JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Tanner Koziol to the Jaguars was meant to be long before the tight end knew it.
Chalk it up to the family dog, Jaxxson. Yes, almost the same first name as Jacksonville’s mascot, Jaxson de Ville.
“I mean, God works in mysterious ways, man. God always likes to throw little hints that he’s there,” Koziol said after Wednesday’s second minicamp of the offseason. “I got drafted…they were like ‘to the Jags’, my friend goes, Jaxxson. My dog was right there…He’s 2 years old. [He got Jax] a long time before [being drafted] so it’s kind of crazy how that plays out.”
Well before Koziol was a target of NFL teams, he was an emerging tight end at Ball State University pulling in passes at the volume of a No. 1 receiver. Off the field, Koziol was also a big-time animal lover who was mourning the loss of the longtime family pet, a golden retriever named Bandit.
Koziol’s next pet, a golden retriever with a beautiful white coat, was welcomed to the family after Bandit’s passing. The bond was immediate. Koziol grew up in Illinois so he was naturally a lifelong Bears fan. But when he got his new dog, it wasn’t a name like Butkus or Sayers that fit.
It was Jaxxson.
Jaxxson, or Jax for short, has been Koziol’s best companion. Koziol said he made the connection instantly when Jacksonville selected him, and maybe, just maybe, he and the Jaguars were the plan all along.
“I had a great dog before him, Bandit. Rest in peace,” Koziol said. “But Jax, no dog has been my guy like Jax has. I love him and he’s been awesome.”
While Jax has been Koziol’s best non-human friend, the rookie is hopeful to become one of quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s best friends on the field.
“I mean, I love watching football and more importantly I love tight ends and seeing what people do around the league,” Koziol said. “And now you have a variety of different tight ends within a tight end room and I’m just really excited to be able to get better at every single aspect so that we can be as versatile and as dominant as possible from our room.”
Jacksonville selected two tight ends in last April’s draft, going with Texas A&M’s Nate Boerkircher in the second round and Koziol from the University of Houston in the fifth.
Boerkircher should be in line to see a larger role in an expanded tight end system alongside Brenton Strange, but Koziol offers significant playmaking upside. At 6-7 and 250 pounds, he projects more as the move tight end in Liam Coen’s offense to more of the in-line ability of Boerkircher, who had 38 career receptions across five college seasons at Nebraska and Texas A&M.
Koziol plays more like a receiver than a true in-line tight end. He had 94 catches and 839 yards (eight TDs) at Ball State in 2024 and added 74 catches for 727 yards (six TDs) in his lone season at Houston in 2025. With teams positioned to run far more two and three tight end looks this year, Koziol could be in line to contribute far more than a typical fifth-round pick. When minicamp and OTAs wrap up, Koziol said there will be little downtime.
“Prioritizing priorities, absolutely. When I go home, there’s really no more video games. There’s no more much of anything else right now. This is what I love. This is my priority,” he said.
“And other than talking to my family and occasionally my friends, diving into the playbook and prioritizing this, how I eat, how I sleep, how I recover through everything, just prioritizing the main thing and just having it be at the best of my ability. I know it’s a cliche, but … if I do one thing that makes me 1% better in 20 different things, whether that be my food, sleep, recovery, I’ll be 20% better the next day. It’s just adding up those 1%s."