The Jacksonville Jaguars Need Results | 2024 NFL Team Previews

The Jacksonville Jaguars Need Results | 2024 NFL Team Previews

the Jacksonville Jaguars finished the 2023 season with a 9-8 record and missed the playoffs after a year in 20122 in which they not only won the division but won a playoff game in a dramatic come from behind victory over the Los Angeles Chargers as they won with a score of 31 to30 before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Chiefs in the divisional round of the playoffs on the surface a 9-8 record isn’t bad for most teams and in fact Jacksonville has back-to-back Seasons with a 9 and8 record but 2023 was a disappointing season for the Jags not just because they finished with a 9-8 record but because of how they got there they started the year 8 and3 and after beating the eventual Division champion Texans in week 12 and avenging their week three loss in which Houston went in the Jacksonville and beat them by 20 well there was a brief point in time where Jacksonville was the number one seed in the AFC but the time was short lived as they would go on to lose five of their final six games and miss the playoffs entirely their alone win during this span came over the Carolina Panthers who of course had the worst record in the league the Jags were pretty active this offseason and made a lot of moves to try and improve a nine wins and to be able to make a deep postseason run and for the sake of GM Trent balky and head coach duck Peterson the Jags need to produce and now and in today’s video we will break down what to expect from the 2024 Jacksonville Jaguars now let’s begin and we are starting today’s video by breaking down what the Jags did in free agency and then addressing their defense the Jags had one 1,000 yard receiver in 2023 though they had three guys with 750 or more yards but the lone 1,000 yard receiver was Calvin Ridley Calvin is a solid receiver not an elite receiver and it was unfortunate the Titans opted to pay Calvin $23 million per year over the course of 4 years and the Jags were left with nothing and they had to sign Gabe Davis I can’t imagine that was the initial plan entering the off season but aside from signing Gabe Davis they signed other vets like Eric Armstead Darnell Savage Mitch Morse Devon duver and Ronald Derby and we will focus on the Eric Armstead signing first which was a move I absolutely loved for the Jags GM Trent balky has been around the league for a while and he absolutely has a type with defensive lineman and Edge rushers he loves players along the trenches that are 90th percentile or better in height weight and arm length and given he drafted Armstead back in 2015 as the GM of the 49ers it didn’t surprise me at all Jacksonville went after him side note I also think the Jags would have traded a first round pick for DeForest Buckner another one of balki’s first round picks in San Francisco had he been the GM of the Jags throughout the 2020 draft process when Jacksonville had to First round picks but by adding Armstead Jacksonville got stronger with their front four and added a player who will generate a lot of pressure from the interior which is especially critical in today’s NFL while getting him for a pretty good price and in fact I like their front four a lot heading into the 2024 season and the Jags front four more so than a lot of other teams is going to be critical for their success this year obviously every team needs their front four to at least be serviceable but Jacksonville will really really need their front four to step up if they are going to go to at least the divisional round of the playoffs like they did two years ago and heading into the 2024 regular season I don’t necessarily think it’s a true Super Bowl or bust for the Jags this year but for the future of the coaching staff and front office I 100% think it’s a divisional round or bust for the sake of their jobs and one thing that scares me with the 2024 Jags is their secondary this was already a unit that was not great in 2023 and did not improve a whole lot this offseason either I know they signed Darnell Savage from Green Bay this offseason but I don’t think Savage is a reliable player by any means he misses his fair share of tackles he has lapses and coverage at times and he will have multiple games in a row where he’s either consistently getting beat or not playing to the level he has throughout other times in his career to Simply put it he is an inconsistent player and you never know which guy you’re going to get when they walk off the bus each Sunday and there was also a reason his average annual value is at 16th in the league among safeties aside from Darnell Savage I do not have a lot of faith in veteran Ronald Derby at this point in his career as he is now on the wrong side of 30 and will turn 31 at the end of the 2024 season he has also played 16 games in a season just twice since 2017 and I know Darby had a solid year for Baltimore last year and he hasn’t run into the wall Corners do once they lose their physical ability that they have in their early 20s but Corners to me are very similar to running backs not as extreme of course with a decline in performance as the gauge but to me that is the position on defense that declines first and heading into the season that’s a tall order for any 30 plus year old corner and after Derby it gets thin at the position and quick the Jags Corners after that are deantre Prince monter Brown Amman oier and rookie Jen Jones like we mentioned during the Bucks team preview which I recommend going to check out by the way we discussed teams not wanting to run the ball against Tampa and going after their second Corner in 20124 as a key to success and I think it will be much of the same against Jacksonville this year here for all of the faults Trent balky has as a GM there’s a reason he likes the Trayvon Walkers Eric Armstead and DeForest buckers of the world he loves guys that have the length to be able to set the edge in the Run game and be able to be the guys to set the tone in the trenches no disrespect to Josh Allen is intended of course as he is without a doubt one of the most underrated players in all of football but his arms are nowhere near as long as trayvon’s and we all know Josh is a very good football player but he is far from the Trent balky prototype in