Doug Pederson to be Jacksonville Jaguars’ next head coach

The Jacksonville Jaguars have found their next head coach.

After an extensive search that took more than 30 days to complete, the team will hire former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, USA TODAY Sports’ Mike Jones has confirmed. A person familiar with the move spoke on condition of anonymity because the franchise had not yet announced the move.

ESPN and NFL Media first reported the Pederson hire.

Pederson will be the ninth head coach in Jaguars history, which dates back to the franchise’s expansion season of 1995. The Jaguars’ last head-coaching hire, Urban Meyer, ended up being an embarrassment, with the legendary college football coach getting fired on Dec. 16 after just 13 games at the helm.

Pederson, however, brings NFL success to his second tenure as head coach. Pederson was the Eagles’ head coach when the team won Super Bowl LII against the New England Patriots. In five seasons as Eagles head coach, Pederson compiled a regular-season record of 42-37-1, and the Eagles made the playoffs in three of those seasons.

Pederson played 10 seasons in the NFL, mostly as a backup quarterback, most notably behind Brett Favre with the Green Bay Packers.

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The Pederson development comes after Byron Leftwich removed himself from consideration for the Jaguars post. Leftwich was interviewed twice by the Jaguars, but made it known that he couldn’t work with general manager Trent Baalke, two people with knowledge of the situation told the USA TODAY Network. The people spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Contributing: John Reid, Florida Times-Union

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jacksonville Jaguars hiring Doug Pederson as head coach