Jacksonville Jaguars 2017 Preseason schedule released

After months of waiting we finally know who the Jacksonville Jaguars will play in 2017… in the preseason.

With the 2017 NFL Draft firmly in our horizon, it’s easy to forget that at some point these teams have to take the field again. It’s barely been two months since the New England Patriots put together the most improbable (props to the Atlanta Falcons for the worst choke job in modern sports) comeback in postseason history to win yet another Super Bowl. The next time the Patriots take the field against an opposing team, they’ll have to deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Yes, the Jaguars open their preseason slate against the defending Super Bowl champions. The entirety of the preseason schedule was released Monday evening.

Some of the games have a range of dates because they can be scheduled any time from Thursday through Sunday, but I expect the first and third game to be on Saturday night, with the others on Thursdays.

This is a fairly familiar preseason schedule for the Jaguars, as they almost always play both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Atlanta Falcons.  They also recently played the Patriots in the preseason, back when the New England squad trotted out the now-forgotten Ryan Mallett at backup quarterback.

As per usual, the Jaguars also got their annual nationally televised preseason game. It’s become a bit tongue in cheek for the Jaguars to get one of their “required” national broadcasts out of the way in the preseason, but it’s actually become a fairly good litmus test for the state of the roster. Last year, expectations were sky high for the Jaguars after an eventful offseason, and the squad looked solid for the first two preseason games. Then, the Jaguars played their national game against the Cincinnati Bengals and they looked downright horrific.

Hopefully, things go better for the Jaguars this preseason.