Heading into the 2024 season the Jacksonville Jaguars had high expectations. The Jaguars with generational talent Trevor Lawrence and now fired Super Bowl winning head coach Doug Pederson had failed to live up to lofty expectations prior to the 2024 season despite showing flashes of excellence. After coming up one possession short in the postseason to Kansas City in year 1 of the Lawrence/Pederson era in 2022, the Jaguars have since nosedived. After getting off to a strong 8-3 start in the 2023 campaign the Jaguars finished the season 1-5 with Trevor Lawrence’s health although he was playing being a question mark in the latter portion of that season. Jacksonville got off to an abysmal start during the 2024 campaign starting off 0-4 losing a couple of games they should have won and suffering one of the worst losses a team has suffered all season long on the road to the Bills by 37 points. The Jaguars finished the year 4-13 with many of the losses being narrow but they still had a few really bad losses. Some of the bad losses included losing by three possessions to the Bears who did not even make the postseason, a 52-6 loss to the Detroit Lions on the road, and the aforementioned ugly loss to Buffalo. Star quarterback Trevor Lawrence again sustained an injury in the 2nd half of the season but this time missed games and former first rounder Mac Jones stepped in. Given Pederson’s track record of having won a Super Bowl with a backup quarterback against the greatest dynasty in the history of the sport. I was of the mindset that Pederson should be given as much leeway as possible as the head coach of the franchise. Before Pederson’s termination and talks looming of Pederson losing his job all season, I always voiced giving him another year solely because of what he pulled off with the Eagles in winning the Super Bowl in the fashion in which he did. But outside of that year he has not done much as a head coach and a change was perhaps needed.
I have conducted a unit by unit analysis of the Jaguars. The offensive line of the Jaguars is a very mediocre unit as Pro Football Focus graded the Jacksonville offensive line as being the 26th best run blocking unit in the NFL along with being the 20th best pass blocking unit in the league this past season. I have conducted an evaluation of the Jaguars on the offensive line with me assigning each player a grade that indicates how strong of players I deem them to be in totality. This subjective grade is based upon yearly statistical output and yearly subjective grades that have been assigned to them by Pro Football Focus.
Starters
LT – Walker Little – C+ to B-
LG – Ezra Cleveland – C+ to B-
C – Mitch Morse – C+ to B-
RG – Brandon Scherff – B to B+, free agent
RT – Anton Harrison – B-
Notable Reserves
(backup) – C – Luke Fortner – Former third round pick – C to C+
In my own personal assessment of each starter on the unit every starter on the unit ranked as an average player outside of right guard Brandon Scherff. I assessed Scherff as being an above average starter at the position but not a star at the position. In totality the Jaguars did allow the 7th least amount of sacks in the NFL in 2024 and they did rank 3rd in terms of pass blocking efficiency. But much of the latter two statistics are due to Lawrence being cognizant of the fact that the Jaguar’s pass protection is questionable and him getting rid of the ball quicker and him being mobile and strong enough to avoid sacks. I conducted a similar analysis of the team’s skill position players which can be found below.
Jaguars Key Skill Position Players
WR1 – Brian Thomas Jr – A-, 2024 first round pick
WR2 – Christian Kirk – B
WR3 – Gabe Davis – C to C+
TE1 – Evan Engram – B
TE2 – Brenton Strange – C+, 2023 second round pick
HB1 – Travis Etienne – B-
HB2 – Tank Bigsby – B to B-
HB3 – D’ernest Johnson – C+, free agent
The receiving core of the Jaguars was led by 2024 first round pick Brian Thomas Jr who performed at an A level in his first year as Pro Football Focus graded him as a top 20 overall wide out in 2024 despite it being his first year. Thomas Jr will be star if not a superstar at the position for years to come and Trevor Lawrence will have a legitimate star number one wideout for years to come. Outside of Thomas Jr the receiving core is led by tight end Evan Engram along with wideouts Christian Kirk and Gabriel Davis. Kirk and Engram are solid NFL starters and Davis is capable of high-end production but is not consistent enough at the position. In addition to bolstering the offensive line the Jaguars should look into adding another star wideout to complement Thomas Jr in the passing game. The running back unit of the Jacksonville Jaguars is solid but not spectacular as all three running backs are solid capable NFL players who are not stars however. As in my own personal evaluation of them, I graded all three of them as being in the C+ to B range.
