Jacksonville Jaguars odds to win the Super Bowl at 0.8 percent

The Jacksonville Jaguars haven’t made the playoffs since 2007, so it’s no surprise to see they have some pretty meager Super Bowl odds.

The last time the Jacksonville Jaguars made the playoffs they did so on the legs of two consistent running backs (Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew) and a pretty solid defense.

If the Jaguars want to win the Super Bowl this year (yes, hilarious), they’ll need to rely on a similar strategy.

Bill Barnwell over at ESPN went over how each team could win the Super Bowl, and he somehow suppressed his laughter long enough to write a cogent section for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"Super Bowl odds: 0.8 percent (26th)The 2000 Patriots had a Pythagorean expectation of 6.1 wins. The 2016 Jaguars had a Pythagorean expectation of 5.9 wins. Basically identical. There’s more to it than that, of course, but the Jags could easily sneak into the playoffs with some modest improvements. Given that they had the league’s third-youngest roster last season and upgraded with two key defensive contributors in free-agent signings Calais Campbell and A.J. Bouye, it’s entirely plausible the team could take a step forward as a whole.As for that turmoil at quarterback? It looks like Blake Bortles will start, and there’s little evidence he’s going to be very good. (A preseason game against backups shouldn’t convince you Bortles has turned things around.) Chad Henne isn’t much better. The Jaguars had a sixth-round compensatory pick in his second season on the roster in Brandon Allen, but they released the former Arkansas signal-caller on Sunday, and the Rams picked him up. Maybe Allen isn’t Tom Brady after all. The Jags will need to hope they can run the ball and play great defense to win the AFC South."

“There is little evidence he’s going to be very good.”

Barnwell speaks for everyone in Jacksonville who clamored for another option at quarterback this offseason in that one sentence. While I still have a little bit of hope that Blake can be a league average quarterback, it’s just that – hope. There’s no reason to believe Blake’s many weaknesses will become strengths.

That being said, the Jaguars could try and play the way they did in the last two games of 2016. Blake didn’t make many bad throws because his opportunities were limited by design and the defense was solid outside of the last quarter against Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts in week 17.

This year, the Jaguars should have a significantly better rushing attack with Leonard Fournette and the defense could be leaps and bounds ahead of what we saw last year.

If both those things come to fruition, the Jaguars can make the playoffs. If Blake Bortles somehow finds a magic elixer that turns him into the second coming of Eli Manning, then maybe the Jaguars can win the Super Bowl.

But as we already noted with Barnwell, “There is little evidence he’s going to be very good.”