What's next is not clickbait, it's just good old-fashioned Jacksonville Jaguars history. The Jags could beef up their roster with as many high-profile free agents as they want, but we all know the one thing they'll need in 2026 to qualify for another playoff spot.
You guessed it, Trevor Lawrence. Or, to be more blunt, a franchise quarterback who doesn't need everything to be perfect to lead his teammates to on-field success.
Jacksonville has been here before. Granted, the last time a franchise legend was the executive vice president of football operations after a magical season, the Jags were coming off an AFC Championship Game appearance, not a loss in the Wild Card round. Also, Blake Bortles earned a very modest $54 million payday after leading the team to a 10-point lead against the New England Patriots in Foxborough.
The Jaguars need Trevor Lawrence to carry the team (not the other way around)
I will give the pro-Lawrence crowd this: Bortles had a legendary single-season defense and an NFL-leading rushing attack led by Leonard Fournette, an SEC legend who looked like he was going to be worth the No. 4 overall pick and then some. The team carried Bortles and his inconsistency, not the other way around.
However, that's why mentioning the Central Florida star's contract and the context surrounding it is important. The dollar amount isn't as important as the process that resulted in the agreement being signed. Lawrence signed his massive $275 million contract extension after a heartbreaking collapse at the end of the 2023 season. Bortles signed his contract after getting the Jaguars as close as they've been to a Super Bowl since the late 1990s.
You could cite organizational dysfunction as the explanation for Lawrence's failure to reach a conference title game in his era, but Jacksonville wasn't the most stable place headed into the 2017 season, either.
A trip to the past takes us to an interview starring Dave Caldwell, Jacksonville's former general manager. In the interview, he mentioned that Bortles needed to improve. However, he was also introspective enough to confirm that the situation around the young QB had to stabilize for that improvement to occur.
Doug Marrone was chosen as the team's full-time head coach after finishing the 2016 season 1-1 as the interim leader. Caldwell revealed that one of the reasons Marrone got the job is because a new coach would need months to figure out what was wrong. The former offensive line coach already knew what the franchise needed and immediately used his hard-nosed philosophy to turn the team into a contender.
Heading into 2025, Trevor Lawrence also received a new head coach to rely on when Shad Khan hired Liam Coen. Coen worked his own type of magic and turned a 4-win squad in need of guidance into a 13-win dynamo that got tragically unlucky when it came to seeding and matchups.
Now, it's Lawrence's turn to step up and do everything he can to prevent the 2026 Jaguars from ending up like the 2018 squad did. To be fair, that's easier said than done; so how does having a franchise QB guarantee that the Jaguars will be back in the postseason next January?
The NFL continues to be a QB-driven league, but you don't need a Hall of Famer to win games
If you look around the NFL, you either have a QB or you don't. Notice that I didn't specify an elite QB. Jalen Hurts, Brock Purdy, and Jared Goff could have been consistent Pro Bowlers in any era. However, there was a period when players like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Bryce Young would have been too risky to draft and develop. Whether we like it or not, the game progresses every day, and the bullet points needed to be a reliable NFL starter change every season.
In 2025, Bo Nix, Sam Darnold, and Mac Jones (I didn't stutter) gave their offenses a reliable playstyle that put the ball in the right person's hands more often than not. In Jones' case, his adjusted quarterback rating (QBR) was the tenth best in the NFL. His above-average performances gave the San Francisco 49ers five critical victories while Purdy was unable to play due to injuries. As you may know, the 49ers finished the regular season with 12 wins, so it's difficult to deny the former Patriot's impact on his new squad's success.
The quickest rebuttal to my point would be the quality of coaching Nix, Darnold, and Jones received throughout the season. Mike McDonald, Sean Payton, and Kyle Shanahan are Super Bowl-caliber coaches who know how to build programs and coach their side of the ball with unmatched expertise. Also, the defenses each QB got to work with should receive a lot of credit as well.
The Denver Broncos' defense put on a heroic performance against the New England Patriots and held Drake Maye to less than 100 passing yards. Nix suffered a season-ending injury during Denver's Divisional Round victory against the Buffalo Bills, which required his team to rely on the services of Jarrett Stidham. The Broncos defense refused to break the entire game, but Sean Payton was unable to draw up the 11 points needed to punch his ticket to Super Bowl LX.
