Welcome back to another season of the 5 Questions series where we needle our opposing bloggers with questions about their teams, trying to prove that they are held together with as much spit and duck tape as our favorite Carolina Panthers. If the wins pile up we will seek to be gracious with these audiences. As the losses pile up we will, true to our mascot, try to be increasingly catty and lure them into superstitious traps.
For this week, I spoke with Gus Logue over at Big Cat Country about the
Jacksonville Jaguars. As it is Week 1, I remained polite and avoided such pressing questions as “Why would you root for Jacksonville?” and “How much longer before Everbank Stadium sinks into the swamp?”. In kind, Gus tried to revive a spirit of community between us as fans of fellow expansion teams and even wished us all luck. We also talked about Travis Hunter, Trevor Lawrence, and an encouragingly—for the Panthers—shaky offensive line that could help Carolina get off to a good start. Here’s more:
1. Let’s get the big question out of the way first, what are we expecting to see out of Travis Hunter this week?
I absolutely expect Hunter to play both sides of the ball on Sunday, but in terms of how much, your guess is as good as mine. Head coach Liam Coen said Monday that the team is “still working through” what his usage will look like because he’s been managing a minor shoulder injury for a couple of weeks now. Meanwhile, general manager James Gladstone said last week, “There’s a competitive advantage to not knowing what side of the ball he’s going to be deployed on fully. If that’s half, if that’s a mixture, all those sorts of things can vary from one week to the next. I think the fact that that exists is certainly a hand that we’ll keep close.”
I think Hunter is the team’s third option at both receiver and cornerback right now; Brian Thomas Jr. and Dyami Brown will play in most 2-receiver sets, while Tyson Campbell and Jourdan Lewis will play in most 2-cornerback situations. Hunter should be on the field in high-leverage and obvious pass situations for both sides of the ball, but beyond that, we’ll just have to wait and see.
2. The Jaguars defense was putrid last year, almost as bad as the Panthers some would say. What’s different in 2025?
The team hired a new defensive coordinator in Anthony Campanile — which is a positive in that Ryan Nielsen is no longer in the building. He made defensive linemen bulk up to a point where they lost effectiveness and his scheme was predictable as they come. The 2024 Jaguars ranked top-three in man coverage rate and press coverage rate, and bottom-three in blitz rate and stunt rate.
Jacksonville’s coaches did not put their players in a position to succeed last season. In terms of personnel, the safety room was pretty disastrous. The Jaguars allowed one of the highest rates of explosive plays in the league as communication was a frequent issue. The team is hoping that free agent addition Eric Murray will bring stability to the group, and longtime Jaguar Andrew Wingard is expected to start alongside him. This will remain one of the NFL’s weaker safety tandems but just about anything should be better than what we saw last year.
3. Trevor Lawrence is the biggest domino for the team, regardless of Hunter and the rest of the Jacksonville defense’s performances. How are we expecting him to fall?
You’re absolutely right. Hunter will draw a lot of eyeballs to the team, and Brian Thomas and Josh Hines-Allen deserve their flowers as All-Pro caliber players, but the trajectory of the Jaguars will fall almost entirely on Lawrence’s shoulders.
I’m holding my stock. He may never become the guy we all thought he would when he was picked first overall in 2021, but it’s not hard to envision him becoming a steady top-12 quarterback as he enters the prime of his career. If he can remove the superhero cape and make better decisions to live to see another down — for the sake of his own health as much as anything — it would go a long way. And based on everything we’ve seen from Liam Coen in his career, he seems like the perfect guy to help Lawrence with that task. I think he’ll finish top-five in passing yards (the Jaguars should be one of the most explosive offenses in 2025) and above average in most advanced metrics.
4. The Panthers have remade their pass rush from 2024 with multiple free agent signings and draft picks. What is the state of Lawrence’s protection?
We’re not sounding alarm bells quite yet, but the offensive line is certainly a reason for pessimism regarding the 2025 Jaguars. Walker Little and Anton Harrison are fine starters at offensive tackle, and left guard Ezra Cleveland is probably one of the more underrated players in Jacksonville, but none of those players are close to blue-chips. And I have serious questions about free agent additions Robert Hainsey and Patrick Mekari along the interior.
I’ve pointed at Liam Coen’s success in Tampa Bay last season as much as anyone else, but the biggest thing that’d stop Lawrence from having a bounceback campaign would be the difference in offensive line talent. The Bucs had arguably the best unit in the league last year. The Jaguars should be hoping that the unit they’ve put together is good enough to win with, because it’s not good enough to win because of. Derrick Brown will certainly be a key player in Week 1.
5. Let’s keep it friendly this week, what’s your score prediction for Week 1?
Jaguars 30, Panthers 24. Considering the youth of Jacksonville’s coaching staff, it wouldn’t surprise me if Carolina kept it closer or won outright. I just feel confident in Coen coaxing 30+ points out of his group of playmakers against a weak defensive roster, and while I am intrigued by the Bryce Young Experience, I think Campanile can throw just enough curveballs to keep the Panthers from matching the Jaguars’ offensive output.
Good luck this season, fellow ’95ers.
