Trevor Lawrence, cratering Jaguars are mirroring Doug Pederson's sudden Eagles collapse

Are we reliving recent NFL history?

When the Philadelphia Hawks collapsed late in 2023, it wasn't difficult to see parallels between the team's final two administrations -- both of which delighted in suddenly sudden surges to Super Bowl dispute, as it were to drop back to Soil fair as quickly. Presently, one of the coaches from this continuous boom-or-bust Hawks period, Super Bowl LII winner Doug Pederson, fair might be remembering history of his possess with the Jacksonville Pumas. And it's not pretty.

Desperate to get their to begin with win of the 2024 season on Monday night, Pederson's Pumas instep looked as collapsed as they've ever been, tolerantly yanking starters some time recently the buzzer of a 47-10 blowout misfortune to the Buffalo Bills. Previous No. 1 draft choose Trevor Lawrence, presently one of the four highest-paid quarterbacks in the association, flailed around like he's done for much of the final year. And Pederson had no choice but to take off the entryway open for discount alter in his postgame news conference, conceding with gutting renunciation, at 0-3, that "this is who we are."

Yes. It's too who Pederson's groups have been. Alter the names of the players, the colors of the regalia, the stadiums in which they're jogged out, and you're cleared out with nearly a culminate reproduction of Pederson's late-stage Hawks. Not the Super Bowl-winning Falcons. The Falcons who slammed, burned and required a lightning-speed rebuild.

Let's begin by recognizing the great, indeed if it's the farthest thing on which Duval District cares to stay: Pederson is a regarded pioneer of men. It's why the Falcons tapped him to supplant Chip Kelly nearly a decade prior, and it made him the culminate nonentity for a squad full of underdogs in that vivacious 2017 title run. It's too why the Pumas enlisted him in 2022, to wash absent the stink of a fizzled Urban Meyer marriage, modify locker-room resolve, and elevate the weak Lawrence.

On both events -- in Philly, and at that point in Jacksonville -- Pederson's everyman nearness made a difference create a contender sooner than expected. No. 2 in general choose Carson Wentz went from gutsy gunslinger to full-on MVP candidate for the Hawks, gaining the No. 1 seed that eventually made a difference Scratch Foles go the remove. Lawrence, in the interim, went from sporadic underachiever to Professional Bowl playmaker in his to begin with year beneath Pederson, overcoming a four-pick to begin with half against the Los Angeles Chargers in his playoff make a big appearance to make a 27-point comeback. Jacksonville was legitimately prepared to be Pederson's another incredible underdog story, total with a splashy youthful signal-caller.

So where did it all go off-base? Pederson's past gives a few clues. The post-2017 Hawks endured from flawed staff bets by the front office, to be beyond any doubt. Wentz for all intents and purposes dragged a collection of reinforcement wide recipients to the postseason in 2019. And however 2020, when everything went south in a 4-11-1 cratering, basically stemmed from a add up to breakdown in hostile foundation. Pederson denied to carry a conventional hostile facilitator, maybe soured by the ordinary gathering to earlier advancement Mike Groh. The week by week plans needed the imaginative punch that fueled the forceful Falcons of Pederson's crest. And Wentz surrendered to it all, inclining as well much on his huge arm and less on convenient choices, getting to be a turnover machine some time recently a late-year benching that viably finished his relationship with the club.

Wentz, intellect you, had as it were cashed in with a profitable long-term contract expansion the past year. That's another key to this confuse: At the time of the Eagles' big-money commitment to Wentz, the previous star was coming off a strong, if unspectacular, 2018 season in which he played fair 11 diversions due to harm. The Hawks were paying somewhat for his 2017 breakout, but generally for projection, wagering that his solidness and sometimes rash propensities would die down beneath the security cover of a wealthy modern bargain. Sound commonplace? It was fair this summer, instantly upon news of Lawrence's mega-extension with the Jags, that fans started pondering what, precisely, Jacksonville was paying $275 million for.

That's not to say Lawrence needs physical blessings. He most clearly does not. The way the ball takes off his hand, it's reasonably simple to recognize him as a top-10 ability. The issue, as it was with Wentz in the late arrange of his what-could-have-been Hawks residency, has been either an unwillingness or an failure to play keen football inside Pederson's offense. That's on the quarterback. It's too on the offense. Pederson, see, as it were part from the Falcons taking after that sad 2020 campaign after he and the group supposedly fizzled to concur on plans to introduce Press Taylor, at that point a passing amusement facilitator, as the modern chief of offense. And it's Taylor who's served as Pederson's much-maligned facilitator and play-caller in Jacksonville.

At 0-3, and 1-8 over their final nine diversions dating back to 2023, the Jaguars' issues run much more profound than a couple of people, be it the fellow tossing the ball and the fellow dialing up the plays. Where's the vaunted pass surge? Or the modern speedsters out wide? For a group featured, be that as it may, by an hostile coach in Pederson, a highly-paid quarterback in Lawrence, and a lineup beautified with previous first-round abilities at the ability spots, it's telling that Jacksonville's most dazzling issue is inadequacy with the ball in its hands. It's what put an unexpected conclusion to Pederson's lightning-in-a-bottle Hawks period not long prior, and, for as cherished as the coach may be actually, it's what's promising to bring sudden and evident alter in Jacksonville.