Before the season, the Jacksonville Jaguars were a trendy pick to not only win their division, but make a serious push through the AFC. The ascension of QB Trevor Lawrence, combined with another year under head coach Doug Pederson and the acquisition of WR Calvin Ridley gave optimism and hope to fans and national media alike that the Jags could take another step in their ascension as a Super Bowl contender this year.
What the f*** is wrong with the Jacksonville Jaguars?
The Jaguars are 1-2 through three games. Did the hype go too far?
Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images
Through three games, Jacksonville looks like anything but that. The Jaguars are 1-2 after an embarrassing 37-17 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday that leaves the team with more questions than answers. Just about everything was bad vs, the Texans, from the execution on offense and defense to a special teams unit that allowed a kickoff return TD ... to a fullback.
Yeah, it’s not great right now. The biggest question facing the team is very simple, and one we’ll try and get into by the end of this story:
What the hell is wrong with the Jacksonville Jaguars?
So, before we get started on the issues with the Jaguars offense, let’s talk about what they did in the offseason, because it’s extremely important here. Getting Ridley back for this season was going to be huge for this offense. Someone who could, in theory, create easy separation and make life for Lawrence and make things easier in the 10-15 yard range, where the offense wants to exist. The best comparison for the Jaguars offense might be Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan. They want to shoot the turnaround mid-range jumpers and thrive at the elbow. It might not be the easiest shots in the game, but they want to be really good at that. The throws at the 10-15 yard mark and in the middle of the field are so difficult to hit because everyone is flooding that part of the field. So, in order to move those middle of the field defenders, you can either:
- Poke and prod at the edges of the offense to get their eyes over there (this is where Jacksonville and Dallas live)
- Hit teams over the head deep with explosive plays to pry open those areas (Miami, Kansas City from 2018-2020)
Either way you go, it’s a fine way to live, but if you want to live in that first bullet point area, you cannot make mistakes. Pre-snap penalties and drops are essentially turned into massive issues because the entire plan is to stay on schedule. You have to execute at an extremely high level to live in that world (in any NFL world, to be honest. But especially that one) and the biggest problem with the Jaguars right now is execution.
Let’s start with the drops, of which there are many. Not only are they bad drops, they’re crucial in terms of maximizing winning football games:
To quote the great scribe Prince Zuko, that’s rough, buddy.
The Jaguars offense wants to be super efficient instead of bowling teams over with explosives, which is fine, but in order to do that they have to maximize every opportunity they get. Take this dropped pass by Calvin Ridley for example. The Texans are in Cover 1, but the Jaguars catch them with a slot fade. This is a beautiful ball by Lawrence, over the outside shoulder to keep Ridley away from the post safety, and should be a TD.
Instead, it’s a drop and the Jaguars are still scoreless.
The Jaguars’ biggest opponent so far this season has been themselves. Yes, I know that’s very coachspeak of me to say, but when you’re near the top of the league in drops and have a bottom of the league Success Rate on third down despite a top-12 ranking in the same metric on first and second down, you’re beating yourself. It’s not even super big things like false starts, or illegal formation penalties (the Jaguars did both on Sunday don’t worry). It’s plays like this one on third and 2 when Lawrence accidentally trips RB Travis Etienne and they only get one yard out of it.
Ridley has been up and down, which is expected since he hasn’t played football in two years. The speed is still there, but the drops and slipping on routes is just poor execution, and an example of a team pressing and trying to do too much.
So the solution here is simple: the Jaguars just need to chill. They should be fine in the long run, with the problems being less on playcalling and more on the simple down to down execution. Going to London next week could do some good for the team to decompress and just play loose. These problems are fixable, and the solutions are there. It’s just on them to find it.
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