The New York Jets are on the road on Sunday for the 14th game of their 2025 campaign. They will be facing Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars have pulled off a remarkable turnaround
this season. Last year the Jaguars finished with a dismal 4 – 13 record. This season the Jaguars sit in sole possession of first place in the AFC South with a 9-4 record. They have won four straight games, three of them by 17+ points. The Jaguars aren’t just winning, they are dominating. With the Jaguars playing their best football of the season and the Jets starting an undrafted rookie at quarterback on the road, this looks like a mismatch on paper.
Previewing this matchup, Gus Logue, site manager at Big Cat Country, was kind enough to answer a few questions regarding the 2025 Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Jaguars have pulled off a remarkable one year turnaround, from 4-13 last year to first place in the AFC South at 9-4 this year. What have been the major reasons for the turnaround?
It starts with Liam Coen. Most football followers are familiar with his achievements as an offensive play-caller and quarterback developer, but when the then-39-year-old was hired in January, the question for everyone outside the Jaguars’ building was whether he had the goods as a culture-setting, people-motivating head coach.
It looks like he’s got it. After a Week 10 collapse in Houston that can only be described as “Jaguars-like”, Coen got his troops to rally with four consecutive wins (three by 17+ points). Jacksonville’s dominant home win over Indianapolis last week moved them into sole possession of first place in the division and started the first public whispers of Super Bowl aspirations from inside the building. The Jaguars are rounding into form at the perfect time in the NFL season. It’s early, but it looks like this long-suppressed squad finally found the right leader.
Brian Thomas looked like a budding superstar last year, but this season he has struggled to get on track. Why has he struggled and do you expect him to return to his rookie level of success any time soon?
Sadly, Thomas has not blossomed into a perennial All-Pro consideration like so many of us expected. His rookie stats put him in rare company with guys like Randy Moss, Odell Beckham Jr., and Ja’Marr Chase, but it now seems that any assumptions of ascension were off base.
Thomas struggled early this season with targets over the middle of the field, partly because he’s not fantastic against zone. He could stand to improve at recognizing soft spots in coverage and working back to the football when it’s airborne. The bigger issue, though, was fear of contact. Thomas developed “alligator arms” and stopped short on routes to avoid getting popped by a defender. His tape in Week 3 was horrific.
Yet as he displayed last week, Thomas remains among the NFL’s most dangerous perimeter threats. Place a defender across from him at the line of scrimmage at your own risk. His releases at the line are by far the most underrated aspect of his game — truly elite — and with outrageous vertical speed and superb ball tracking in his bag as well, it’s impossible to cover the guy hip-for-hip from a press alignment. When opposing cornerbacks play off coverage, Thomas is afforded room underneath for his high-end athleticism and open-field vision to take over. Jacksonville’s trade deadline addition of Jakobi Meyers has allowed Thomas to fill a still-critical role rather than being The Guy.
Someone in Jaguars local media recently said Thomas is better suited to be a Robin than a Batman. I agree, but considering many of the league’s top offenses feature two star wideouts (Rams, Bengals, Cowboys, Eagles, Lions, Bucs, etc.), that’s not a bad thing. Robins are very valuable. While Thomas may not be the next Beckham or Chase, it doesn’t mean he’s not a terrifying player to line up across. His game-breaking, field-stretching ability would be a blessing for any offense.
How would you attack the Jaguars on offense and on defense?
Attack the Jaguars’ offense by creating chaos at the line of scrimmage. While their offensive line has played much better than expected, it lacks star power and has been susceptible to stunts all season. Sending four pass rushers from the same alignment on each play is not gonna do you much good, but you’re gonna want to find a way to control the trenches and get in the backfield ASAP as possible. The Jaguars’ offense is as good as any in the league when their OL is moving bodies in the run game and keeping the pocket clean for Lawrence. If you sit back and play “bend don’t break” defense, this offense — which has scored an AFC-high 182 points since their Week 8 bye — will happily march down the field. Their only games with under 25 points scored came in the first third of the season against formidable pass rushes (Texans, Seahawks, Rams). It’s risky to give Lawrence a numbers advantage in the passing game, but you have to make life hell for the Jaguars up front even if you don’t have a badass pash rush rotation. This is the kind of offense that you play aggressively against and hope to force enough negative plays so that your own offense can keep up on the scoreboard.