this standpoint but the point is I think Jacksonville will be better against the run this year and when you have those guys in your front four along with Foy I said luon and Devon Lloyd in the middle of the defense well you are inviting opposing teams to throw the football not only is the pass rush going to have to get home early and often in 2024 for any team to have success at stopping opposing offenses but it’s especially critical for Jacksonville due to how thin their secondary is and I do think Jacksonville’s roster is solid not Elite by any means but solid and what I think is unfortunate for the Jags this year is how they start their season three of their first four games are on the road against Premier AFC teams which includes trips to Miami and buffalo and of course Houston we will discuss Trevor Lawrence later in the video who I think will be fine in the long run but a lot of the Jags 2024 success will rely on their ability to limit opposing teams to having Field Days against their secondary the Jags 2023 defense finished eighth in rushing attempts against despite finishing 16th in yards per carry allowed and a big reason for that was they finished 28th in passing attempts against and the reason for that was simple teams would have rather tested Darius Williams or Devon Lloyd in coverage than try and run the outside against either of the edge rushers or even right up the middle into the teeth of the Jags defense and it’s going to be the exact same in 2024 which is why it’s also a Now or Never year for 2022 number one overall pick Trayvon Walker Trayvon had over 55 pressures last year and even had 10 sacks in 2023 but if Jacksonville is going to get back to where they were two years ago a lot of players on the defense are going to have to step up and ensure Jacksonville does not give up 25 or more points in a game this year as often as they did last year and for what it’s worth Jacksonville was 0 and six in those said games one other big thing to note for the Jag sake entering the 2024 season is they did a good job last year of creating turnovers they created 27 turnovers in 17 games and you can argue they won a few games last year alone most notably the Atlanta game in which they had a momentum swinging pick six that killed any confidence Atlanta had before that but they had eight games last year where they forced multiple turnovers defensively and ranked eighth in the league by creating those 27 turnovers sustaining that high of a turnover rate in backto back years for any defense that’s not an all-time Elite defense is going to be difficult and this was for a defense that already finished 17th in points allowed per game now with the Jags offense in 2024 obviously a lot of people are going to be paying attention to a young man who just received a 275 million ion dollar contract extension and that’s understandable that’s part of the territory of paying a franchise quarterback but one of the biggest reasons why the Jags had a downfall from 2022 to 2023 was the way they ran the football in 2022 compared to last year the Jags finished 30th in yards per carry in 2023 and Travis etn averaged over a yard less per carry in 23 than he did in 2022 now running backs of course devalue or decrease their production over the course of time and Travis will be no exception but we’re not at that point in his career yet we’re only entering year four for him now if you want to have that conversation in three or four years fine maybe not even that far but the point is is we’re not having that conversation with Travis etn yet the Jags offensive line also only had three guys play all 17 games and one of their biggest problems up front was Center Luke forner who has been since replaced by veteran Mitch Morse aside from that the Jags returned the other four starters and the hope is that 2023 offensive lineman first round pick Anton Harrison improves from year 1 to year two especially as a run blocker now was Trevor at times a problem for the Jags yes and unfortunately what is a part of Trevor’s game 3 years in is there’s always a play or two per game where there’s really no other way to describe it it’s it’s almost like Trevor’s brain turns off and he just forces a ball into coverage that he shouldn’t and the thing is I don’t think you can really coach this out of Trevor because we’re 50 games into his NFL career now we’re not talking about a guy that’s thrown 70 or 80 passes so with Trevor it’s almost you take the good with the bad there’s going to be a play where he forces a ball into double coverage in the red zone that he knows as soon as the ball leaves his hands that he should not have made that play but again with Trevor there are insanely High highs in the Buffalo game last year and the Baltimore game back in 2022 are examples of that but with the 2024 Jags they’re going to have to take the jeo and height effect of quarterback Trevor Lawrence what needs to be remembered for the 2024 Jags offense is this was an offense that still finished 13th in points per game last year despite not being able to run the football anywhere close to the level they wanted to Travis etn had more than 40 carries more in 2023 than he did in 2022 and had over 100 less yards on the season now I think the 2022 Jags offensive line was a case of a unit that blocked better than what we would expect in a normal 17 Game season and I think 2023 when you factor in the amount of guys that played along the offensive line and when you factor in the overall performance I think that was also a case of a unit that wasn’t as good as what we should expect this year so I think when you factor in the Jags offensive line not only getting better but hopefully having more stability along the offensive line and the yards per carry not ranking 30th as a team this year coming from a unit that still again finished in the top 13 last year I would be pretty surprised if they’re not right around the 10 or 11 mark this year and that’s even with losing Calvin Ridley in free agency now one player that I really really like for the Jags this year is first round pick Brian Thomas Jr Trent balky has a lot of faults as a general manager but the Brian Thomas tradeback to go back and get him while acquiring more picks for next year specifically the third round pick next year was a tremendous job now there were a