32 Teams/32 Days Hub

Division: AFC South (1ST)

Record: 9-8-0 (4-2-0 division)

Playoffs: YES. (20-27 loss in divisional round to Kansas City Chiefs after 31-30 victory over Los Angeles Chargers)

Introduction

Welcome to the 2022 Jacksonville Jaguars, where your decades of...well, mostly suffering will be rewarded with a season that gives you so much hope that you aren't sure what to do with your hands.

Seriously, do y'all know what it feels like to write this with big grins on our faces just one year after Urban Meyer, whose brief tenure is referred to with terminology generally saved for the likes of Voldemort or national disasters? The feelings toward Doug Pederson couldn't be any different — to the point where Jags Safety Andrew Wingard saying he'd die for Doug didn't feel all that hyperbolic.

So with near-Ted Lasso levels of joyful optimism, here is your recap of the 2022 PLAYOFF-GAME WINNING Jacksonville Jaguars from /u/el_pobbster, /u/JohnnySnark, /u/InexorableWaffle, and me.

2022 Offseason — Free Agency (by /u/el_pobbster)

This offseason for the Jaguars was marked by a fairly sizable spending spree, which certainly raised some eyebrows around the league –and even elicited a certain amount of mockery. While the price tags on some of these were looked at with derision, the results can’t be too easily dismissed. It was an integral part of the spectacular turnaround in Pederson’s first year.

• Foley Fatukasi (3 years, 30M, 20M guaranteed): The Jaguars needed to shore up the middle of their defensive line. To that effect, the Jaguars bring in the top run defending DT in free agency on a relatively affordable deal. He was very stout as a run stopper for the New York Jets, with some upside in collapsing the pocket. While he did show up, he still had several missed tackles and struggled to anchor in the middle. He’ll need to clean up these issues if the Jaguars are to get their money.
• Foye Oluokun (3 years, 45M, 28M guaranteed): This was a huge area of need going into the offseason. Myles Jack had been in more or less constant decline since his rookie year in that vaunted 2017 Sacksonville defense and was let go. Trent Baalke was aggressive in pursuing the former Atlanta linebacker, giving him a rich deal. He certainly panned out, leading not only the team, but the entire league in tackles. He was a clean-up artist at the second level, and was also a leading brain on the field, helping break in fellow rookies Muma and Lloyd. One of the bigger wins in free agency for Baalke.
• Christian Kirk (4 years, 72M, 37M guaranteed): This was the move that had people asking questions. It felt like a substantial overpay for an undersized slot-first receiver who had never reached the 1000-yard benchmark in his stay in the Kingsbury-led Cardinals offense. It might have proved to be one of the smartest and most influential move. Kirk lead the Jaguars in receptions, targets, touchdowns and yards, getting over 1100 yards, 84 receptions and 8 touchdowns. He showed a lot of chemistry with Lawrence as a reliable target, doing a great job of consistently getting open and making plays. For all the criticism this signing garnered, it might be proving to be one of the shrewdest.
• Evan Engram (1 year, 10M, 9M guaranteed): Throughout Pederson’s time in Philadelphia, he showed he loved the TE position. Engram had under-performed with the Giants since his rookie year, and had clearly worn out his welcome in the Big Apple. He was featured in Pederson’s offense, and got a real chance to shine, and *boy oh boy* did he take it. He was incredibly useful as a side-to-side stretcher of the offense, making plays underneath and down the seam, acting as an athletic weapon on screen plays and being overall one of the best TEs in Jacksonville history. Look to him as one of the priority re-signings for Baalke.

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2022 Offseason — Draft Picks (by /u/el_pobbster)

After selecting Trevor Lawrence #1 overall of the 2021 NFL draft, the Jaguars were once again slotted to pick first overall in the 2022 NFL draft, joining a fairly infamous club of teams who received back-to-back #1 overall picks in the Super Bowl era, alongside the 1976-77 Buccaneers, the 1994-95 Bengals, the 1999-2000 Browns and the 2017-2018 Browns. This batch of draft picks was generally much maligned in post-draft analysis, and while it is still far too early to judge as to whether or not this was a good draft class, it is clear that many of these rookies are going to need to step their game up in year 2 if the Jaguars are to compete for the highest honors this year and moving forward.

