How much damage can the wrong hire do to a professional football team? The Jacksonville Jaguars, one of the Indianapolis Colts' most menacing rivals, are hoping that the hangover left by the disastrous, short-lived tenure of Urban Meyer as head coach is finally a thing of the past.
It was 2021, and despite having the worst team in the league, things were actually looking up down in Florida. New GM Trent Baalke was gifted with a generational quarterback in Trevor Lawrence. Job one – and jobs two and three – were to make sure Lawrence’s transition to the NFL went as smoothly as possible.
To accomplish that, he lured legendary college coach Meyer out of retirement. It was catastrophic from day one.
We won’t relive that nightmare now. Suffice it to say that Meyer did not survive the year. With Lawrence under center, the Jags scored the fewest points in the league. To offset that, their defense surrendered the fifth-most points. Their average point differential for the season was in the double digits, an impressive sign of abject failure.
Indianapolis Colts rival Jacksonville Jaguars head into the 2025 season with a new coach and new hope
Veteran coach – and former quarterback – Doug Pederson eventually came in to restore a degree of stability, but the Jags never got over the hump. In this case, that hump is double-digit victories. The last time they reached ten wins was in 2017.
Lawrence missed a good chunk of 2024 and Jacksonville stumbled to a 4-13 record. Only a pair of late wins against equally moribund division rival Tennessee kept them from finishing with the worst record in the league.
So Pederson is gone, as is Baalke. There’s a new attitude in Jacksonville. Will it result in on-field success? Let’s take a look at where the Jags stand and how they got here.
Last year
Coming off two straight 9-8 seasons, hopes were high going into the 2024 season. Baalke loaded up on veterans like Arik Armstead and Ronald Darby on defense. He gave big money to Buffalo receiver Gabe Davis, hoping to provide Lawrence with a dangerous downfield option. Most of the moves yielded modest results.
Baalke did get one thing right. He moved back in the first round of the draft and still was able to choose Brian Thomas, Jr., who proved to be one of the best young receivers in the entire league during his rookie season.
Baalke also made several smart moves in extending his own players. But none is really paid off in ’24. By the time they reached their bye, the Jags stood at 2-9. Mac Jones was playing quarterback in place of the injured Lawrence.
However, things were not quite as bleak as they seemed. Despite being blown out by Buffalo and Detroit, six of those first nine losses were by less than a touchdown. In the middle of the season, the Jags lost three straight games to eventual playoff teams – Green Bay, Philadelphia, and Minnesota – by a combined 13 points.
The two wins over Tennessee may have cost them the first pick in the draft, but as it turns out, that really didn’t matter.
Offseason
Not surprisingly, Pederson was fired at the conclusion of the ’24 season. Eventually, Baalke would follow him out the door. In their places, owner Shahid Khan hired wunderkind Liam Coen as coach and the even younger James Gladstone as GM. Together, their ages add up to about one Pete Carroll.
Coen worked magic with a Tampa Bay offense that no one was all that excited about. As OC, he guided the Bucs to more than 500 points on the season. Now he will be tasked with designing an offense that will finally allow Trevor Lawrence to shine.
Gladstone may be young, but he served a long apprenticeship under Sean McVay in Los Angeles. He hit the ground running, reconstructing an aging roster with multiple holes. He allowed many of his older free agents to leave and signed younger vets to replace them.
He also loaded up in the draft. With the second pick, he wasted little time in taking Heisman winner Travis Hunter, arguably the single most-gifted player available. He also took a couple of intriguing running backs and a good offensive line prospect.
The line was also a focus during free agency. They had already moved on from long-time left tackle Cam Robinson during the 2024 season. They made no real effort to retain veteran guard Brandon Scherff, and center Mitch Morris announced his retirement after the season.
So the Jags are embracing a youth movement. They only have a handful of players over 30. Many are in their early 20s. Can Liam Coen get them to gel quickly, or will 2025 be a transitional period where they struggle early before finding their footing?
This season
As it has since 2021, everything in Jacksonville comes down to Lawrence. Coen was hired specifically to get him up to the level that was expected when he was drafted. Lawrence has shown flashes but has been woefully inconsistent. Injuries, a lack of support, and poor coaching decisions have all contributed, but Jags fans are tired of excuses. This is Lawrence's year to thrive.
The rebuilt offensive line needs to come together. Robert Hainsey and Patrick Mekari are on board to take over from Morse and Scherff. They have decent bookend tackles in Walker Little and Anton Harrison. Rookie Wyatt Milum could be a real bargain if he can make the transition to guard.
If the line holds up, Lawrence has the best set of receivers he has ever thrown to in Thomas and Hunter. It is unknown how many snaps the two-way star Hunter will log on offense, but don’t be surprised if he doesn’t play a lot. Free agent Dyami Brown, who began showing signs of life late last season in Washington, is slotted to take on a bigger role for the Jags.
There should be a good battle in the backfield between several promising young players. Though Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby are returning, rookie burner Bhayshul Tuten could emerge as the Jags’ most dangerous weapon by season’s end.
No matter how much improvement the Jags make on offense, none of it may matter if they don’t make major strides on the other side of the ball. In 2024, Jacksonville was awful on th defense. They figured at or near the bottom of almost every important defensive category, including an almost incomprehensible nine turnovers for the entire season. The league average was twice that.
Perhaps no one has a bigger job than new defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile. Campanile has never been a coordinator before and enters the ’25 season with just six years of professional coaching experience.
Just as Coen needs to get Trevor Lawrence on track, Campanile needs to continue the development of 2022 top overall pick Travon Walker. The dynamic edge has shown improvement over his three seasons, but needs to become a consistent force if Jacksonville is to become a better defense.
The Jags have a group of decent front-seven players, and they bolstered it with a few more veteran free agents. But the real improvement needs to come in the secondary. The main hindrance to Travis Hunter playing a big role on offense is just how badly the Jags need his skills at cornerback.
Third-round pick Caleb Ransaw is a boom-bust candidate at safety or buffalo nickel. He has a wealth of physical talent, but has been an inconsistent performer thus far.
The Jags’ roster is better than 4-13. If Coen is the real deal, they should make major strides on offense this year. Coupled with some more modest gains on defense, it should have them taking a step forward into middle-of-the-pack contention and trending upward.