Gene Frenette: 12 ways the Jacksonville Jaguars can be healed from wounds of 2021 season

When Jaguars coach Doug Pederson mentioned at the start of offseason training activities (OTAs) that he felt “some kind of healing” was needed to help the team move on from a disastrous 2021 season, it struck me as being a bit overdramatic.

Not to be disrespectful, as the 11-month Urban Meyer era did bring its share of weirdness and discomfort, but it’s not like the Jaguars — outside of maybe kicker Josh Lambo — were traumatized by the whole fiasco.

There were no reports of player therapy sessions where Trevor Lawrence and Josh Allen huddled around teammates to sing “Kumbaya.”

Owner Shad Khan didn’t bring in a sports psychologist to help the team flush last season out of its psyche.

Gene's previous three columns:

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As one Jaguars insider from 2021 put it: “No one on the outside knew what it was like in the building. Right, wrong or indifferent, Urban Meyer was going to get the blame for everything. But the locker room stayed together.

“They’ve got a different situation now. Doug [Pederson] gets credibility just walking in the building because he’s done it before as a coach, winning the Super Bowl, and played the game a long time. The healing is go win a f----- game. Believe me, there was a lot of healing when we beat Buffalo and Indianapolis last year.”

Pederson, asked specifically last month about moving on from 2021, was obviously acknowledging Khan’s public rebuke of Meyer for the infamous Columbus bar/restaurant video that compelled him to publicly say his coach had to regain back the team’s trust.

So Pederson, likely mindful of that particular wording, remarked the Jaguars might need healing “because it’s just there’s a lack of trust that was broken,” adding he had to gain back the trust through him being transparent and honest.

On Thursday, Pederson was effusive in his praise for the way Lawrence navigated a difficult 2021 season, but was it really any tougher than what the likes of Zach Wilson, Justin Fields or Joe Burrow endured in their first seasons? The NFL is almost always a trying time for rookie quarterbacks.

"It’s tough and then to go through what he went through and how he kind of came through it and stood tall and really took a lot of bullets and really did a great job," Pederson said of Lawrence. "Did a great job of handling all that.

Nobody would dispute it was a challenge, especially after Meyer proved beyond any doubt that he wasn’t prepared to be an NFL head coach. But let's not act like Lawrence or the Jaguars experienced a football version of the Bataan Death March.

Multiple NFL teams and young quarterbacks accustomed to phenomenal success put up with a ton of losing every year. The best and only way to recover from such bad experiences, or heal, if you will, is to win.

Khan got that ball rolling by hiring Pederson, a former NFL quarterback who guided the Philadelphia Eagles to three playoff appearances and a Super Bowl title in five seasons.

Follow the Bengals' path

The mending of the Jaguars continued when they spent $165 million in guaranteed money to acquire eight free agents — including receiver Christian Kirk, Pro Bowl guard Brandon Scherff and tackling machine Foye Oluokun — then fortified the defense further with first-round draft picks Travon Walker and Devin Lloyd.

So before Pederson even addressed his entire team for the first time, the real healing had begun. Not with words or a coach’s transparency, but all kinds of zeros on multiple player contracts.

Undeniably, NFL success is more about collecting better players than anything else. Want to know why offensive coordinator Press Taylor will be smiling more after Sunday games in 2022 than Darrell Bevell last year? Or defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell more than predecessor Joe Cullen?

Hint: It has less to do with the head coach and his healing powers and more to do with the look of the Jaguars’ roster.

Look at the Cincinnati Bengals and how they transformed from 2-14 and then 4-11-1 the previous two years to get within an eyelash of winning the Super Bowl.

Any doubt which factored more into that ascent — the hiring of head coach Zac Taylor (Press’ older brother) in 2019 or the acquisitions the past two years of Burrow, receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, linebacker Logan Wilson and kicker Evan McPherson via the draft, plus defensive linemen Trey Hendrickson and D.J. Reader in free agency?

Not to dismiss Taylor’s fabulous coaching job, but the Bengals healed quite nicely once Burrow was healthy and the talent around him got a massive upgrade.

If that could happen in Cincinnati, why can the same thing not realistically happen for the Jaguars by 2023 and beyond?

A healing formula

But let’s start with this season and a dozen suggestions on how Pederson’s team can go about healing from the 2021 debacle:

• Have the offense convert on third-and-1 or fourth-and-1 better than 54 percent of the time (19 for 35).

• Stop getting repeatedly burned by opposing tight ends and use newly acquired TE Evan Engram, who looks more like a receiver, enough different ways so he breaks Kyle Brady’s single-season, tight end team record of 64 catches and 729 yards.

• Lawrence significantly reducing 11 games of quarterback ratings under 75.0 and a 1.5-yard jump from a woeful rookie output of 6.0 yards per pass attempt.

• Play with a lead for more than an average of 9.3 minutes per game.

• Allen not going seven consecutive games without a sack and putting up numbers worthy of a monster contract extension.

• Avoid the certain-death statistic of a minus-20 turnover differential, including the defense forcing a meager three turnovers in 14 losses.

• Receiver Laviska Shenault finding the end zone and Lawrence’s targets cutting in half last year’s total of 39 drops.

• Kirk living up to his $72 million contract by being, at minimum, a 1,000-yard receiver.

• Find a placekicker, whether it’s Ryan Santoso or somebody else, that will convert no less than 80 percent of his field goal attempts and not file a lawsuit against the team.

• Don’t let a 17-game road losing streak reach 20 and end a stupefying eight-game losing streak to the Houston Texans immediately.

• Travon Walker out-sacking Detroit Lions rookie pass-rusher Aidan Hutchinson.

• Remain in reasonable playoff contention past Thanksgiving.

None of these healing solutions should be terribly burdensome. All are fairly attainable and if achieved, it would likely result in a rebound season that gives Jaguars’ fans legitimate hope for the future.

When it comes to a sure-fire formula for healing, iconic Raiders’ owner Al Davis had it right. Just win, baby.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540 

Gene Frenette Sports columnist at Florida Times-Union, follow him on Twitter @genefrenette

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 12 ways the Jacksonville Jaguars can heal from 2021 season's wounds