Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson spoke Monday. Below is a transcript.

Question: Is there an update on WR Christian Kirk’s injury?

Pederson: “He had surgery this morning, so he’s done. Yes, it’s unfortunate. We try to play games until late hours. It landed on him. The defender fell on top of him. Yes. Tough. It’s hard for him. “It’s hard for us, but we will get through it and it will get better.”

Question: Is there an update on WR Brian Thomas Jr.’s injury?

Pederson: “He has a small contusion on the left side of his chest. It will be painful. It’s kind of a daily thing.”

Question: Is Thomas Jr. expected to play in the Week 9 game against Philadelphia?

Pederson: “Yeah, I think it’s more about how much he can tolerate.”

Q: What about other injury updates?

Pederson: “Gabe (WR Gabe Davis) should be fine. Again it was just the shoulder. He lost some sensation there and we were expecting that to come back a little bit during the game. Sometimes these are funny things, but it should be good. Ezra (OL Ezra Cleveland), ankle. It will probably run daily from now until the weekend. Scherff (OL Brandon Scherff) is back. Scherff is going to get hurt. Tough guy. It was war. I came back, finished the game. Should be good for this weekend. Darby (CB Ronald Darby) will be more casual day to day.”

Q: On WR Parker Washington stepping into his role?

Pederson: “Yeah, so he did some great things yesterday. He is a player who has proven that he can do this. So we have full confidence going forward that he can fill that role, that spot.”

Q: What about OL Cooper Hodges’ performance Sunday against Green Bay?

Pederson: “Yeah, I mean tough. He plays right guard, then he has to get in from the tight end for the PAT, field goal, then he has to go to left guard. It was everywhere. It wasn’t perfect, but if he goes into this week with a week of preparation, a week of practice, getting all the reps and stuff like that, he’ll be a lot better. “It was good for him to play to get a feel for the pace of the game and he did some good things, but if that’s the case I think a week’s practice will do him good.”

Q: About QB Trevor Lawrence settling into the game and the slower start to the offense?

Pederson: “Yes, it is difficult. I mean, God, I mean, you looked at it yesterday. Did you get off to a good start, first down, a six to seven yard completion to Tank (RB Tank Bigsby)? And then two shortcomings. I mean these are just things we have to keep looking at. That’s just the execution part, right? As coaches making the decisions and making the type of calls we make, just look at it and make sure we’re doing the right thing there. But it still took us going into the second quarter against New England to get started, and it took us until about the 14th play of that game to get started. So that’s something we need to look at and really care about starting as we finish. “This will be ideal as we move forward.”

Question: About whether he was happy with the way the team rebounded from a 10-point deficit?

Pederson: “Yes, I am. I’m very pleased with how we responded. You don’t want to be 10 points behind but we’ve been 10 points behind for two weeks in a row but we fought back. Considering the amount of injuries we had late in the game, it’s pretty remarkable that we did what we did in the end to tie the football game. I thought Trevor (QB Trevor Lawrence) did a great job leading the team. The guys around him, Parker, Tim (WR Tim Jones), Evan (TE Evan Engram), Brenton (TE Brenton Strange), so they made plays for him as well. The offensive line did some good things. So that part of it was good, and now we just have to somehow transfer that to the first play of the game and go from there.”

Question: About the defense’s struggles?

Pederson: “It’s just something when we look at the tape, when we look at the personnel, you try to put your finger on it. Is this the plan? Execution of players? I’d say it’s a little bit of both right now. Look, the bottom line is sometimes that’s the case, and I’m not saying that’s the case, but you don’t want to do too much on the field, right? You don’t want to take matters into your own hands and think someone else should do it; We just want you to do your job. Coaches coach, players play, that’s it. But just do your job and we’ll be fine. When you see the goodness out there, that’s what happens. All 11 people play as one. But sometimes every once in a while you come across a guy who says maybe he’s out of his element or that he did something a little different or forgot an assignment or something like that, and that hurts us. Those are things we’re trying to clean up right now and make sure we continue to coach. Coach the details, coach the finer points, and try to eliminate some of that.”

Q: About the level of concern regarding the passing offense?

Pederson: “Yeah, I mean, obviously you want to impact the passer and you go out every week thinking you can do that. Listen, we need to take a look at this. I still believe the right guys are there. Whether we move them more, whether we do five-man pressure or six-man pressure, whatever we need to do to impact the passer, we have to be able to do that. I know Ryan (Defensive Coordinator Ryan Nielsen) took a hard look at it and took a lot of pride in it. “This is an area we need to improve.”

Q: On whether he’ll take a more active role in defensive game planning) “No. Listen, I’ll leave that to the experts out there. I’m an offensive guy. I’ll stay on offense. I’ll help out as much as I can. That way I can help the personnel and help with different decisions, but it comes down to planning.” And when it comes to all that, I mean, they get paid for it and they let them do their thing.”

Q: As for switching offensive personnel?

Pederson: “I mean, I think it just depends on the nature of the people on the field. But yeah, I mean, it’s going to hurt a little bit to miss Christian (WR Christian Kirk). Obviously his leadership and the way he plays, but we’ll see where BT is this week and we know; it’s actually Parker.” “You want him to replace Christian and we feel very comfortable there. So schematically I don’t think there will be much change. We need to put our players in the best situations, so we need to take their strengths and exploit that in the game plan.”

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