Doug Pederson turned the NFL’s last place team into division champions

The Jacksonville Jaguars were the laughingstock of the NFL.

For two straight seasons, they finished as the league’s last place team.

Now?

They’re playoff bound as division champions.

With a win over the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night, the Jags clinched the AFC South. For only the second time ever and the first time since 2017.

And it’s no coincidence that the turnaround started with the hiring of the only Super Bowl-winning head coach in Philadelphia Eagles history.

Doug Pederson.

Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

After a 4-8 start (with a road loss to his former team in there), Dougie P led the Jags to five straight wins to finish the season.

It’s hardly the first time that Pederson oversaw a big comeback. The Eagles rebounded from 6-7 to advance to the divisional round during their Super Bowl defense season in 2018. Then they won the NFC East in 2019 by winning four straight after another 6-7 start.

Adversity is inevitable in the NFL and Pederson clearly knows how to lead his teams out of despair even though things might look hopeless to most. We always said that’s part of what makes him so great.

It’s really nice to see Pederson taste some level of success in his first season since being fired by the Eagles. The argument here has always been that he received disproportional blame for what went wrong in 2020. This is not to suggest Pederson was without fault ... and the Eagles are clearly in a good spot since moving on ... but he clearly was not the buffoon that some made him out to be.

Really, this entire season has been a good look for Doug and a bad one for his doubters.

There used to be a lot of talk about how the Eagles only won the Super Bowl because he was propped up by Frank Reich. Well, how’s that looking now with the Eagles’ former offensive coordinator getting fired midseason by the Indianapolis Colts?

There used to be a lot of talk that Pederson was majorly to blame for Carson Wentz’s struggles. Well, how’s that looking with the Eagles’ former quarterback getting benched multiple times this season en route to being one-and-done in Washington?

The attempts to discredit such an important figure in Eagles history were misguided.

Doug Pederson forever.