JACKSONVILLE — Take away the two Super Bowl teams last year, and very few NFL franchises exceeded expectations in 2025 more than the Jacksonville Jaguars did in flipping from 4-13 to 13-4 and winning the AFC South. Trevor Lawrence finished fifth in MVP voting and fifth in the league in touchdown passes with 29, all with a first-time head coach in Liam Coen. And yet the Jaguars lost a close game in the wild-card round and are now not favored to win their division, chasing the Houston Texans in the oddsmakers' view.
So, knowing the outside expectations are that the Jaguars can't even match last year's success, Lawrence has a new challenge in 2026, trying to sustain success and validate last year's team breakout, while also trying to keep up with the lofty personal standards for any former No. 1 overall pick making $55 million a year. How do you set the tone in a new way, to keep the culture of winning on a team that hasn't gone to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons since 1999?
"I think the whole idea of working your tail off out here and earning the right to be successful to win and to make plays, that's a real thing," Lawrence said Wednesday after a second joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "You've got to feel that as a team. If you don't feel that, there is some doubt that can creep in.
Are we ready? I know we're not going to be asking ourselves that come Week 1. We've put the time in, put the work in, and we've got to continue to do that, and we need to get better." In the second half of the 2025 regular season, the Jaguars were the best team in the NFL, going 8-0.
They had both the most points scored and the fewest points allowed during that stretch as they outscored opponents by 153 points from Week 10 on, a full 51 points better than the next-best team. Success in 2026 most importantly starts with returning to the playoffs, and then winning once you're there, but that's a goal that's months in the future. The focus for Lawrence is incremental progress, and that's what his coaches have seen to this point.
"Progress would probably be in there: process, consistency," offensive coordinator Grant Udinski said when asked to describe Lawrence's offseason. "I probably have said it a thousand times; you guys are probably sick of hearing it, how we know that progress is not a straight line. But the consistency to show up day after day after day and build on what we had last year, but not take any of those details and fundamentals and foundational steps for granted and continue to work over and over and over again at those things, whether it's a drop and technique and fundamentals or whether it's a read or whether it's just calling a certain play or a certain motion, all of those things are so important.
"They're critical for the success of not only the quarterback, but all 11 on the offense. And he's a guy that has continued to work at all aspects of that, which is once again why he's such a joy to coach." This is an important year for the Jaguars, whose stadium is covered with scaffolding for major renovations that will relocate them to Orlando (and London) for the 2027 season. The offseason transactions were quiet, allowing linebacker Devin Lloyd (Carolina Panthers) and running back Travis Etienne (New Orleans Saints) to leave and trusting in-house options to take over in third-year linebacker Ventrell Miller and second-year running back Bayshul Tuten.
Coen was fortunate to keep both Udinski, 30, and defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile, 44, after both interviewed for head coaching jobs elsewhere. Lawrence said his confidence starts at the line of scrimmage on both sides, where both lines return nearly intact from last year and will work to set the tone for more of the same this season. "Those guys having that edge, and they've done a great job of it.
We just got to keep working it," Lawrence said. "I think we found out what we need to get better at also through training camp and some of the details, the attention to detail, whether it's formations, motions, different checks, just being ready for everything. Our whole operation needs to continue to sharpen and refine and move quicker. …
We got better, but that's just something that I still think we need to work on." 1. Tampa Bay will have a considerable impact from their rookies on defense, starting with first-round outside linebacker Rueben Bain Jr., who has been the buzz of training camp. Second-rounder Josiah Trotter, who is the son of Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, should start at inside linebacker, with fourth-round defensive back Keionte Scott potentially starting at nickel.
Add in veterans like defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson, edge Al-Quadin Muhammad and linebacker Alex Anzalone, and there's a different vibe to their defensive front. "They're tough," Pro Bowl left tackle Tristan Wirfs said of the group on Wednesday. "I think they're going to be a problem this year.
It's nice to see that kind of a–hole mentality … It's a mean front." 2. A year ago, the intrigue was the novelty of Travis Hunter's balance between offense and defense, but as he returns healthy after being limited to seven games as a rookie, he's focused primarily on defense.
Roughly 75% of his reps have come on defense this summer, according to local beat writers carefully charting his participation. Last year, he logged twice as many snaps on offense before his injury. "It can be a challenge, but I think [we] just continue to chip away when I can over this next week or two," Lawrence said of working with Hunter as a receiver.
"It's tough. You don't get quite as much time, but I feel like when the opportunity comes up, we're going to have him ready and he's going to be able to do whatever we need him to do." The third-round rookie joins a talented receiving corps and brings much-needed size to help offset the loss of Mike Evans to the 49ers. "He has some unbelievable potential," receiver Chris Godwin said Tuesday.
"He's so explosive, especially for that size. He has the ability to jump, make tough catches. He's doing some really good things." An under-the-radar value signing for Jacksonville was keeping Brown for three years, $33 million this offseason.
They traded away Tyson Campbell last year and let Greg Newsome walk in free agency, and Brown had a deflected interception off Baker Mayfield during Tuesday's joint practice. "Just the hair on hair," Jaguars coach Liam Coen said of watching a practice scuffle between Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Bucs linebacker Alex Anzalone.