lot of concerns with btj coming out of LSU about 60% of his routes only being slot Fades and that he was only a one route guy I I don’t have those concerns with him transitioning to the NFL level Brian Thomas Jr was one of my favorite receiving prospects I had him at wide receiver four in this class like a lot of people did to be fair but for him only to run slot Fades at LSU I saw a better player on tape and I don’t think it’s a matter of him not being able to move or him being able to laterally transition into a slant or for him to be able to run a drag or a 15 yard dig or anything like that and I think he’s going to be just fine at the NFL level so if we have a Duo of Christian Kirk and Brian Thomas Jr along with Evan Ingram who by the way quietly had over a 100 receptions last year I think the Jags offense this year is going to quietly be one of the better units in all of football it’s just going to largely depend on the offensive line being able to run block and Trevor Lawrence being able to limit the plays that as soon as he lets the ball leave his hands knows he should not have made that throw as for the Jags rookie class I got to be honest I wouldn’t expect all that much this year outside of receiver Brian Thomas Jr btj to me is a guy that can have multiple 1, yard years especially with the added 17th game um now you can make an argument and you can make a very legit case that the Jags have not helped out Trevor anywhere close to what other quarterbacks in the conference have had help wise throughout their career and that could Merit an entire video on its own you know how the Jags had back-to-back number one overall picks including Trevor Lawrence who is the best quarterback prospects since Andrew Luck and really haven’t done much to help him outside of Christian Kirk and Calvin Ridley but hopefully Brian Thomas Jr is that guy uh I like Thomas a lot he was my wide receiver four he was top 20 on my big board uh but I wasn’t the biggest fan of their draft class outside of btj second round pick Mason Smith is a definition of a home run or bust pick and anytime you’re taking a grand slam or bust pick in the top 50 you better be right I have a lot of questions with Trent balky draft history uh for reference I had Mason Smith around 130 on my big board and they took him at 48 that pick when it was made was the first one where I kind of thought wow this is where we are in the draft um but hopefully Mason Smith proves me wrong hopefully he has a great NFL career but the reality is is interior defensive lineman usually take a couple of years to develop as we’ve discussed plenty of times before in the channel you know if you are going against the big boys in the trenches you know the 28 29 30-year-old lineman and you are a 21 or 22y old coming out of college chances are you’re not going to be able to deal with all of that physicality in the trenches in year 1 so Mason Smith I would label him personally as a project and a guy that I would not expect to seriously contribute until at least 2025 third round Corner jerion Jones is a player I have a lot of Hope for I liked him a lot in the draft process and obviously in the AFC you need Corner help not just the Jags but for any team no team in this conference is going to say we have enough Corners so hopefully that pick works out um but after that the only other player that I really have hope for in terms of contribution is rookie year is of course kicker Cam little I’m not going to dive into the intricacies of kicking um other than that I hope cam has a good rookie year and that I hope he is the long-term starter or the long-term kicker rather for the Jags uh but a lot of their success for the 2024 draft class to me at least will rely on the connection between Trevor Lawrence and Brian Thomas Jr one of the bigger reasons why I captioned the thumbnail for today’s video or podcast yes we have the football analysis podcast the link is in the description deson if you would like to check it out for an extended version of not just the Jags preview but for any of the team previews we’ve done but one of the reasons why I captioned it now or never is the start of the Jags schedule in 2024 is absolutely brutal and despite me thinking this team is a pretty talented team overall maybe not Super Bowl champion caliber but a pretty talented team well they’re going to be tested right away they open the year in Miami then come home to play Cleveland then go to Buffalo on week three on Monday night and on a day less rest they go to Houston in week four that is without a doubt one of the most difficult first four games any team is going to have in the entire league and as if that’s not enough they come home to play the Colts in week five then go to London for two straight games against the Bears and Patriots then come home to play the Packers in Jacksonville in week eight then go to Philly in week N9 then play the Vikings in week 10 and then go to Detroit in week 11 I I mean this schedule is I mean it’s it’s insane man they play in Detroit in Philly in Buffalo and in Miami and for their first 11 games and then they play several other Playoff opponents along the way so what whatever the Jags are going to do this year I think we’re going to know right away now the schedule eventually does get a little bit easier as it’s not a gauntlet for all 17 games but this team is going to have to somehow someway go either five- six or six and five through that preferably 6 and five they don’t have to win out down the stretch but if this team has any aspirations to be a wild card in a absolutely loaded conference that is the AFC they’re going to have to win through that absolute hell Gauntlet and I don’t know if they’re going to but I like some of the improvements they made this offseason I I like the fact that they drafted Brian Thomas Jr in the first round and I really like that they brought in Mitch Morse but is that going to be enough for this team to go from 9 and 8 to 10- 7 or 11- six my personal team ceiling for the Jags is a divisional round loss but I hope you enjoyed today’s video and if you did please like And subscribe as only about 39% of people watching are subscribed it helps the channel tremendously until next time please be safe and have a great day love you guys

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