JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The season that seemed to come out of nowhere for the Jaguars hasn’t been all that surprising at all to Liam Coen.
Coen said that he saw during training camp that he could have something far better than the product on the field last year. The Jaguars were physical and hitting harder than Coen expected. That was all Coen needed to see to know that he had a team that could thrive.
“At the time, nobody was complaining, ‘why are we hitting, why are we doing this? Why are we doing that?’ The guys just kept coming to work every day and practicing their tails off,” Coen said. “And I remember at that time thinking, alright, I think this group’s going to be tough.”
The turnaround under Coen has been miraculous. After Sunday’s 34-20 win over the AFC-leading Broncos to improve to 11-4, Jacksonville certainly has caught the attention of the NFL. The Jaguars would be the No. 3 seed if the season ended today, and they’ve got a path, although they need help, to earn the No. 1 seed.
Not even the most rosy-eyed optimist could have predicted an outcome like this. Jacksonville has thrived against the AFC West (4-0), and won games out in the Pacific region where it has typically struggled before. There’s been just one game (London against the Rams) where Jacksonville has been thoroughly beaten. Trevor Lawrence has played liked a superstar in the season’s second half. He’s had 15 passing touchdowns and just three interceptions over the last five games. All three of those picks came in an OT win over Arizona.
Doug Pederson accomplished a major jump his first season, guiding the Jaguars from a 3-14 finish in the Urban Meyer disaster to a 9-8 season and AFC South title. Pederson bottomed out quickly, going 5-18 in his final season and a half and getting fired shortly after the 2024 season ended.
“I think teams do a good job in offseason of always having positivity that you’re working towards a good goal,” said linebacker Foye Oluokun. “So, I think it’s kind of starting the year, you always feel like you’ve got the good equation in the building and everything’s going to work out. I think it was really as the year started going on, when we started realizing if we play the way we’re supposed to play, we can win any game.”
On paper, it didn’t seem like Coen would have this type of success this soon. Factor in first-time coordinators (Grant Udinski, Anthony Campanile), general manager (James Gladstone) and EVP (Tony Boselli), not to mention, Coen, and it had the ingredients of a boom or bust season.
“Yeah man, just in OTAs and coming in from the beginning, you kind of realize what we have,” tight end Brenton Strange said. “And even from the years past, I feel like we’ve had a special group. We have always had talented players and I think now we’re just starting to put it together.
The bulk of the roster under Pederson and Trent Baalke (28 players from that era remain on the 53-man or IR) are back under Coen. The change has been the response to the coaching staff, a more consistent Lawrence, and players getting the most out of their abilities.
“They voiced their desire to take the next step and that they did feel like that there was a group of guys that had a chip on their shoulder that needed an edge, that wanted to play with an edge,” Coen said. “And look, so many people here do want to prove something. There’s a lot of first timers in roles. There’s a lot of players that, whether they came in via free agency, the draft, whether they’re here already, whatever that case is, I think it’s a group of guys that are proving something.”