The Jacksonville Jaguars were expected to regress this season after finishing 13-4 last year. Some of that stemmed from the fact that they lost key players in free agency and didn't do much to replace them. However, the Jags are quickly showing that their 2025 success wasn't an outlier.
Jacksonville is 6-3 after crushing the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday Night. Understandably, analysts are starting to hop onto the hype wagon, with some of them going as far as saying that the Jaguars are a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
However, head coach Liam Coen has made sure that his team adopts an underdog mentality, and that small-market approach could come in handy in the potential playoff run.
Liam Coen would surely prefer the Jaguars remain an underdog
Liam Coen routinely looks for ways to motivate his players, routinely putting an emphasis on just how overlooked they are. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk hypothesizes he may want to keep it that way in spite of their strong start to 2026.
"The Jaguars have arrived, and they need to be taken seriously. Now the problem is, I think they like it this way, because when you are overlooked, when you are disrespected, the coach can not worry about the player's head getting too big, right?" Florio said after the win over Baltimore. "You don't have to worry about anyone reading their press clippings when there are no press clippings in kids. You can Google what press clippings are, and you can use legitimate Michael Jordan motivation."
Florio continued, "You don't have to make anything up. There's nothing that you have to conjure that you take personally. You can take personally the fact that you're not getting the respect that you deserve, and they probably should not be thrilled that I am trying to bang the drum to get them respect. Go ahead and overlook us. Go ahead and disregard us. Go ahead and disrespect us. That allows us to achieve what we're trying to achieve."
Coen would surely want his players to stay grounded. Back in 2023, they began 8-3, and with that strong start, expectations soared. They turned out to be too much to bear, as they went 1-5 to finish the year and failed to qualify for the postseason. You could make the case that losing Trevor Lawrence in Week 13 that year was a big blow, but they might have made the playoffs by beating the Tennessee Titans in the finale. Even that proved to be too much.
You can bet that Coen wants to make sure his team stays focused on the task at hand: Winning one game at a time. And if Jacksonville stays on course, big things will come.
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The Jaguars may indeed be a Super Bowl contender despite their small-market mentality
When you think of Super Bowl contenders, the Jags don't often come up in the conversation, and if they do, they're rarely at the top. Having said that, Jacksonville has played a dominant brand of football this season.
Following the win against Baltimore, Jacksonville is first in the NFL in point differential at +108. No other team comes close, with the San Francisco 49ers ranking a distant second at +58.
When you factor in that the Jags have a favorable schedule the rest of the way, with the Chicago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers being the only legitimate threats remaining, they appear to be a lock to make the playoffs... as long as they don't take their foot off the gas pedal.
For the time being, though, the Jaguars will get a long weekend to rest after trouncing Baltimore. Once they return, they can regroup and ensure they prepare to make a playoff push, regardless of outside expectations.
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