Louis Rees-Zammit's coach 'loses the dressing room' as stark reality hits

Doug Pederson won the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles back in 2018, but he's having a harder time in Jacksonville

Louis Rees-Zammit's coach at the Jacksonville Jaguars has denied reports he's lost the dressing room amid a disastrous start to the NFL season.

The Jaguars have lost all four games so far, with pressure growing on head coach Doug Pederson - particularly after a blowout 47-10 defeat to the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football a couple of weeks ago.

Pederson, who spent most of his own playing career as a back-up to Hall of Fame quarterbacks Brett Favre and Dan Marino, has won a Super Bowl as a coach - lifting the Lombardi in 2018 with the Philadelphia Eagles. Get the latest Welsh rugby breaking news by signing up to our free daily newsletter here.

However, things aren't going as smoothly in Jacksonville, with Bleacher Report's Jordan Schultz reporting earlier this week that Pederson had lost the locker room after their 0-4 start.

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"I've talked to a few guys in that locker room over the last two weeks, not just the Texans game, but the last couple weeks and they've told me that that locker room is gone in regards to the head coach," Schulz said on the Sharp Football Show. "So when I hear that, I hear again, a team in a franchise that is absolutely rudderless."

After the latest defeat to the Houston Texans, Pederson declared that journalists could "sit here and point the finger all you want" after their awful start.

Later in the week though, he refuted the reports that he'd lost the locker room.

"I see them every day and no, I have not lost the locker room," Pederson said. "I think these guys have done everything I've asked. They continue to play and practice hard and battle and it's a good group. It's a good group.

"The right leaders in there and it's a good group. The right leaders are in there and they know what we need to do and they're not making excuses for it, and I'm not going to make excuses and we just got to go do it."

Star quarterback Trevor Lawrence - one of the highest-paid players in the NLF - also refuted the reports, saying: "You got to do your job so you got to ask it, but I shouldn't even have to answer it. I mean, not at all.

"I dunno where that's coming from, so I don't even want to really expand on something that's just not true."

Having originally been signed by the reigning Super Bowl champions, Kansas City Chiefs, after coming through the NFL's International Player Pathway programme, this has certainly been a dramatic change of scenery for Rees-Zammit.

As a practice squad member, Rees-Zammit hasn't been eligible to be picked for any of the matches so far this season - not officially being on the 53-man roster - but as he tries to learn a new sport rapidly, the fortunes of his franchise will be hard to escape.

While the Chiefs are currently top of the AFC West with a perfect 4-0 record since cutting Rees-Zammit after pre-season, the Jaguars are rooted to the bottom of the AFC South.

Even with Pederson having refuted the claims, speculation over his future in the job is unlikely to go away anytime soon - especially when former New England Patriots head coach and eight-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick remains available.

The 72-year-old, who Pederson defeated in Super Bowl LII, left Foxborough in 2023 after over two decades with the Patriots, in which time they won six Super Bowls.