HEAD COACH DOUG PEDERSON
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2024
(On what confidence Jaguars Owner Shad Khan has expressed in his ability to get the
season back on track) “Yeah, we’ve had great conversations before and after football
games. Obviously, those conversations are private and all of that, but he’s very supportive, been supportive and continues to be supportive of what we’re doing.”
(On any specific adjustments to be made in preparation for Houston) “I think we have to take a hard look at ourselves internally as far as coaching goes. Then, making sure we are presenting the plans, great communication, and then, look, it’s a two-way street too. I mean, coaches coach and players play, so we’ve got to make sure our players are playing fast and not making the mistakes that are showing up.”
(On if it will be difficult to make changes given a shorter week) “Yeah, it’s tough. I mean, the first thing we’ve got to consider is obviously injury for a short week. That plays into personnel and that plays into who can be available for this football game. But what I like about situations like this is we’re back on the field tomorrow and we get a chance to erase obviously a poor performance.”
(On what he needs to see from the leaders in the locker room) “I had mentioned that the coaches need to coach and players need to play and obviously, the leadership. If you want to be an elite football team, it’s led from within, right. It’s led by the players. Listen, the speeches are done, the speeches are over, we don’t need any more ‘rah-rah’ stuff. It’s just time to go play football, fix the mistakes and do everything we can to play our best football this weekend.”
(On injury updates from the game) “Jarrian [CB Jarrian Jones] is kind of as tolerated with his shoulder. Everything medically this morning, his checkup and things were good. It’s just going to be as tolerated with him. You mentioned Anton [OL Anton Harrison]. Anton, again, it’s his knee. Same one he injured the week before. He’s just going to be day-to-day this week. We’ve got to be careful with him to make sure he’s feeling good going into Sunday.
Gabe [WR Gabe Davis], his shoulder at the end. It’s just something that he’s, again, day-to- day, but should be fine for the game. And then Foye [LB Foye Oluokun], it’s his foot. His is probably more week-to-week right now. There’s a chance that he misses this football game.”
(On if he anticipates any shift in coaching personnel responsibilities) “No.”
(On his assessment of the communication between QB Trevor Lawrence and Offensive
Coordinator Press Taylor) “It’s been great. There’s been no issues from play caller to
quarterback. We haven’t any issues whatsoever. I think sometimes the mistakes that
people misinterpret when it comes to communication is play-to-play. It’s sometimes on the field. We make sure that, and I make sure that, coach-to-player, whether it be in-game on the sideline during the week is, it’s got to be of the utmost importance. Because that’s something that, it’s imperative to having success on game day. Then we can fix the play-to- play or the in-play sort of communication issues that sometimes pop up.”
(On if the communication issues revolve around coordinating the players on the field)
“Correct.”
(On the team’s experience with the delayed airplane coming back to Jacksonville) “Yeah, it was obviously nothing that we could control, it was out of our control. There were issues with our original flight. So, we just we just camped out at the stadium for a couple hours. We landed around 6 a.m., this morning. Got a got a couple hours of rest and we’re back in the office. The biggest thing is for the players, they’re off today, obviously. The schedule, as you guys know, was pushed back a little bit tomorrow, by design, to give up some more rest before we take we take the field. So it’s imperative that they do everything they can. Number one, to get rest, rehydrate, get focused and start working on Houston.”
(On if the team handles adversity well) “Well, we’ve got to find out, I think again, it goes back to talking about the leaders of the football team. If you want to be an elite team, it’s led by the players.”
(On if his and Lawrence’s frustrations have impacted their cohesion) If anything, our
frustrations; player, coach, team, whatever it might be, it actually, I think, it builds a
stronger character, builds a stronger bond. We’ve had great conversations over the last
couple of weeks, and we’re going to continue to have great conversations. I think it’s of the utmost that he and I are always on the same page with everything that we do, and we are. It’s part of what we do. There’s always going to be tough, difficult conversations, and that’s what I appreciate about Trevor. He’s willing to listen, he’s willing to speak his mind and that’s what it takes to work through our issues.”
(On if this offense has distinct similarities to the 2022 season’s offense) “It is. Obviously,
there’s a few wrinkles here and there by design, game plan-wise, but for the most part it’s the base offense. It’s just kind of plug-and-play and we’ve got some new faces out there, but that shouldn’t be an excuse, that shouldn’t matter. We should still be able to execute at a high level.”
(On if he anticipates TE Evan Engram being available on Sunday vs. Houston) “It’ll be close, it’ll be close, but again, a short week, I don’t want to risk anything with Evan. We’ll see tomorrow where he’s at and go from there. But we should have Savage [S Darnell Savage] back this week, which will be good.”
(On WR Brian Thomas Jr.’s confidence growth and trusting him with more targets) “We are, and yes, he’s done a good job. Again, it’s the more comfortable Trevor is with him and the more on the same page they become, he can handle more. But we want to make sure we’re doing it the right way. I don’t want to just load him down with a lot of stuff. I still want him to play free and freed-up and play fast, but he’s done a good job for us. We still have some things to clean up with his, obviously with his route detail and some of the attention to detail overall, but he’s done a really good job.”
