Reports from earlier this week suggest that an in-season shakeup of the Jaguars’ power structure could be imminent if Jacksonville suffers a blowout loss to the Lions in Week 11.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, not only is head coach Doug Pederson at risk, but general manager Trent Baalke could also be on the chopping block if the Jaguars are decisively beaten by Detroit.
Owner Shad Khan had publicly expressed support for both Pederson and Baalke earlier this year, reportedly preferring to delay any major changes until the end of the season.
However, with the 2-8 Jaguars currently being led by quarterback Mac Jones—while Trevor Lawrence recovers from a shoulder injury—the odds of a lopsided defeat against the 8-1 Lions are high.
Rapoport notes that the sentiment within the Jaguars’ organization is that some sort of change is inevitable.
During training camp this summer, Khan made a bold statement claiming that this year’s team was the best in franchise history—a statement that now seems increasingly misplaced with each loss.
If Khan genuinely believed that, and considering that rival teams acknowledge the talent on Jacksonville’s roster, it would appear that Baalke, as the architect of that roster, might have a case to remain in his role for 2025.
When Pederson’s job security first came under scrutiny in September, it was believed that Baalke’s position was relatively safer.
However, the team’s dramatic downturn over the past year—the 2023 Jaguars started with an 8-3 record only to lose five of their last six games and miss the playoffs—might be too severe for the top leadership to survive unscathed.
Baalke, 60, previously served as the 49ers’ general manager from 2011 to 2016, where he oversaw a roster that made 35 Pro Bowl appearances and reached the Super Bowl.
However, after head coach Jim Harbaugh’s departure in 2014, the 49ers struggled. The two head coaches Baalke hired to replace Harbaugh, Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly, both lasted only one season, with the team posting a combined 7-25 record in 2015-16.
This downturn led to Baalke’s dismissal, after which he spent several years as a football operations consultant for the NFL.
Baalke joined the Jaguars as director of player personnel in February 2020, was promoted to interim GM after Dave Caldwell’s firing in November of that year, and was officially named general manager at the end of the 2020 season.
Despite this, Baalke’s presence as GM reportedly deterred certain coaching candidates during the team’s protracted head coach search in the 2022 offseason.
The Jaguars even interviewed former Vikings GM Rick Spielman for a senior role that would have been above Baalke, though that hire never materialized.
By the end of the 2022 season, despite the success of Pederson’s first year, rumors about Baalke’s job security were still circulating.
While tensions between Pederson and Baalke have reportedly grown, Rapoport notes that there is currently no active in-fighting between the coaching staff and the front office.
Both sides acknowledge that the team’s struggles are a collective failure. However, a sense of “doom” hangs over the organization as staff brace for an expected shakeup.
