Could the Jacksonville Jaguars, currently mired in an 0-3 season, be suitors for former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick should they eventually choose to part ways with Doug Pederson?
SI.com’s Albert Breer believes it’s a possibility, as he outlined Tuesday during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show [2:45 mark]:
“That’s just a sneaky one with Belichick for me. Tony Khan [the son of Jags’ owner Shahid Khan] has a really strong relationship with Belichick. To the point that, when they hired Doug Marrone full-time and removed the interim tag in 2017, that was largely on the advice of Belichick to do it. So Bill’s had the ear of ownership in that place for awhile now. And I just wonder if that’s not rattling around in the heads of ownership there, especially when you’re renovating your stadium. You’ve got sponsorships to sell, you’ve got suites to sell, all of that stuff. Do you need some more credibility? There’s some things that line up there where I wouldn’t totally rule that out as a viable possibility for Belichick in 2025.”
There is plenty to unpack from Breer’s comments.
First, he isn’t the first one to connect the Jacksonville-Belichick dots:
Then there is the credibility of Belichick’s recommendations when it comes to coaching hires. Marrone spent parts of five seasons as either Jacksonville’s interim or full-time head coach, posting a rough 23-43 record. After leading the Jags to the AFC Championship Game in the 2017 season, his first year as the full-time head coach, the Jags went just 12-36 under his watch.
Belichick is one of the greatest head coaches of all time, if not the greatest, but his coaching tree and recommendations haven’t always fared so well. Recently, he suggested that the current success of the Lions at least partly is owed to former head coach Matt Patricia.
“I think that the Lions have built a really good offensive line for their quarterback, and they couldn’t get a lot of production in the red area last week, but that’s something that Matt Patricia started and now they’re kind of getting the fruits of the labor from him,” he told reporters.
Fans in Detroit who suffered through the disastrous Patricia era—he was 13-29-1 in three seasons as head coach—might take some issue with that statement.
Granted, the Jaguars wouldn’t be hiring Belichick as a consultant, they would be hiring him as the head coach. His judgements on other coaches aren’t nearly as critical as how he coaches himself.
Pederson, meanwhile, undoubtedly has to be on the hot seat at this point, or at least on a seat that is getting warmer. In parts of three seasons with the Jags he’s registered an 18-19 record, though that includes a playoff berth and playoff win in the 2022 season. Since a 6-2 start last season, however, the Jags have gone just 3-9.
An even bigger concern is that Trevor Lawrence hasn’t really taken a positive developmental jump under Pederson’s tutelage. In fact, he’s had a brutal start to the 2024 season, throwing for 560 yards, two touchdowns and an interception while taking 11 sacks and completing just 52.8 percent of his passes.
Not exactly the numbers you want from your $275 million man.
So a change could be coming. If it does, Belichick is the early frontrunner.