Big Cat Country
The Jacksonville Jaguars have been trying to find their way for a very long time. Here are three Secret Superstars who could, along with a new org chart, point things in the right direction.
There was a time, not so long ago, when the Jacksonville Jaguars had the NFL’s best defense, were among NFL’s best teams when it counted, and were one half of football away from a Super Bowl, You don’t have to go through the dim recesses of your mind to get back to 2017, and the 14-3 second-half lead this franchise had over the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game, before Bill Belichick and Tom Brady did what they nearly always did.
Those Jaguars looked to be contenders for a while, but a series of ill-informed front office decisions spit the bit before things could really get going. Whether it was Executive VP of Football Operations Tom Coughlin telling everybody to get off his lawn from 2018-2019, which led to the basement 1-15 season in 2020, or Urban Meyer’s all-time nuclear disaster in 2021, or the hiring of aggressively odd general manager Trent Baalke that same season, the Jaguars’ 37-79 record and .319 win rate since 2018 (fourth-worst in the NFL in both cases) speak to the truth of things.
The 2025 Jaguars responded to the 2024 Jaguars’ 4-13 record by giving Baalke and head coach Doug Pederson their walking papers, replacing them with former Los Angeles Rams Director of Scouting James Gladstone as the new GM, and former Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen as the head coach. Obviously, the primary construct in Coen’s contract is to get the most and best out of Trevor Lawrence, which has been a mixed bag before.
But more than that, it’s about the Jaguars regaining some authority in their stance. The decision to trade up in the first round to take Colorado WR/CB/Unicorn From Outer Space Travis Hunter was just that kind of bold move, but there’s obviously more to be done as this franchise looks to put all the wrong moves in the rear-view.
In the continuation of our “Hidden Gems” series, we look at one underrated veteran, one underrated free-agent signing, and one underrated draft pick who could help the Jags become a serious matter once again.
So, the underrated veteran is a guy whose rookie season was in 2024? What the what?
Well, this is an opportunity to trumpet what Jarrian Jones did in that rookie season, and also to discuss how important it is to have a dedicated slot defender in today’s NFL, where 3x1 and 2x2 sets are the order of the day, and the ways in which receivers are deployed from there are more complex than ever. You can have great outside cornerbacks all day long, but if your main slot guy is vulnerable, quarterbacks will figure that out.
That was not a problem for the Jaguars in 2024, primarily because Jones...
