One day before the start of the Jacksonville Jaguars 2024 training camp, head coach Doug Pederson took a timeout June 18 to address members of the Jacksonville Bar Association.
He focused on what it means to be a leader and how to win on the field and in life.
“Trust protects you from worrying and obsessing. Thankfulness keeps you from criticizing and complaining. Be thankful every day,” he said. “You’ve got another day in front of you. I wake up and go to the office thankful for this opportunity.
“I’ve got to have the trust.”
Pederson cited five pillars he developed that guide his coaching, decision making and disposition.
The first is “eliminating distractions.”
“I tell the guys, you must be present to be your best. You must be here right now,” he said. “To be your best, you must be present.”
The second is “to create energy.”
“That’s probably the biggest (pillar) of all,” Pederson said. “Create energy. Don’t be the one to rob others of it. Don’t be the one to steal the joy from somebody else. Be the one who gives the energy. That creates the energy in your office. Your workplace.”
Pederson cited Jaguars linebacker Josh Hines-Allen, who attended the speech, as an example of someone on the team who brings that energy.
“I guarantee you there’s days he doesn’t want to practice, but he goes out there early with a smile on his face, goes through everything we ask him to go through and then brings people with him. He creates energy,” he said. “It’s the same as me as a head coach.
“If I walk into a team meeting slumped over and ‘bleh,’ the team is going to feel that.”
Third is to “fear nothing” and to come prepared.
“Preparation produces confidence. You’ll fear nothing, The fear goes away when you’re prepared.” he said. “That confidence equals courage. That courage will give you the confidence to tackle any task you have.
“For us it’s game day.”
No. 4: “Attack everything.”
“It’s about setting goals. And those goals can be daily, weekly, yearly, five years, 10 years, but set goals and then attack them every single day,” he said.
Lastly, it’s the acronym he calls W.I.N., which stands for “what’s important now.”
“If you want to win the day, if you want to win the moment, you have to be present. You have to decide what’s important now. Not tomorrow or the next day. I can’t look to the next game, the end of the season or the Super Bowl. It’s what’s important now.
“The secret to success is the consistency of purpose.”
Pederson said he is confident about the upcoming season and said he will continue to model the behaviors he wants to see with the team.
“Be consistent and have purpose and good things are going to happen. Good things are going to happen for us this year. I feel it. I know it.”
Pederson became Jaguars head coach in 2022 after serving on coaching staffs for NFL teams including the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, where he was head coach from 2016 to 2020.
As a quarterback, his career started with the Miami Dolphins as an offseason/practice squad member in 1991 and ended as backup quarterback for Brett Favre with the Green Bay Packers in 2004.
In his first two seasons as coach for the Jaguars, the team produced a winning record in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2004-05, according to jaguars.com. In 2023, the team finished 9-8 and second in the AFC South.
All Jaguars rookies, injured veterans and first-year players are scheduled to report to EverBank Stadium for training July 19.
Pro Bowl edge defender Hines-Allen, who agreed to five-year contract extension with the Jaguars worth up to $150 million in April, announced July 9 he changed his name.
Allen said on Jaguars.com he made the change as a “tribute to Joshua’s maternal side of the family and the other relatives who have worn ‘Hines’ and ‘Hines-Allen’ on their jerseys.”