NFL Notebook: 2025 Jacksonville Jaguars Preview
Think back to Thanksgiving of 2023. When the Jacksonville Jaguars sat down to their turkey, they were 8-3 and coming off a 2022 season where they had made the playoffs, produced an epic comeback win over the Chargers and then gave the Chiefs all they could handle. Trevor Lawrence was a rising star, destined to be an elite quarterback.
Since then, it’s all come apart. With Lawrence playing through nagging injuries at the end of ’23, the Jags collapsed and missed the playoffs. Last year, both the quarterback and the team were an unmitigated disaster. All told, Jacksonville has lost 18 of 23 games since Thanksgiving 2023, gotten head coach Doug Pederson fired, and left everyone wondering where this franchise is going.
A NEW COACH FOR A QB IN CRISIS
Liam Coen is the new man in charge. Last year, he was the coordinator for the fourth-best offense in the league in Tampa Bay, overseeing Baker Mayfield’s emergence. Jacksonville hopes he’s got the right touch to revive Lawrence’s career. The organization made their own statement of belief in Lawrence by not drafting another quarterback and only having Nick Mullens as the best available backup. Jacksonville will sink or swim with Trevor, at least for this season.
The Jags did use their first-round draft pick to give Lawrence a new weapon—Travis Hunter, fresh of winning the Heisman Trophy as a two-way player in Colorado. While Hunter will play both sides of the ball in the pros, slot receiver is where he’s listed as the starter. He’ll seek to join Brian Thomas Jr., who had an impact rookie season a year ago at wideout. Adams caught 87 balls, averaged a healthy 14.7 per catch and made the Pro Bowl.
Jacksonville’s running game is tough to get a read on. They have two good backs, Tank Bigsby and Travis Etienne. But the latter struggled along with the rest of the team last year and has to bounce back. The offensive line, while getting some new additions via free agency, doesn’t look like an area of strength. It’s not terrible, but the Jags aren’t going to muscle past anyone.
A LACK OF DEFENSIVE PLAYMAKING
The defense could not make game-changing plays a year ago, forcing only nine turnovers, leading to a final (-15) on differential. You aren’t going to win games in the NFL doing it that way. I’m not sure that I see a whole lot of reason to think that will change, short of just hoping for a more favorable bounce of the ball this time around.
Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker are good pass rushers at defensive end, but they were last year, and Jacksonville still struggled to pressure the quarterback as an overall unit. Devin Lloyd is a solid middle linebacker and free safety Andrew Wingard is ready to go after missing the first half of last season with an injury. But it seems unlikely to think they alone can turn around a defense that ranked 27th in the league for points allowed in 2024.
OUTLOOK
I like Jacksonville. I’ve always been a fan of Lawrence, going back to his Clemson days, and I picked this team to rebound last year. I’m not so confident this year. Even if Lawrence does bounce back, the defense is a huge question mark. Betting markets put the Over/Under at 7.5. I could see the Jags winning eight games. But not much more than that—and winning significantly fewer is definitely on the table.