So, we can't give all the credit to coaches and top defenses. There is a point where a starting QB has to provide a minimum level of production to take a franchise to the next level. Maye didn't have a great day through the air, but his playmaking as a scrambler gave New England the critical first downs and points they needed to win another AFC Championship.
All that being said, Trevor Lawrence cannot be a simple cog in the wheel if the Jacksonville Jaguars want to make consecutive postseasons for the first time in decades. Liam Coen, Anthony Campanile, and Grant Udinski were one of the most-celebrated brain trusts in the entire league. The Jaguars' defense was one of the league's most dominant units when it came to forcing turnovers and stopping the run. The former Tiger has the tools he needs to grow as a reliable starter at the NFL level.
At this point, it's up to him and the coaching staff to put all the pieces together.
What the Jacksonville Jaguars need from Trevor Lawrence to be successful
Now that we've established that A) Lawrence isn't dealing with anything his predecessors in Jacksonville haven't and B) he doesn't have to play at a Hall of Fame level to lead his team to success, we can focus on what actually needs to happen for him to lead the Jags to the playoffs again.
Jakobi Meyers isn't a superstar wide receiver by any means, but he was able to build a rapport with Lawrence at lightspeed. Meyer's reliability as a possession receiver gave his QB a consistent option to rely on when things broke down. Brenton Strange's presence on the team played a similar role, as his work in the middle of the field gave the offense numerous mismatches to take advantage of.
The running back room could be losing its most-experienced player this offseason, but Bhayshul Tuten and LeQuint Allen flashed loads of potential during their rookie campaigns. Both runners showed a willingness to do damage in between tackles and contribute in the passing game through their blocking and playmaking out of the backfield.
Step one of Lawrence getting the Jags back to the playoffs will be getting the rock into these four athletes' hands as much as possible. In most cases, three of the aforementioned players will be on the field at the same time. In other moments, Parker Washington could even be in the formation as well.
Lawrence shouldn't have to play any hero ball in 2026, and his coaching staff shouldn't feel like they have to prove themselves as offensive masterminds, either. There were a plethora of drives where Jacksonville finished in scoring position but decided to chase touchdowns instead of kicking field goals. This problem was the most egregious during the Jaguars' devastating loss against the Los Angeles Rams.
While playing Los Angeles in London, Jacksonville turned the ball over on downs three times. The first turnover happened after Coen decided to go for it on 4th-and-7 while trailing by 21 points. You could argue that the team needed touchdowns and not field goals in that scenario; but the head coach's aggressiveness was a constant theme throughout the season. This includes an early drive against the Bills that resulted in zero points.
Remember, the Jags lost their WIld Card matchup by three points.
So, this article wasn't about bashing Trevor Lawrence and saying he was the weak link all season. On the contrary, he played well enough to be the unquestioned starter going into 2026. In his five seasons as a Jaguar, three of them have ended with winning records.
If Lawrence maintains the level of play he showed during the last eight games of the regular season, the franchise will experience heights they haven't seen since the expansion era. If he plays as well as he did in 2022 and the first half of 2023, playoff wins are almost guaranteed.
The time to criticize Trevor Lawrence for failing to become The Prince Who Was Promised is over. In all honesty, the best of Lawrence is what Sacksonville needed to beat the Patriots on the road once upon a time.
From my vantage point, that's what the Jaguars' chaotic collapse and rebuild since the 2017 season was for in the end. When you give Nick Foles an $88 million contract, you aren't doing it because you think you found the next Tom Brady. You're doing it because Foles was the most realistic option you had to beat Brady if you ever saw him again.
As critical as I've been of Shad Khan in my career, I can't deny that he's built the best organization we've seen since he bought the team. The team's only Hall of Famer is the executive vice president of football operations. The head coach is a Coach of the Year Award finalist and the architect of a staff full of prodigies. The general manager is adaptable and knows how to recognize his own mistakes.
All the pieces are there, so there's no room for excuses if Lawrence regresses in 2026. The franchise goes wherever he's able to take it.
But, since the 2021 NFL Draft, that's how it's always been.