The Jacksonville Jaguars are going to make the playoffs in 2020

The Jacksonville Jaguars will be one of the surprise teams of the 2020 NFL season.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are going to be in the Playoffs at the conclusion of the 2020 regular season whether you want to admit it or not.

The team’s defense is reloaded after unloading expensive, older veterans in A.J. Bouye, Calais Campbell, and Marcell Dareus. The front office added adding young playmakers in Joe Schobert, C.J. Henderson, and K’Lavon Chaisson. The offense should benefit from a second season with  Gardner Minshew under center.

He will have another offseason (albeit a virtual one) under his belt along with key addition Laviska Shenault Jr. and potential red-zone threat Collin Johnson.

You can look at both sides of the ball, add in offseason adjustments, then look at the problems that plagued the team in 2019 (poor run defense, pitiful red zone numbers, inconsistent quarterback play) and project that this Jaguars team should be better than their six-win version last year.

The icing on the cake is the cupcake schedule the Jaguars have lined up in 2020 and I am all about it.

We all knew who the Jaguars were going to play this coming season for months now and it was favorable then, but once the schedule officially came out it just made things that much sweeter for Jaguars fan.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are slated to play five teams that were in the bottom nine of the league last year (Chargers, Browns, Bengals, Dolphins, Lions)  while playing six teams that were in the playoffs last year (Titans, Texans, Packers, Ravens, Vikings) if you want, you can also throw the Steelers into the last group since under new league rules for the 2020 season they would have been in as well.

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When it comes down to it, the Jaguars do not have a difficult path to at least match their six wins from the year prior.

The 2020 season is going to (hopefully Coronavirus aside) be the first time since 2012 that the Jaguars will play eight regular-season home games in front of Jacksonville fans. The home/road split in the schedule favors the Jaguars and here is why. The Jaguars, of course, play one home game and one away game versus each divisional opponent.  am not going to get into that although I usually project an even split when it comes to predicting records. The Jaguars home slate features games against the Dolphins (TNF), Lions, Steelers, Browns, Bears.

What sticks out to me is being able to avoid cold weather games versus beatable opponents in the Browns, Steelers, and Bears, while also getting to play “easier” teams in the Lions and Dolphins. The Jaguars can show out for their home fans and build early momentum (both of those games are before the Week 7 Bye).

Going on the road has always been hit or miss for the Jaguars and I really like how the road games fell this year much more than I appreciated the home schedule.

For starters, the Jacksonville Jaguars three toughest games, that are most likely going to be losses are away to Minnesota, Green Bay, and Baltimore, meaning, the team won’t waste games in front of home fans where they could be severely outmatched.

For all of you fans who travel with the team, this provides some amazing destinations to travel to. On the flip side, away games to Cincinnati and Los Angeles provide this young and hungry Jaguars defense an opportunity to further feast on potent first-year starters Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert respectively. Another bonus is the fact that in recent years the Chargers have not really had a resounding home field advantage, plus Phillip Rivers is gone (I know where he is now).

Looking at the schedule as a whole I have no doubt in my mind that the Jacksonville Jaguars will make the playoffs by year’s end. When you couple the most important home schedule in Jaguars’ recent memory, and the fact that now there will be an additional playoff team in each conference, it makes absolute sense that the Jaguars will reach the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

However, like most Jaguars seasons this one has the high possibility to disappoint but with this schedule, I find it hard to create a more entertaining slate of games.