Report: Jaguars to hire Mike McCoy as QB coach

According to a report from NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero, the Jaguars are hiring former Chargers head coach Mike McCoy as their quarterback coach. McCoy becomes the first hire of the Doug Pederson era in Jacksonville, who was announced as the team’s head coach late last week.

McCoy, 49, has extensive experience on the offensive side of the football in the NFL, and has been a head coach in his career. He began in the league as an offensive assistant with the Carolina Panthers in 2000 before working his way up to passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

After leaving the Panthers in 2008, McCoy would become the offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos from 2009-12, working as the team’s quarterbacks coach during his first year there (2009), with quarterbacks such as Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow. In 2009, Orton saw his best season as a quarterback.

The following season, the Broncos were ranked seventh in the NFL, while Orton ranked fourth in the league in passing yards per game.

After his final season with the Broncos in 2012, McCoy would head to the San Diego Chargers to be the team’s next head coach, going 27-37 in four seasons, making the playoffs just one time (2013), but would be unable to reach the playoffs again, going 9-7, 4-12 and 5-11 the next three seasons prior to being fired in 2017.

He’d return to the Denver Broncos for one season, before getting fired as the team’s OC there, while becoming the Arizona Cardinals OC in 2018, fired again midseason before being replaced by now-Tampa Bay Buccaneers OC Byron Leftwich.

He has not coached in the NFL since being let go in 2018.

Getting an experienced coach such as McCoy to enter the fray as a teacher for Lawrence is a good thing. Given McCoy’s experience as a quarterback coach and an offensive mind, it should bode well for Lawrence’s success with Pederson as the team’s lead man. Who the team hires next as its offensive coordinator remains to be seen.

While Pederson and McCoy have never coached together, they were roommates during their time with the Green Bay Packers as players. McCoy was on the practice squad, while Pederson backed up Brett Favre in 1995.

During his introductory press conference, Pederson made it clear that he did not feel he’d have any issues filling his staff, giving brief answers to both the question of whether or not he felt he was behind the eight ball in terms of hiring a staff, “no,” and whether or not he felt confident he could still assemble an adequate staff, “very high.”

McCoy becomes the first of many hires expected over the next few days.

There have been reports regarding the team’s offensive coordinator position, which has rumored to be former Eagles passing game coordinator Press Taylor, who is currently on the Indianapolis Colts coaching staff as a senior offensive assistant.