On the defensive side of the ball a similar pattern continues where they have solid players throughout with 1-2 standouts sprinkled in every here and there but the overall talent on the defensive side is relatively average just like it was on offense. In 2024 the Jaguars finished as the 26th ranked overall defense in terms of a defense grade according to Pro Football Focus along with finishing as the 28th ranked scoring defense. However, the personnel they have on the defensive side of the ball is not nearly as bad as the production would otherwise indicate as they had a first-year defensive coordinator. The Jaguars also had a couple of outlier games where the defense hemorrhaged points against two of the best offenses on the road in blowouts as they gave up 47 points and 52 points respectively on the road vs the Bills and Lions. A complete breakdown of the defensive talent of the Jaguars can be found below.
Front Seven Starters
LDE – Josh Hines-Allen – B+ to A-
LDT – Davon Hamilton – C+
RDT – Arik Armstead – B+ to A-
RDE -Travon Walker – B-, first overall pick in 2022 draft
WLB – Foyesade Oluokun – B
MLB – Devin Llyod – B+
SLB – Ventrell Miller – C to C-
Key Front Seven Reserves
DT – Maason Smith – 2024 second round pick – D+ to C- so far
I conducted a similar evaluation for the secondary of the Jacksonville Jaguars and that data can be found below.
Secondary Starters
LCB – Tyson Campbell – B
SS – Andre Cisco – B-, free agent
FS – Darnell Savage – C+ to B-
RCB – Ronald Darby – B
NB – Jarrian Jones – 3rd round pick in 2024, B to B-
Key Secondary Reserves
(backup) – SS – Andrew Wingard – B+ to A-
The defensive front is led by standouts Josh Hines-Allen, Arik Armstead, Devin Llyod, and Travon Walker. Jacksonville drafted interior defensive lineman Maason Smith in the second round of the 2024 draft but has unfortunately been a bust thus far. The Jaguars front seven is formidable in terms of talent despite the production on the defensive side a season ago being subpar. Just like with the offense of the Jaguars the defense has little to no free agents as the only significant player who is slated to be a free agent this offseason is safety Andre Cisco.
Overall, with the Jaguars the lack of success this past season can be traced to the fact that their roster overall is very average if not less than average. Now fired head coach Doug Pederson proved to be unfit for the job as outside of the Super Bowl season he has not done much as a head coach. Trevor Lawrence, although he has not been a bust, has not quite lived up to the lofty expectations heaped on him as he entered the league. Additionally, Lawrence’s injury in the second half of the season for a second consecutive year did not help the cause whatsoever. Heading into the 2025 season as a result of performing so poorly during the 2024 season the Jaguars hold the 5th overall pick in this year’s draft. It will be interesting to see what the Jaguars choose to do with that pick as teams who have a star franchise quarterback are typically not picking this high in the draft. They could opt to trade the pick for several picks or choose to select a blue-chip caliber player.
The Jaguars have recently hired now former Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen as head coach. I think it was a good hire to pair star quarterback Trevor Lawrence with a young offensive minded head coach. Jacksonville has recently fired general manager Trent Baalke as well but I also think it was the right move given how weak the roster he built indeed was. The Jaguars playing in the very weak AFC south can certainly contend to win the division and get to the playoffs as they consistently go toe to toe with the likes of the Houston Texans. If Liam Coen is the right answer at coach and if Lawrence is now paired with the next Kevin O’Connell or Sean McVay, the sky is the limit for Jacksonville. As the Vikings and Rams respectively have been very successful with those two young offensive coordinators turned head coaches despite neither team having a tier 1 level talent at the position like Coen is inheriting with Trevor Lawrence.
