TheJacksonville Jaguarsmade a big splash in Week 9. The Jaguars first defeated the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday Night Football, 33-10, and then, ahead of Tuesday's trade deadline, made three huge moves.
Jacksonville first acquired safety Jessie Bates from the Atlanta Falcons, sending a 2027 second-round pick and a 2028 fifth-round pick to Atlanta. Their next trade was defensive tackle Davon Godchaux from the New Orleans Saints, but general manager James Gladstone still wasn't done.
His final trade, and arguably the most shocking, was for Jordan Davis, a huge trade in which Gladstone sent a 2027 first-round pick and a 2029 second-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for the run-stuffing defensive tackle.
The Jaguars are now 6-2, on
top of the AFC South, and clearly aiming for the Super Bowl. Where did they land in this week's power rankings? Read on.
Nate Davis, USA Today: #4
As if they weren't already playing dominant football, now GM James Gladstone is furiously reloading his defense ahead of the trade deadline. The Super Bowl window is decidedly open here … just hard to say for how long given how much of their future the Jags are already mortgaging.
Pete Prisco, CBS Sports: #3
They have a soft schedule and they are rolling, quite possibly to the top seed. They made a lot of moves at the trade deadline to bolster the defense.
Conor Orr, SI.com: #1 (+2)
As I was writing this about the Jaguars today, Liam Coen was saying this:This is the question I want to ask. How great do we really want to be? Because we can sit here and say, all right, we're at 6-2, just had a good win, or we can say, we're going to be great. And I don't mean on Sunday in the game. I'm talking about today. I'm talking about Wednesday. I'm talking about with every single thing that we do throughout the week to continue the pursuit of greatness. Not asking you to go from good to great in a day. I'm asking us to go and pursue greatness with a relentless attack to go and give ourselves the best chance every single Sunday to go put that [expletive] on tape. And that's at the end of the day, around this time of year, as it comes to trades, we're going to do everything in our power to give us the best chance to pursue greatness. That's what we do. That's our job. And we're going to continue to do that as this week goes.We're going to put ourselves in the best chance to succeed, every single decision we make as an organization. And I promise you, we just got [expletive] better today.
Ralph Vacchiano, Fox Sports: #6 (+1)
There’s no denying that the Jaguars have come rolling out of the bye week, beating two opponents by a combined score of 75-17. Sure, it would be more impressive if those opponents weren’t the Colts and Lamar Jackson-less Ravens, but they did what they had to do. Four of their six wins have been by 23 points or more this season and there aren’t many QBs playing as well as Trevor Lawrence. Something to watch: Their remaining schedule is pillowy soft. Six of their last nine games are against teams with a losing record, including the Titans twice in the next three weeks. They’ve got a real shot at the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
Stat To Know: Through Week 9, the Jaguars lead the NFL in point differential (+108), turnover differential (+9) and wins by 20 or more points (4).
Chad Graff and Josh Kendall, The Athletic: #5 (+1)
Liam Coen’s squad looks great and had little trouble dispatching the undermanned Ravens. They’re the only team in the NFL that ranks in the top six in EPA per play offensively and defensively, and they have the league’s best point differential at plus-108. On Monday, they traded for defensive tackles Jordan Davis (Eagles) and Davon Godchaux (Saints) and safety Jessie Bates (Falcons). They’re going all in.
Michael DiRocco, ESPN: #3
Most important game of the second half: Week 14 vs. the Steelers
The Jaguars play at Chicago in Week 13 in a matchup of two of the NFL's best offensive playcallers, but the Steelers game is more significant because of AFC playoff seeding implications. The Jaguars have better than a 98% chance of making the playoffs, per ESPN's Football Power Index, so a victory over the Steelers could earn them a higher seed in a tiebreaking scenario. It also would give the Jaguars a season sweep of the AFC North for the second time in franchise history (2017).
Maurice Moton, Bleacher Report: #4 (+1)
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a dominant team that has blown out opponents. They won four of their six games by at least 23 points, including one victory over the playoff-caliber New England Patriots.
Since the Jaguars hired head coach Liam Coen last year, he's changed the franchise's outlook. Jacksonville is pulling away from its rivals in the AFC South. Yet this club is still underrated.
Last week, the Jaguars cracked our top five in the power rankings and belong in the discussion as one of the league's best teams.
Mike Florio, NBC Sports: #2
Who cares about future draft picks when the AI apocalypse is coming?
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Where Jaguars land in Week 10 power rankings after blockbuster trades
