Jaguars Week 2 matchup vs. the Chiefs will have an electric atmosphere

There are several intriguing matchups on the Jacksonville Jaguars' schedule for the 2023 season. Set to play the Indianapolis Colts in the opener, they'll welcome the Super Bowl Champions Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2 and head coach Doug Pederson believes the game will have an electric atmosphere.

Pederson appeared on the Rich Eisen Show and shared his thoughts on some of the games the Jags will play in 2023 and says that he's looking forward to facing the Chiefs.

"No. 1, I think it's going to be an electric atmosphere for our fans here in Jacksonville and the Super Bowl champs, coming in here for our home opener", Pederson said. "It's gonna be a big game, but as you said, we opened up at Indy. We've got two division games in the first three weeks, so we've got our work cut out for us and Kansas City is one of the teams that if we're going to be where they are, we've got to play better and we've got to play smarter football and I didn't think we necessarily finished the divisional game last year very smart".

"We had a late turnover that cost us some points there and it's a benchmark game early in the season for us and where are we as a football team? Where's our quarterback this earlier in the season? So those are all the things that we mentioned a couple minutes ago about the quarterback how he leads coming out of the gate fast, and it exciting schedule to start for us". Pederson said.

The Jaguars played the Chiefs twice last year and lost both times. First, they went 27-17 in Week 10 and later were defeated 27-20 in the Divisional Round of the Playoffs. Kansas City went on to win the Super Bowl and are an early favorite to raise the Lombardi Trophy next season. Here's the exchange between Eisen and Pederson.

The Jaguars are in a position to challenge the Chiefs in 2023

Before touching on the schedule, Pederson and Eisen talked about where Lawrence currently stands ahead of the 2023 season. Speaking of Lawrence, if the Jaguars want to have a shot at beating Kansas City in Week 2, they'll need him to play a near-flawless game. After all, the Chiefs had a busy offseason and migth be even better than they were last year.

Besides poaching right tackle Jawaan Taylor, Kansas City also signed Donovan Smith to play left tackle. Moreover, the addition of Charles Omenihu gives their defensive trenches a much-needed boost.

On top of that, there's a chance wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins will join the Chiefs before the start of the regular season. But even if they hadn't made as many signings in free agency, Patrick Mahomes will always give them a chance to win.

Working in the Jaguars' favor is that they're taking steps to challenge the Chiefs in 2023. Besides adding depth to most position groups in the offseason, they managed to bring back most of their starters from last year and they all should be better in Doug Pederson's second year at the helm.

The bottom line is that every game counts but beating the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2 would be huge. It would set the tone for the rest of the season and it would show that the Jacksonville Jaguars should be taken seriously.