JACKSONVILLE – What's next is what matters, and the time for what's next is now.
General Manager Trent Baalke on Monday afternoon said the next step for the Jaguars is obvious after Owner Shad Khan dismissed Doug Pederson as head coach early Monday morning.
"The first thing we have to do is identify who the head coach is and then bring in his staff," Baalke said, adding: "We're going to move quickly to get some people to talk to.
"It's going to take as long as it takes to identify the right individual. Is that one interview? Is that two interviews? We're going to do our due diligence and be very thorough in this process."
Baalke, entering his fifth season as the Jaguars' general manager, spoke to the media along with Khan via videoconference Monday afternoon. Khan said he is energized by the opportunity to search for a new head coach, and that the search already has started.
"I think we have a very compelling case of what we can offer the head coach," Khan said a day after the Jaguars ended a 4-13 season with a 26-23 overtime loss to the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Khan cited the Jaguars' roster and salary-cap situation as positives – saying the same of the City of Jacksonville and the team's state-of-the-art football facility, the Miller Electric Center. He also cited the AFC South, which was won by the Houston Texans at 10-7 in 2024.
"It's a very, very compelling case," Khan said.
Khan on Monday spoke of an open interview process, saying "We'll put in our request for candidates, then interview them and we want them to interview us."
"We'll be open to how we can be better, whether it's organizationally, people, whatever," he said. "If it's legitimate, compelling, I'm open to everything. The head coach, they need to be comfortable with what we're doing."
"Our job is to provide them with all the resources they want. We'll go through that process and it has to work for them."
Khan on Monday also discussed the organizational structure moving forward, saying the head coach and Baalke each will report to Khan – as was the case when Pederson and Baalke.
"That has worked very well," Khan said.
Khan also said creating a position similar to the one held by Tom Coughlin from 2017-2019 – executive vice president of football operations over the head coach and general manager – is possible if the Jaguars find "the right person."
"Our job is to support the head coach," Khan said. "What Trent is doing, what I'm doing, what the rest of the people are doing are really like service providers and serving the head coach to succeed."
When discussing desired traits in a head coach, Khan discussed the importance of representing the team and city well. He also discussed extensively the predictability of the Jaguars' offense and defense.
"We are the most predictable team on both sides of the ball," Khan said. "Football, to win, deception is a big part of it. Unpredictability. Being unpredictable is, I think, is modern football and we have to be able to show that on the field."
Khan, asked if he would speak to quarterback Trevor Lawrence about the coaching search, said "I talk to the players regularly. I don't wanna identify Trevor or anyone else by name, but let's be clear: This isn't Aaron Rodgers 2.0. We're going to do the right thing for the team.
"If Trevor doesn't get better, if the other players don't get better, we're not going to win. The coaches coming in know who our foundational players are and they have to be committed to making them better."
Baalke, the Jaguars' general manager since 2021, spoke of the need to do things a "little different, a little better" moving forward. The Jaguars went 3-14 in 2021 with Urban Meyer as head coach, finishing 9-8 the next two seasons with an AFC South title in 2022, before losing the first four games of the 2024 season and eight of the last 10.
The Jaguars in 2024 lost 10 games by seven points or fewer, the most by an NFL team in the Super Bowl era, and Baalke and Khan on Monday both said improvement can come quickly.
"There are a lot of good people in this building from the coaches on through personnel and all the support staff," Baalke said. "We don't need to fix everything. The process isn't going to change. This is a situation where you go out and you pick the best person you can pick, then you roll up your sleeves and go to work. Nobody has a crystal ball. Mistakes are made all the time in this business.
"Doug and I enjoyed some really good times here. I don't want to short sight that. But now it's about going on to the next journey and trying to get this one right for the long haul."