• Round 1, pick 1 — Travon Walker, Edge, Georgia: Possibly one of, if not the most controversial pick Trent Baalke made in that draft class. Throughout most of the pre-draft process, the best available prospect was largely seen to be Aiden Hutchinson, with talk of the Jaguars also flirting with some of the high-end OT talent in the draft class. However, the Jaguars’ front office decided to go with the incredibly high ceiling offered by the pretty much unprecedented athleticism of the former Bulldog. While he had extremely limited pass-rushing production at Georgia, this was partly due to the defensive scheme and how little he was asked to do it. This was a gamble taken on the incredibly complete athletic profile, which showed an almost unparalleled combination of length, strength, agility, and change of direction. While he wasn’t particularly productive as a rusher this season, he did show signs of improvement over the back end of the season. This was always more of a project pick, so seeing signs of development this early is always good news.
• Round 1, pick 27 — Devin Lloyd, LB, Utah: With the cutting of Myles Jack, the linebacker position was a major need for the Jaguars. Baalke moved up aggressively back into round 1 to pick what was seen by many as the best all-arounder in the draft class. He started the season very strong, making several impact plays, including a key (and to this redditor, very memorable) interception against the Chargers in week 3. He did fade hard over the back end of the season, even losing his starter status to fellow rookie Chad Muma. He looked quite lost at time, being bossed around and set-up pre-snap by Oluokun. He also struggled quite mightily in coverage over the latter part of the year. Linebacker is a position where rookies do traditionally struggle, but him being seen as a pro-ready prospect who is on the older side does make it a bit of a concern.

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Season review (week by week) (by /u/GeckoRoamin)

Let's start by going through the season with a rapid-fire assessment...

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High points and low points (by /u/JohnnySnark)

High points

• February 3, 2022: the Jaguars organization hires Doug Pederson. Tasked with the job of vanquishing the complete bootay stank that was of the Urban Meyer experience, he has his work cut out for him. Surprisingly, the underappreciated Super Bowl winning coach had a plan and vision for this team. The pairing of two scoops Doug with Trevor may be the exact thing the AFC South loathes for the next decade or so.
• September 18, 2022: The jaguars blow out the Colts 24-0 with another win against Jim Irsay's ego in Jacksonville. While the hiring of Jeff Saturday wasn't directly after this loss, the continued haunting of Irsay by the Jags may have sparked that eventual move.
• November 27, 2022: Trevor Lawrence produces another comeback in which the Jaguars stun the Ravens 28-27 in Jacksonville. This was a thrilling 4th quarter that surprised us all in the stadium and exercised some demons that haunted the team during their five game losing streak.
• December 11, 2022: Travon Walker and Shaq Quarterman come up big in the first half, causing turnovers in a 36-22 takedown of the Titans. This was the first time the Jaguars had won at Nashville since November 10, 2013.
• December 18, 2022: With a little more than seven minutes left in overtime against the Cowboys, Rayshawn Jenkins snags a deflected pass by Noah Brown and totes it 52 yards with a walk-off pick sixto win 40-34. The stunned Yankee fans in attendance were surprised to hear that the touchdown did in fact end the game for their beloved Cowboys. This was also Jenkins' first career pick six.
• January 14, 2023: Riley Patterson squeaks in a 36-yard field goal with time expiring as the Jaguars complete their 27-point comeback versus the Chargers to win 31-30. Probably the best game I've been to in person, and I was there for both the Ravens and Cowboys games earlier in the year. Unbelievable comeback.
• March 6, 2023 (addition by /u/GeckoRoamin): Calvin Ridley is officially reinstated by the NFL after being suspended in March 2022 for violating the league's gambling policy. The Jags traded for Ridley in November, hoping the veteran WR can bounce back and become a major target for Trevor Lawrence.

Low points:

• October 23, 2022: Christian Kirk is tackled at the one-yard line as time expires, and the Jags lose to the Giants 23-17.
• October 30, 2022: Justin Simmons intercepts Trevor Lawrence on first and goal from the two-yard line in London.
• December 4, 2022: Lions blow out the Jags 40 -14. This game was not even close at the end of the half, and the fans were so bored that they started the wave.
• January 14, 2023: Trevor Lawrence throws four interceptions in the first half versus the Chargers in his first playoff game. The absolute worst start to a game you could ask for.
• January 21, 2023: With the Jags down 27-17 to the Chiefs, Jamal Agnew fumbles the ball at the Chiefs' five-yard line. This turnover effectively ends the Jaguars' bid in coming back and their playoff run.

