Doug Pederson is back in the NFL after a 388-day layoff, and he spoke Saturday about the value of those 388 days.
Pederson met with the Jacksonville media Saturday at TIAA Bank Field and sounded nothing like the Doug Pederson we saw at the end of 2020.
He seemed refreshed, re-energized and re-focused, and there’s a very good reason for that.
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“It was a great year for me, it was a great year for me,” said Pederson, named head coach of the Jaguars on Thursday. “I had opportunities to get back in the NFL at the end of the season last year, but I just felt like at the time I needed a break. I needed to step away and kind of just refocus myself, kind of recenter everything about me.”
Jaguars owner Shad Khan said that when the Jaguars fired Doug Marrone on Jan. 4 of last year, they reached out to Pederson once the Eagles fired him a week later to gauge his interest in the job. They hired Urban Meyer instead, and he lasted only 13 games before Khan fired him.
But Pederson said he wasn’t ready in the wake of that nightmarish 2020 season, when the Eagles went 4-11-1. Only two NFL teams won fewer games – the Jets and Jaguars.
“I knew still in my heart of hearts I did want to coach in this league and still be successful, that never left,” he said. “I just needed time to just step away and gather myself a little bit.
NFL
“It was a great year from the standpoint of we watched our oldest son (Drew) get married, we had a grandchild during the season, you know I lost my brother (Craig) to cancer last year, so I got to spend quality time with family, and that means a lot to me.
“And then obviously my wife (Jeannie) and I, to kind of even re-connect. Because the wives in this business – and maybe the husbands of wives that are in this business – they suffer. They struggle a little bit because it’s a long year, it’s a grinding year, and it was really good for us to be able to take some time and refocus.”
Pederson went right from high school football to college, played in the NFL from 1991 through 2004, then went right into coaching at Calvary Baptist in Shreveport. Then he went right to the Eagles in 2009 and then the Chiefs and then back to the Eagles. So he had never taken a year off.
“Did I miss football? Yeah, I did,” he said. “That’s why I went and visited some guys in training camp last year, because I just needed that fix of football and to be around it. And as the season progressed and I’m watching the entire league, it just got those football competitive juices back, so by the time I got to the end of the season and we get into this hiring cycle again, I was ready to go and I was excited for whatever the opportunity came before me. I had opportunities to interview with other clubs, but this one drew me and I’m ready to go.”
No NFL coach has ever won a Super Bowl with two teams, but Pederson said that remains his goal. Only seven coaches have led two teams to the Super Bowl, and Pederson played for three of them – Don Shula, Mike Holmgren and Andy Reid. The others are Dick Vermeil, Bill Parcells, Dan Reeves and John Fox.
Asked what his motivation is to return to coaching, Pederson didn’t hesitate to answer:
“Because I want to win another one, quite frankly,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate and blessed as a player and coach to go to three Super Bowls and when it gets in your system and your bloodstream it’s hard to give that up, and that’s something I want to help build here, build that championship culture.”
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