Head coach Liam Coen is on the edge of greatness. If the Jacksonville Jaguars keep winning the rest of the season — and there's a strong chance they will — the team's second-year head coach will be one step closer to doing something we haven't seen since Tom Coughlin was ruling the sidelines.
"What about Jack Del Rio?" Nope, not him either.
If the Coen finishes strong and lands the plane where it needs to go, the Jags will win the AFC South for the second time in a row and qualify for its second consecutive postseason in the process. The franchise's longest-tenured fans haven't seen their team accomplish this feat since Coughlin led the organization to four straight playoff appearances during the expansion era (1996-1999).
How did we get here? Did we even do anything special to deserve it? I don't know, but I'm here to enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts.
Doug Pederson's work set the Jaguars up for continued success
Before we get ahead of ourselves, we should look back and appreciate Liam Coen's immediate predecessor. Things didn't work out with Doug Pederson, but he gave the Jags a chance to heal after what they went through with Urban Meyer.
More importantly, the former world champion helped the franchise rehabilitate a young Trevor Lawrence after he endured the most chaotic rookie season imaginable.
I want to focus on Pederson's accomplishments in this post, as there's been enough coverage of what went wrong at the end. In 2022, Jacksonville started 3-7 but roared back to win six of their last seven games. That tripled their win total from the previous year and showed that the same core of guys were good enough to make some noise after all.
The next year, Pederson's crew sprinted to an 8-3 start and looked like the best team in pro football. Unfortunately, injuries to Trevor Lawrence, Christian Kirk, and others contributed to Duval losing five of its last six games and missing out on the postseason despite being a virtual lock before Week 13.
Doug Marrone's collapse was even worse
Again, this is a positive post, but Doug Marrone's inability to reach the postseason in 2018 made it feel like the Jaguars would be snakebitten forever. You'd think it would take more than one GQ Sports interview to end the Sacksonville era, but Jalen Ramsey's unfiltered verbal assault on everyone and their momma was enough to write a bunch of checks the Jags couldn't cash.
To be fair, I can't blame everything on Ramsey. Leonard Fournette, who was supposed to be the NFL's next big bell cow, wasn't a great locker room leader either. He got suspended after participating in a brawl against the Buffalo Bills and confirmed that coach Marrone didn't have the iron fist needed to keep the franchise's biggest egos in check.
Once again, the 2018 season was a moment when the exact same core from the year before couldn't get the job done once the lights shined bright on Lil' Ol' Jacksonville. The roster was filled with All-Pros and Pro Bowlers, and the coaching staff had already proven it was up to the task.
Despite that, the smallest bit of adversity led to one of the biggest collapses in NFL history.
Liam Coen could have the cure for Jacksonville's woes
Coen is working with the same stars the franchise leaned on in 2024. Foye Oluokun, Josh Hines-Allen, Travon Walker, Trevor Lawrence, Brenton Strange and Brian Thomas Jr. were all on the team when Doug Pederson's came stumbling to an unfortunate end. In fact, that was BTJ's best year as a pro.
Outside of Travis Hunter, Jourdan Lewis, and Bhayshul Tuten, you could say that Jacksonville hasn't changed the nucleus of the roster's core that much. In actuality, they've lost talent since the new regime came to town. Coen hasn't used that as an excuse, and his aggressive motivational tactics makes his players feel like they're the big bads of the NFL every week.
Of course, the biggest sign of his success on the grass is Lawrence's reemergence as a top-tier starter in the pros. T-Law's putting up some of the best stat lines of his career while averaging less than 30 pass attempts per game. His efficiency proves that Coen's playbook has the goods; and the coach's teaching skills have Jacksonville's first-ever No. 1 overall pick playing like the New Sheriff of the AFC South.
The entire fanbase was rooting for the Los Angeles Chargers as they tried to upset the Houston Texans. However, coach Coen has what it takes to keep control of Duval's destiny and get them to a destination they haven't visited since the turn of the century, regardless of how things unfold in the rest of the division during the long weekend.
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