Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
For just the second time since the creation of the AFC South in 2002, the Jacksonville Jaguars are division champions. And that means the Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts, and Houston Texans will enter 2023 hoping they can dethrone the Jaguars.
While the Jaguars now have to deal with the weight of expectation, head coach Doug Pederson says he’s glad his team knows they’re the team to beat in the division.E
“You definitely want them to think that way,” Pederson said Tuesday at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine. “I want them to feel that kind of pressure where you have to perform week in and week out.
“This past year, we were just playing to win a game, then ultimately, we found ourselves winning more games at the end of the season, putting ourselves in a position to win the AFC South, but now those are the expectations that I as the head coach expect our football team to have.”
Early in the 2022 season, Pederson told reporters that the Jaguars were a team that needed to figure out how to build a winning culture.
“We’re just trying to use the momentum from week to week and learning how to win,” Pederson said in September. “This franchise hasn’t won and we understand that and we own up to that. But that’s one of the reasons why I’m here. To help flip that around.”
After limping out to a 2-6 start to the year, the Jaguars began to piece together wins before stringing together five straight to steal the AFC South crown. That momentum carried into the playoffs where Jacksonville pulled off a 27-point comeback on Wild Card Weekend.
With a winning culture now properly in place, Pederson’s right — there’s no excuse for the Jaguars to lose games they should win. The first six losses of the 2022 season came by a one-score margin. Jacksonville had the lead or were tied in the fourth quarter of five of those games.
The AFC South is the Jaguars’ to lose, and that’s an expectation the team will have to embrace.
