
quarterback. He’s the leader of your team and franchise and these are all games that will continue to
prepare and teach Trevor (QB Trevor Lawrence) not only how important they are, but in the future
when you’re talking about these matchups down the road.”
(On the importance of not changing aggressiveness levels in fourth down calls) “Well, you do (think
about that). You’re in a situation where it’s a win-and-continue game. It’s do or die, and you want to
make sure you’re doing it not recklessly but you’re still taking all the information at hand and putting your team in good situations. Sometimes, you’re taking all the information and making sure you’re doing
the right thing for your team. There’s probably going to be a little bit more of a gamble or risk in certain
situations, just knowing that one possession here or there could determine the outcome of the game.”
(On OL Walker Little’s improvement this season) “He’s done a nice job for us. He’s the type of player
that we thought he is, he’s done a good job. This will be a really good test whether it’s Bosa (Chargers
OLB Joey Bosa) or Mack (Chargers OLB Khalil Mack), these guys like to trade sides a little bit. It’s going to
be good for him; it’s going to be a benchmark game for him and his progression. I’ve got a lot of
confidence in Walker and what he’s done here in the last month has been pretty special for us; he’s
helped us win these last few games.”
(On the pain OL Brandon Scherff is experiencing) “Like anybody, he’s sore. He is hurting. It’s our job, I’m
not going to speak for Jeff Ferguson (Vice President of Player Health and Performance) or our medical
team, but it is our job to protect the players during the course of the week to make sure they have all
the mental information and take the mental reps. Get the physical reps when we can, especially later in
the week. He is a pro, and he prepares himself that way. Again, my job is to make sure he’s as fresh as
possible come game time.”
(On if he’s been able to reflect on the season so far) “No, I’ll wait until after the season, probably to
reflect back and just see what we did and everything. Quite honestly, you’ve got to have confidence in
yourself and confidence in your team, and your ability to lead and motivate the guys. I do see that part
of it because I see how hard these guys practice and play during the course of the week and games.
From that standpoint, I can see it, but I think once the season is over, you can go back and go through
the season to sit down and really understand what you did.”
(On giving QB Trevor Lawrence the option to run it on fourth downs) “That’s a unique situation because
it was early in the game, there’s a lot of football ahead of us. If you don’t make it, do you want to put
your defense out there on a short field? To me, points were going to matter in that game against
Tennessee, because I’m looking back now, and a tie helps us. If I give them another possession on a
short field, what does that do to the outcome of the football game? Who knows what’s going to play
out. In situations like that, if Trevor (QB Trevor Lawrence) sees something, we ask him to take it. There
are also times we ask him not to take it. In that situation, as you said, we were trying to see if we could
get them to jump, but they did a nice job. They stayed disciplined and we punted the football.”
(On if S Rayshawn Jenkins will be a captain in the upcoming game) “Actually no, Jamal Agnew (WR Jamal
Agnew) is. Rayshawn was a captain a couple of weeks ago.”
(On performance of special teams in the last game) “I think so, yeah. It was a solid group. Logan (P Logan
Cooke) had a great day punting the football, our gunners had a nice job of getting down the field,
corralling the ball, corralling the returner, something we talk about each week. I thought on even some of the kickoffs that were a little bit short, we did a nice job of getting down there and stopping some
bigger gains. I thought overall, special teams played a big part in that win last week.”
QUARTERBACK TREVOR LAWRENCE
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2023
(If the big win and starters coming out at Houston got the offense out of rhythm) “I don’t think so. I
think we’ve done what’s needed to win the last three weeks. You look at Houston and last week against
Tennessee, definitely didn’t play our best offensively, but that’s going to happen from week to week.
There’s always going to be stuff to clean up, but I think minus a few plays, I think if a few plays go
differently, if we’re a little sharper, or in my case, hit a couple throws, the game looks a lot different. You
always take a few plays, and I think we’ve just had a few more than we need the last two weeks of those
negative plays or bad plays or misses or whatever it is. We’ve just had a few too many of those, but I still
think our offense is in a great spot, and the progress we’ve made is still there. Just continue to build off
of it. Obviously there’s some things. Then it’s tough to beat a team twice, too. Tennessee had a really
good plan. They did some stuff that gave us a little bit of trouble. We tried to adjust on the sidelines and
did some things that helped us. They’ve got good players and good coaches, too. That’s a good team,
and you’ve got to give them credit. They had a good plan coming in, and we didn’t execute at the
highest level that we can. Thankfully our defense definitely stepped up and had our back. There’s
definitely a lot of stuff to clean up, but I would say, to answer your question, I don’t think that has
necessarily affected the way we’ve played those prior weeks.”
