The Jacksonville Jaguars were one of the NFL's biggest surprises in 2025, with head coach Liam Coen taking a 4-13 team and turning it into a 13-4 powerhouse in just one year.
Edge defender Josh Hines-Allen is one of the Jaguars' most seasoned veterans and has played under five different head coaches, all with varying degrees of success. And according to him, Jacksonville's success is entirely due to Coen and the team culture he has built.
In a recent interview with NFL insider Jordan Schultz, he pointed specifically to those factors to explain how the Jaguars went from among the worst to among the best.
"I think seeing the bigger picture, you know, and having the right guys with the right mindsets, I think it starts in the locker room," he said.
"Obviously it starts with the coaches. I think our coaching staff is a lot better. Not saying that those coaches weren't, but when you can have mix of a great coaching staff with great players in the locker room, guys that want to be here, guys that value every time they step on the field, they want to be the best person that they can be — when you have a correlation of all that being mixed together, man, this is the best locker room I've ever been in. And we have a head coach that really values competition and who values, you know, put some respect on my name. And we just go about business like that."
The most recent NFLPA report card for the Jaguars showed "head coach" as one of the areas that had the most improvement. In 2024 under Doug Pedersen, that grade was a "C," and it improved to an "A-" under Coen in 2025. Perhaps most problematic is that Pedersen specifically came in last place in the entire league when it came to listening to player feedback:
"The players felt that Pederson was somewhat receptive to locker room feedback on the team’s needs, ranking him 32 of 32 head coaches in the league," the report read.
Overall, the Jaguars were ranked fifth in the league among NFLPA report cards, and the players are seemingly responding accordingly. Earlier this year, for example, wide receiver Parker Washington had high praise for Coen, saying that the locker room felt that Coen consistently has their back, which then motivates the team to work even harder to win. And in the meantime, Coen's mentality and culture have carried over onto the field, with Jacksonville embracing the constant disrespect from the league and using it as fuel.
For Hines-Allen, Jacksonville’s success came from finally getting the right people pulling in the same direction. With Coen setting the tone and a locker room fully bought in, last season’s turnaround was only the beginning.
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Josh Hines-Allen calls Jaguars' current locker room his best ever
