Prominent Jaguars coaching candidate to retain GM Trent Baalke

On January 7, 2025By Littum

Change has officially taken place in Jacksonville, MD firing of Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson will be made official Monday morning.

In the wake of Pederson’s firing, however, there is one glaring and impactful factor in the Jaguars’ future: general manager Trent Baalkewho Jaguars owner Shad Khan said in a statement would help search for Pederson’s replacement.

Baalke, who will now help hire his third different coach in Jacksonville, has been a lightning rod for criticism throughout his tenure as Jaguars general manager. A big reason for this is Baalke’s reported reputation throughout league circles, which paints him as a difficult person to work with and one who often clashes with the coaching staff during his watch.

The coaching community was on alert in 2022 when the Jaguars retained Baalke, with several coaches privately expressing skepticism about the attractiveness of the Jaguars job if it meant being forced into a marriage with Baalke.

Those questions won’t go away this time either.

The Jacksonville Jaguars at Sports Illustrated reached out to a prominent candidate who was mentioned multiple times as a potential answer for the Jaguars’ future. Asked about the impact of keeping Baalke, the coach replied:

“For the Jaguars to change direction, you have to actually change direction. Keeping Trent Baalke greatly diminishes my interest in that job. Lots of promise, but same roadblocks.”

The coach is far from the only person in the NFL sphere expressing skepticism about the Jaguars’ plan, with several members of the NFL media also echoing the Jaguars’ decision on Monday.

Trent Baalke got both his GM jobs in San Francisco and Jacksonville after his boss was fired. And in those jobs, he survived the firings of Mike Singletary, Jim Harbaugh, Jim Tomsula, Urban Meyer and now Doug Pederson.

If you are familiar with the term “to steer up”…

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) 6 January 2025

If it can’t be negotiated to keep Trent Baalke for coaching candidates with Khan, it will really limit the pool the Jaguars are looking at. https://t.co/zv1BWdX8Cj

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) 6 January 2025

There is pure “SHOCK” around NFL circles that #Jaguars decided to keep GM Trent Baalke, per @Schultz_Report pic.twitter.com/37zctQ0rtR

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) 6 January 2025

There is pure shock around NFL circles that #Jaguars chose to retain GM Trent Baalke.

“Unreal.”

“Makes no sense.”

“What has he done to survive two head coaches?”

“The job isn’t as desirable with Trent there.”

And much more. Many NFL people were shocked. https://t.co/bebS5DEMbr

— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) 6 January 2025

There have been 10 NFL head coaches fired during or after their first season with a team in the last decade

Trent Baalke hired three of those 10 coaches (Tomsula, Kelly, Meyer) pic.twitter.com/FojlUz3Ivp

— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) 6 January 2025

In short, Baalke’s reputation among the coaching community doesn’t appear to have improved that much in the three years he’s worked with Pederson. But Jaguars owner Shad Khan made it clear in 2022 that he didn’t care about Baalke’s outside opinion; he only cared about what he saw in his daily manager.

With Baalke now set to return and help hire another coach in Jacksonville, it’s clear that Khan’s opinion of Baalke — and of the thoughts more people have of Baalke — hasn’t changed much, if at all, since 2022 .low season.

Be sure to follow X (Twitter) @JaguarsOnSI and @_John_Shipley and never miss another news story again.

Let us know your thoughts when you like our Facebook page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.