(On if the Titans defense presented anything new or unusual) “Not necessarily. I think we were, we had
a decent idea of what they could do, but you never know exactly what a team’s going to do. You kind of
see what they’ve done throughout the season, and usually, when they play similar teams or offenses,
you kind of see stuff carry over. I think it’s just a matter of adjusting. They got us on a few tough looks
where, one time they had two guys in one gap, for example, on one of the sacks, and it’s like, looks like a
bad play by us, but really, kind of lucked into that one, two people in the same gap and we didn’t have
one of them accounted for because that’s not usually how you play defense, two people in the same
gap. It’s one of those plays, and that happens sometimes, guy just goes and makes a play. I forget who it
was. One of their D-linemen did that and got a sack on that play. So that’s one example of just things
happening. Then they had some good pressure looks that gave us a little bit of trouble. We weren’t
communicating properly with our IDs and just make sure that me, the O-line, the back are all on the
same page. That happened once or twice. They had a good plan. They mixed it up. They tried to be
physical at the line of scrimmage, especially with Evan (TE Evan Engram), they did a good job. Then really
just try to mix it up just as much as they could, played just about every different coverage you could
play. They did a good job. We missed a lot of opportunities, some big plays, still left a lot out there,
obviously a couple in the end zone, some stuff in the run game, too, we left out there, so there’s plenty
that we could have done, but we didn’t, but that’s also how this game goes. People make a game plan
and try to limit things that you do well, and I thought they did a pretty good job, but we also hurt
ourselves. We could’ve helped ourselves a lot more.”
(On what makes Head Coach Doug Pederson a good play caller) “I just think his mindset. Obviously, the
game plan that we have throughout the week is really good. Just the way we sync everything up, but
then just his aggressive nature. He kind of always keeps that in the front of his mind, when to take shots, and when to not, too. I think he has a really good discretion on those things. I think that’s one of the
things he does really well, is calling things at the right time. That’s a huge part of the game obviously. It
could be a great play, but if you call it at the wrong time, wrong coverage, wrong part of the field, you
can kind of waste it, and I think he does a really good job with that. That’s one thing, then just mixing it
up. We have a lot of different things in our arsenal we can do. I think we’ve been able to kind of keep
defense on their heels with all the different looks we can present.”
(On if there are times Head Coach Doug Pederson calls a play he would say he never would have thought
of) “For sure. There’s been a few times like that when he calls it, and I kind of look where we’re at,
looking out of the huddle at the yard line, eh, I don’t know if we’ve got space for this, then it works. Glad
he called it. That’s why he’s the one calling the plays.”
(On an example of such a situation) “I don’t want people to go back and find the exact plays, but there’s
been times where we’ve taken shots, and we might be kind of tight on the field as far as running out of
room, and he has one dialed up. I think Christian’s (WR Christian Kirk) was a pretty good example of that
in the game on Saturday, the touchdown we had. Called that play, and first when you hear it, shew,
might be a little tight for that, then it worked great. Christian got open, and it was awesome. There’s
things like that where he just does a great job.”
(On if there is any extra motivation going into the playoffs with all the elite quarterbacks) “I think just
being in the playoff and having this opportunity. There’s not a ton of teams left. I think there’s seven
teams in the AFC that are left that are going to be playing this weekend. Just that opportunity in and of
itself is special, and that gets you going. When you’re in this position and you’re playing guys like that,
that means you’re playing the best teams, and that’s where you want to be at this time of the year, so
definitely have the motivation to go out there and play well, not necessarily against those guys. We
talked about it like the New York week with Zach (QB Zach Wilson), it’s not necessarily I’m looking
forward to playing against those guys, I’m excited for the opportunity that our team has to go play these
teams that are really good teams that have great quarterbacks, too.”
(On if he is aware that he has already had six matchups with AFC quarterbacks) “Obviously we played
this team earlier in the year, so that was one. I’m trying to think of who else. We played the Chiefs. We
played Lamar (Ravens QB Lamar Jackson), we played Cincinnati, we played a bunch of teams. We played
the Bills last year.”
(On if last week’s game gave an indication of what the playoff atmosphere and intensity will be like) “I
hope so, and I hope it’s like that this weekend, and that’s kind of what we expect. Our fans did a great
job last weekend, but for us, that was a playoff game last week. You look at how everything ended up
playing out, we don’t win, if we didn’t win that game, we’re not sitting here today, everybody’s packing
up and going home. That was a playoff game for us. It’s the same mindset this week, it’s just official
now, first round of the playoffs, but for us that was like the first round of the playoffs, we had to win to
get in. I think that helps us prepare for this week and the sense of urgency, the whatever you want to
call it the hype around the game, all that, especially now that there’s only, there’s less than half the
teams playing this weekend because the field just got widdled down.”
(On if it felt different on the field Saturday) “Not necessarily. I think just pregame and obviously when
the defense was on the field it was super loud. Just the energy in the stadium was really, really cool. It
was crazy. It was fun being at home for that, then to have another one this week, so that was awesome.
Especially offensively, once you get out there, fans are quiet, it’s kind of like a normal home game so to speak, but even better for us because during the regular season you have a little bit more of the
opposing fans kind of there, and I felt like we had 90% Jags fans there on Saturday, so it was even
quieter when we were on offense. It was great and hopefully we do the same thing this weekend.”