On defense, you do not want to run the ball at the Jaguars. Anthony Campanile’s unit has permitted the NFL’s fewest rushing yards per game (73.3) and rushing touchdowns (11) since their bye. Their 34.5% rushing success rate allowed on the season ranks second behind only the Browns, which stack the box at a league-high 42% rate on early downs under Jim Schwartz, per Sports Info Solutions. The Jaguars rank 25th in that metric (18%). Campanile looks like future head coach material, but most of the credit in this area goes to DEs Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker, LBs Foye Oluokun and Devin Lloyd, and DT DaVon Hamilton. The Jaguars are one of six defenses to allow under 4.5 yards per carry in every season since 2022 (when those five defenders first played together in teal). Campanile and his staff have been more impactful in the passing game, as creative coverages and funky blitz packages have boosted the pass rush and created takeover opportunities, yet that remains the weakness to exploit. I would challenge Jacksonville’s safeties down the field. The four-man pass rush may prevent this defense from being championship-caliber, but there aren’t many holes to poke at it.
Which players, if any, are guys who the casual NFL fan may be unfamiliar with but Jaguars fans know can make a difference in the game?
Cole Van Lanen has been “the Swiss Army knife,” in Coen’s words, for the Jaguars’ offense this season. He is the only NFL player this season to play meaningful snaps at four different spots on the offensive line this season. The 2021 sixth-round pick was traded from Green Bay to Jacksonville in 2022 for a seventh-rounder, and this is his first season with 300+ snaps, so he’s been a (very pleasant) surprise. Van Lanen played well enough at left tackle over the past game and a half in place of Walker Little (concussion) that he might just keep the starting job going forward.
The next guy who comes to mind is third-year corner Jarrian Jones, who plays aggressively against both the pass and the run. He ranks third in run stop rate (5.3%), fifth in average depth of tackle (2.6), and seventh in tackling grade among 108 CBs this season, per PFF. His teammate Greg Newsome gassed him up a few days ago, calling him “the most underrated guy in the NFL. He can tackle, he can cover, he can blitz, he can play inside, he can play outside … he’s a hell of a player.” The Florida State product is easy to root for, and I say that as a Florida alum.
I’ll also shout out seventh-round rookie RB LeQuint Allen Jr., undrafted rookie DE Danny Striggow, and free agents signings C Robert Hainsey and OLB Dennis Gardeck as under-the-radar offseason additions who have stood out as ultra-competitive glue guys.
Trevor Lawrence’s contract probably prevents the Jaguars changing quarterbacks any time in the next couple of years, but is Lawrence the long term answer at quarterback for the Jaguars, or should the Jaguars consider moving on when the salary cap consequences allow?
I could write 2,000+ words about why Lawrence is franchise material (and I have, several times). Last week’s tape showed the playmaking, flame-throwing quarterback who’s been there all along but just needed the right supporting cast in the league. The schematic advantages and emotional ignition that Coen has provided, and the dependability that Meyers has added, was just what the doctor ordered. Lawrence was always “cut down on the turnovers” away from being a star, but that’s been a frustrating discourse over the years because most of his bad plays are not his fault. He elevates the offense far more than he inhibits it. That’s my opinion, anyway.
As great as the Lawrence-Coen relationship looks right now, it did seem like it took some time for the two to trust each other. And it’d be premature to say a couple will be life-long partners when they’ve been seeing each other for less than a year, right? So I don’t want to say with certainty that the Jaguars are all-in on Lawrence. They’ve said as such in public, but this is a fully facelifted regime that had no part in drafting him or extending his contract.
We should know for sure whether Lawrence is the Jaguars’ long-term answer at quarterback by the 2026 NFL Draft. The team’s new brass either likes him or doesn’t — they shouldn’t need more than one full season with Lawrence, who’s in his fifth in the NFL, to make up their mind. I think there’s a 5% chance the Jaguars sell as high as they can (“He only just turned 26 years old! You can fix him!”) and trade him to the Jets or the Rams for two first-round picks this upcoming spring. If/when that does not happen, we should put any and all Lawrence trade rumors to rest.
