If you don’t know that it’s lost, is it really lost?
Now is no time for existential questions, not in Jacksonville.
And besides, coach Doug Pederson says it’s not lost — it being his locker room — with the Jaguars sitting as the last winless team in the NFL.
If his locker room was lost…
“I would know,” Pederson assured reporters on Wednesday. “I talk to these guys every day, I see them every day.”
“No, I have not lost the locker room,” he concluded.
The head coach was responding, in part, to the report that surfaced on Tuesday from NFL insider Jordan Schultz during his appearance on the “Sharp Football Analysis” podcast.
“I’ve talked to a few guys in the locker room over the last two weeks … and they’ve told me that locker room is gone in regards to the head coach,” Schultz said. “When I hear that, I hear a team and a franchise that is absolutely rudderless.”
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence balked at the report when asked if Pederson had lost the room.
“I shouldn’t even have to answer … not at all,” he said.
Following the Jaguars’ Week 4 loss at the hands of the Houston Texans, Pederson had been non-committal when asked about his job security and called reporters’ questions “strange.”
His tone was different during his media availability on Wednesday— Pederson acknowledged the challenges his team faced in September before reiterating his beliefs in the team and their system.
“There’s [been] mistakes, they’re critical at times … but there’s a lot of good,” Pederson said. “That’s what we have to lean on, and we’ve just got to continue to work.”
The head coach’s seat grows hotter by the day. Should Jacksonville’s ownership decide to make a change, Bill Belichick, for one, has been connected to the job as a possible option.
The Jaguars can right the ship a bit on Sunday against a divisional rival in the Indianapolis Colts.
Jacksonville’s Week 6 matchup is slated for Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and rudderless would not be a good way to travel across the Atlantic.
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