(On being able to build such great chemistry with three new receivers) “I’m not surprised just because I
know how hard we’ve worked and the communication that we’ve had throughout the offseason and
especially the season, so I’m not surprised by it. It makes me excited though for the future and moving
into the postseason from where we are not to see us just keep growing and growing. I was talking to Zay
(WR Zay Jones) last week about it just to see how far we’ve come in less than a year. Imagine where
we’re going to be at this time next year and just moving forward. It makes myself and makes all the guys
excited to be a part of something where you already see the chemistry starting to click pretty early and
just to have time together, I think that’s huge, and building that over time is going to be really cool.”
(On if he can pinpoint any reasons why their chemistry is so good) “I think it comes down to guys really
just being unselfish. When there’s really no egos, that makes things a lot easier, one for me to do my job
to the best of my ability and not worry about who’s getting the ball necessarily, just trying to get it to
the right place, then the conversation between me, Zay (WR Zay Jones), Christian (WR Christian Kirk),
Evan (TE Evan Engram), Marvin (WR Marvin Jones Jr.), whoever it is, any of our skill guys, is always really,
really good, we’re talking, we just want to figure out the best way to do whatever we’re talking about. It
doesn’t really matter about whose idea it was, whose opinion, it’s never that, it’s always just trying to do
the best thing, and I think that’s what makes things go smoothly. You build that chemistry fast when
guys think similarly like that. When you have guys that, there’s egos or whatever there is, it’s a little bit
harder to get on the same page sometimes.”
(On if it has sunk in that they won the division and are going to the playoffs or if it has been straight onto
the next) “I really just feel like it’s on to the next. Obviously after the game, just the joy everybody had in
the locker room and on the field realizing we finally accomplished the goal that we set out to
accomplish. It was kind of an uphill battle for a while. Just like you said, tunnel vision, week after week
just trying to put ourselves in position, then we finally did it. There was kind of a, I wouldn’t say a sigh of
relief but that joy of, man, we’re here, we accomplished this, we made the playoffs. Obviously, that’s a
huge stepping stone for us, but now, since we came back, it’s really just been next week, or this week,
moving onto the next week, focusing on the task at hand and realizing it’s the same thought process this
week to earn another opportunity next week. You just find a way to win, whatever it takes. This time of
year, games are going to be tight, games are going to be close, and you’ve just got to find a way to win,
and we understand that, and I think our team has really rallied around that idea of whatever play needs
to be made, we’re going to find a way to just win the game, and I think we’ve done a great job of that.
Guys were pumped, but now it’s just ready to go play again.”
(On if he likes Saturday night games) “It was cool. I was glad that we played last Saturday because now
this is a normal week for us as opposed to last week we kind of lost a day, and we were trying to figure
out the schedule. It’s always a little different when you lose a day of your prep because then you’ve got
to shuffle things around. I was glad that it lined up that we play two Saturdays in a row. I kind of like it.
It’s nice having Sunday and you see the other teams play and all that, so I thought that was pretty cool.
Then Saturday night, it does feel kind of like college as far as like family coming into town for a Saturday
night game then there in the morning Sunday then heading home. I thought it was cool.”
(On the Chargers from Week 3 and what is different about their defense now) “They’re different, they
do things, everyone makes adjustments as the season goes on, as personnel changes, as you play different guys, whatever it may be. You figure out things that may work better for you, so things have
changed. You look at it, and I wouldn’t say you don’t use it because you do, you just look at what you did
and the plan and how they played certain things to whatever formations and all that. You use that as
part of your study, but you understand that this is a different team in Week 18 than it was in Week 3
and the same for us. Things change as the year, especially those many weeks apart. You definitely use it,
but you can’t rely just on that game and the plan and kind of what happened to determine what’s going
to happen this week. You’ve got to come up with a great plan. You’ve got to use the full body of work.
Obviously, they got some guys back. Joey Bosa (OLB) on the edge is a great player, played a little bit
against us, but got hurt. He, obviously, is really good at getting after the quarterback and affecting the
game, so things like that. They’ve just got a bunch of players really all over the field. Derwin (S Derwin
James Jr.) is flying around, great player. We played against him earlier in the year, so there’s some
challenges for us, and it’s exciting. They’ve got a really good defense.”
(On how much OL Walker Little’s confidence has grown) “I really think he’s done a great job, even going
back to last year. I think that’s helped him a lot. He had to play in some big games last year. Played
against the Bills. I think he played against the Patriots, the Colts, maybe even more, at least those three
games he had to play in the whole game last year, so he was ready to step up whenever needed, then
obviously it happened late in the season this year, and I think he’s fit in well. It just shows his prep up
until this point because if you don’t prepare every week like you’re the starter, then when you are the
starter, it’s not really going to look like you’re ready to play if you haven’t been preparing that way, and
he’s done a great job of preparing himself, and I think he’s played really, really well, protected well,
done a great job in the run game, so I’m excited for him and just to see him keep getting better and
better. I think he’s done a great job.”
