The morning after their final game of the season, the Jacksonville Jaguars parted ways with their head coach Doug Pederson.

Pederson finished his tenure in Jacksonville with a record of 22-29. After opening his coaching tenure with back-to-back 9-8 seasons and a playoff win, the Jaguars finishing 4-13 in the 2024 season seems to have been more of a drop-off than owner Shad Khan could allow. At the beginning of this season, Khan had voiced that he thought this was one of the best Jaguars rosters ever assembled. This finish for his franchise surely wasn’t what he had in mind.

Though some rumors circulated that Pederson may have been retained, his dismissal is far less surprising than Khan’s decision to retain general manager Trent Baalke. Baalke has been an object of the fans’ ire just like Pederson amongst the Duval Devout. Still, it’s been speculated that his drafting Rookie of the Year candidate wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. even after trading back in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft with the Minnesota Vikings as an element of this season’s roster that Khan praised so highly is why he is still currently employed.

With that being said, it’s still a long offseason and the Jaguars are only one day into it. Is there a chance that a new head coach demand that Baalke be fired? Is there a chance that Shad Khan simply hasn’t gotten to firing Trent Baalke yet? Might Baalke retire? There are enough possibilities in play that the future is still unclear in Jacksonville’s front office.

As far as replacing Pederson, the favorite still seems to be the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson with hopes that he’ll bring quarterback coach and former franchise quarterback Mark Brunell with him to return to Duval sidelines once again. That being said as the Lions are currently the top seed in the NFC Playoffs, it may be some weeks before the Jaguars can properly interview and hire him as a candidate.