Recent Jacksonville Jaguars fans know turbulence all to well. The Urban Meyer disaster. The Dave Caldwell era. Trent Baalke’s fractured regime. One disappointment has followed another for the better part of a decade. Now, with linebacker Devin Lloyd heading to Carolina, some of those buried fan frustrations have seemingly resurfaced as trust within the fanbase is interestingly running on fumes.
History Matters
Entering the 2025 NFL season, Jacksonville was very much in a transition period. The organization had moved
on from Doug Pederson and Baalke’s three-year build, with a condensed offseason following the late hires of head coach Liam Coen and general manager James Gladstone. In less than a single season, through ten trades, multiple roster restructurings, cuts, and acquisitions, Jacksonville walked away from 2025 with 13 wins and a nine-game improvement.
Yet somehow, despite trust being something that must be earned, and the results on the field solidly doing all the earning, Jaguars fans on Monday widely voiced their displeasure over the team moving on from Pro Bowl, Second-Team All-Pro linebacker Devin Lloyd. This widespread reaction came despite this being a known reality for most within the fanbase for no less than a month. Lloyd’s $15 million per year price tag likely fueled some of the backlash, with many in both the media and the fanbase suggesting Jacksonville had the financial flexibility to hold onto the home grown talent. However, that narrative fails to account for the full picture.
The Cap Is Real
The Jaguars entered free agency ranked 30th of 32 teams in available cap space. They were never going to place themselves at the center of a bidding war to pay an off-ball interior linebacker top-five money at the non-premium position without truly unquestionably elite on-field production. A fanbase accustomed to splashing in free agency, where this time of year has historically served as their own version of a Super Bowl, is now week-by-week adjusting to what it means to support a winning organization. And with that comes a difficult reality: good players leave winning teams.
Whether it’s the Kansas City Chiefs, long thought of as the NFL team atop the hill, trading away L’Jarius Sneed or parting with Tyreek Hill, every player’s time eventually comes in the business of football. The hard truth is that only a select few are afforded the privilege of finishing their careers where they started. Both running back Travis Etienne and Lloyd occupied roles at non-premium positions while each delivered career years in contract seasons. Neither was a realistic franchise tag candidate given Jacksonville’s cap situation and both was far from a sure thing when discussing paying top four interior linebacker money and top five running back cash (based on AAV).
Contract Year Caveat
Travis Etienne entered into 2025 with a dark cloud lingering over his future in Jacksonville with the team obviously interested in bringing in additional running back talent in the 2025 draft. With rumors that the team was interested in Broncos running back RJ Harvey, Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty, and eventually drafting both Bhayshul Tuten and LeQuint Allen the conversation surrounding Etienne’s future kicked off the year with a major contract-year question. The same applies for Devin Lloyd, who begin the early part of 2025 as a co-starter with Ventrell Miller after three seasons of inconsistent play (including the defensively debilitating 2024 season under Ryan Nielsen for multiple players).
Where’s the Trust?
But the central question in all of this ultimately comes back to trust, for the fanbase. If fans genuinely believe that Liam Coen is the right coach to lead this franchise forward, and truly believes that Anthony Campanile is the architect who helped mold Lloyd into the Pro Bowl and All-Pro player he became, then doesn’t it stand to reason those same coaches can do it again? Much of the current reaction appears to be rooted in past hurt and past distrust, a reflex forged through years of mismanagement.
But this front office and coaching staff are demonstrably not those prior regimes. To date, Jaguars fans have been given little reason not to trust James Gladstone, Tony Boselli, and Liam Coen, whose actions have to date backed up their words at nearly every turn. That’s not to say they won’t miss on a player evaluation, every organization does. But it is to say that if you have the right people in place, it tends to work out. So in the words of Coach Prime himself, Deion Sanders: do you really believe, Duval?
If so, to the best of each of our abilities, let’s aim to carry ourselves accordingly. Winning teams change. Rosters evolve. Players move on. If you’re not ready to trust the coach, the GM, or the position coach, well, that’s nothing new around here either. For everyone’s sake, hopefully the 2026 results on the field continue to do the convincing. If you don’t trust the process, trust the results.
