What does it take to change a reputation?
The Jacksonville Jaguars look to be building toward something special, with a good young head coach in Liam Coen, an impressive and even younger general manager in James Gladstone, and a team that returns 20 starters from the 2025 playoff roster.
However, people will generally expect a letdown when it comes to the Jaguars.
Look no further than the 2017 team. They came an eyelash from making the Super Bowl, only to miss the playoffs and finish last in the AFC South the following year.
Over the past 26 seasons, the Jaguars have made the playoffs just five times. That was after going to the playoffs in four of their first five seasons as a franchise.
So, how much winning would it take to change their reputation?
Bills, Lions are good examples of increasing their status
The Buffalo Bills went 17 years (2000-16) without making the playoffs. They were a lost franchise, one most known for losing four consecutive Super Bowl in the early 1990s.
Then, after ending their postseason drought in 2017 (they lost to the Jaguars in the wild-card round), along came Josh Allen in 2018. The burly quarterback from the University of Wyoming helped turn around the franchise’s fortunes. They’ve made the playoffs in nine of the past 10 seasons, with Allen leading the team to the playoffs for seven of his eight seasons in the league, only missing the postseason in his rookie year.
For the newest generation of NFL fans, they only know the Bills as successful, meaning that Buffalo has been able to turn around their reputation of failure in roughly a decade.
However, Allen’s legacy may never be complete unless he wins the Super Bowl. The Bills reached the AFC Championship Game in 2020 and 2024, losing at Kansas City both times.
Another franchise really upping their status are the Detroit Lions. They went 11 seasons (2000-2010) without a playoff appearance and 31 seasons without a playoff victory (1992-2022).
However, Dan Campbell has turned the program around, earning a winning record in four of his first five years as head coach. His only losing season was his first.
They’re still not seen as an NFL Blue Blood, but they’re also a team the rest of the NFL takes a lot more seriously then it used to.
Browns, Jets, Raiders continue to be perennial laughingstocks
Honestly, there are many teams that can go into this category, but let’s stick with the Browns, Jets and Raiders as teams with tarnished reputations.
The Browns have been an embarrassment, well, pretty much since the 1960s. They screw up draft picks, make terrible trades (Deshaun Watson leads the way in this category) and have just one playoff win since 1995.
The Jets have also been mostly irrelevant since the 1960s. Sure, they went to the AFC Championship Game in back-to-back seasons (2009-10), but there’s not much else there since their Super Bowl III triumph.
The Raiders' last playoff win was in 2002, when they lost in Super Bowl XXXVII to Tampa Bay.
In the 23 seasons since, the Raiders have made the playoffs twice, losing both times in the wild card round (2016 and 2021).
Dolphins have gone opposite direction, tarnished reputation
The once mighty Dolphins have been as bad as anyone since the turn of the millennium. Their last playoff win was Dec. 30, 2000, against the Colts.
Their slate of quarterbacks since Dan Marino could just as easily be a list of extras that scroll by in movie credits. (Key grip Cleo Lemon? Special effects editor Ray Lucas?)
Over the past 25 seasons, the Dolphins have made the playoffs just five times, losing in the wild card round each time.
The Dolphins may have suffered the biggest reputational fall from grace in league history — going from the NFL’s only undefeated team to win a Super Bowl in 1972 to a team that hasn’t won a playoff game since Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt's “What Women Want” was the No. 1 move at the box office.
The Jaguars hope they can do a 180 from what their in-state brethren have done.
So, what will it take to see the Jaguars' status increase?
For the Jaguars to be more like the Bills and Lions than the Browns or Jets, they’re going to need sustained success.
Making the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the Clinton administration would certainly help.
But it will take more than two years. I think they need at least a good five-year run like the Lions, if not a 10-year run like the Bills.
Trevor Lawrence also needs to show the 2025 season wasn’t a one-hit wonder. He needs to become the type of star quarterback we all expected when he galloped out of college with his Heisman Trophy and his national title and into the NFL.
It’s a lot to ask for.
An NFL franchise can certainly change its reputation. New fans join every year and younger fans who don’t know the past build on what they’re watching now and learn about the past later.
It all starts in 2026. Will the Jaguars' status improve, or are the destined to be thrown back onto the NFL’s bargain barrel, lost to irrelevance once again.
Walters is Sports Editor for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and FLORIDA TODAY in Melbourne. He can be reached at twalters@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Can Jaguars shed losing image? It'll take more than one good season
