One of the reasons Doug Pederson was fired by the Eagles was because he wanted to hire passing game coordinator Press Taylor as offensive coordinator.
A year later, he got another chance to name Taylor offensive coordinator, and this time he’s not getting fired for it.
Taylor, the 34-year-old younger brother of Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, will serve as Pederson’s offensive coordinator with the Jaguars, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Thursday.
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Taylor was only 25 years old when he first joined the Eagles in 2013 as an offensive quality control coach under first-year head coach Chip Kelly. Pederson promoted him to assistant quarterbacks coach working alongside John DeFilippo when he replaced Kelly in 2016, and when DeFilippo got the Vikings’ offensive coordinator job in 2018, Pederson promoted Taylor to QBs coach.
Pederson added the “passing game coordinator” title to Taylor’s resume in 2020, but Lurie and Howie Roseman insisted after a miserable 4-11-1 season that Pederson add some new blood to the coaching staff and Pederson insisted on promoting Taylor to offensive coordinator instead of bringing in new blood.
That wasn’t what Lurie wanted to hear and ultimately was a big reason the Eagles fired Pederson, who three years earlier had led the Eagles to the Super Bowl.
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Taylor wound up spending the 2021 season with the Colts as senior offensive assistant working again with Carson Wentz under former Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich. And Pederson wound up taking the year off from coaching before being named Jaguars head coach on Saturday.
Earlier this week, Pederson named Mike Caldwell – his teammate with the Eagles in 1999 and coaching colleague under Andy Reid from 2009 through 2012 – as defensive coordinator, so Pederson’s two biggest staff hires have strong Eagles connections.
Pederson did say in his press conference on Sunday he plans to call plays for the Jaguars this year.
Taylor played football at Marshall and began his coaching career in 2011 at Tulsa, where he coached one-time Eagles QB G.J. Kinne, who was also on Pederson’s staff in 2019.
Taylor turns 35 in January and is the 2nd-youngest offensive coordinator in the league. Kellen Moore of the Cowboys is 33 and turns 34 in July. Mike Kafka is also 34, but he turns 35 in July.