Big Cat Country
On Wednesday, the Jacksonville Jaguars officially closed the book on the 13-win 2025/2026 season, with a James Gladstone, Liam Coen joint media availability to wrap up the leadership group’s inaugural season. Among the many subjects discussed by the Jacksonville General Manager and Head Coach were the multitude of impending free agents whose fate must be decided upon in the coming months. Here are some of our key free agent takeaways from Coen and Gladstone’s final comments.
Full Media Availability:
On Wednesday, Gladstone kicked the media availability off being asked about the future of multiple players with expiring contracts, such as Devin Lloyd, Greg Newsome, and Montaric Brown.
LB Devin Lloyd
Probably one of the top decisions lingering for the organization is the future of breakout LB Devin Lloyd, after leading all linebackers in interceptions, in a contract year. Many likely would expect the second-team All-Pro to be a key piece for Anthony Campanile’s defense moving forward. While Gladstone was effusive in his praise of what Devin accomplished in 2025, he stopped short of indicating any plans for the linebackers’ contract extension.
“Such an impactful season. What he meant to our end result was certainly notable. The way in which he operated on a daily, weekly basis was really cool to watch and observe. He committed himself to being the best version. The connection between him, the coaching staff was real. He was being deployed in the right ways. He felt confident the ways he was doing it from both defense and special teams. Talking about a guy playing at an all-pro level on defense but is running it down on kickoff every time we score and making plays for us. Extremely happy for Devin and his production this season and finding real footing in a way that aligned with what he knew he could be. Look forward to working through the offseason process with our coaching staff and everyone else to determine what’s best for everybody and seeing if there’s something to be done. But nonetheless, the role that he had in what we did this season was real and I think it was very vivid for all to see.”
While this may be just this writer’s opinion, this feels pretty similar to the statements made when the team decided not to pick up Lloyd’s fifth-year option before the season (while picking up Travon Walker’s). I could be wrong in reading too much into this, but this feels to me like Lloyd may not be back in Jacksonville in 2026. Just for comparison, these were Coen’s comments on declining Lloyd’s fifth-year option in April.
“No plans right now in terms of we’re having those conversations, getting used to the player, right? We’ve just got to get used to him a little bit and get to know him a little bit. We’re excited about him, a guy that we see we can do some things with. Like, we do feel excited about some of his versatility and experience, so...