Statistics (by /u/GeckoRoamin)

Team statistics (regular season)

Passing Statistics (regular season)

Rushing Statistics (regular season) (min. 100 yards)

Receiving Statistics (regular season) (top 5 in yardage)

Coaching staff review (by /u/JohnnySnark)

• Trent Baalke — General Manager: Much to the chagrin of NFL redditors, Shad Khan decided to retain Trent Baalke from last year. Since then, he has been nothing but competent and even great at times. The 2022 Baalke master class started with him outmaneuvering the league for the exceptional talents of Christian Kirk and criminally underrated linebacker Foye Oluokun. It has continued with his savvy, low-risk move of trading for Calvin Ridley before the 2022 trade deadline to provide Trevor with more offensive weapons in the future. Baalke himself spent 12 seasons with the 49ers but had a much maligned departure, in which criticism has followed him to Jacksonville. Hopefully the partnership with Doug Pederson continues to bring success to the front office and on field performance in the future. With the emergence of Trevor Lawrence, Baalke has a solid foundation as a GM; he will be given the opportunity to keep rehabilitating his image as long as the Jaguars' front office continues to field playoff-winning teams.
• Doug Pederson — Head Coach: After much trepidation on the Jaguars coaching search in early 2022, we luckily landed with Doug Pederson. Unsurprisingly, a former Super Bowl winning coach knows how to put together an NFL staff and provide a winning vision to his players. He spoke several times early in the off season of how there was a need for the players to have healing after the Urban Meyer tenure and a lack of trust that was needing to be rebuilt from the ground up. To say that Doug's presence in the locker room and on the field is a relief is an understatement; he truly has turned this team and organization around. He's instilled a mentality of "So what, now what?" which you can attribute to the team's resiliency this year and being able to define their 2022 season with several comeback wins. Doug played 12 years in the NFL as a quarterback, and that experience has clearly helped Trevor grow this year. He's an Andy Reid coaching tree disciple who has spent over 30 years under Reid as both a player and coach. There may be plenty of meetings between the two in the playoffs going forward if Doug can keep building upon this winning foundation.

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Upcoming free agents from your team (by /u/InexorableWaffle)

• Evan Engram, TE (Franchise Tagged)
• Jawaan Taylor, RT
• Marvin Jones, WR
• Arden Key, EDGE
• Dawuane Smoot, EDGE
• Andrew Wingard, S

As can be expected of a team that had multiple consecutive losing seasons prior to this past season who also went on a major FA spending spree last offseason, the Jags don’t have that many critical FAs to re-sign. Even so, we have a select few that deserve specific mention.

First and foremost, we have Evan Engram and Jawaan Taylor. They’re easily the standouts of the list above, and since there’s a good chance that what happens to one will affect our plans regarding the other, I’m going to cover them in the same section. Long story short, they both are among the premier players that will be available at their respective positions, and we likely don’t have the cap to re-sign both (especially with the better Josh Allen being in line for a potential extension in the near future). Given the contract we signed Cam Robinson to and the presence of Walker Little (who’s looked solid in limited starts, for the most part), my thoughts were that we would prioritize Engram over Taylor, and seeing as the latter was given the franchise tag, that seems to be the case. With Engram now guaranteed to be on the roster, I can say with confidence that I'll be rather surprised if Jawaan Taylor is on our opening day roster. However, there's still a lot of time between now and the official start of FA, so there is time for that to change.

Marvin Jones almost certainly is all but gone. The acquisitions of Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, and Calvin Ridley in the past year have made his presence largely redundant (especially the latter two, considering they figure to be our outside receivers – Jones’ position – in 3 WR sets). His snaps already plummeted this year, and Ridley has yet to take the field. If he’s willing to come back for super cheap, then I suppose it’s possible he returns, but if we’re being realistic, that isn’t happening.

Next up is the pair of rotational edge rushers, Key and Smoot. Our 2nd and 3rd most effective pass-rushers this past season by nearly any metric, I imagine the front office will do everything in its power to retain both of them. The one wrench in the works there, however, is Smoot’s devastating Achilles tear that he suffered late in the season. He almost certainly won’t be ready to go in the early parts of 2023, and even if he is, it’s likely that he won’t be as effective as he usually is until 2024. That being the case, the front office may decide it’s better to look in a different direction, with the focus being on making next year’s team as competitive as possible.

Last on the list is Andrew Wingard. Normally, it’d be weird to list a backup safety in the short-form write=up for this section, but Wingard...almost feels like one of the tone setters for our locker room even though he hardly plays (barring injury)? It’s hard to put into words, and it likely wouldn’t make sense to non-Jags fans even if I managed to do so, so I’ll skip over any sentimentality and say that I imagine he likely gets a larger-than-average contract for a backup safety to stay on the team.

Team needs (by /u/InexorableWaffle)

• Critical Needs to Address: Slot CB, Interior D-Line
• High-Priority Needs: OG, Edge Rusher
• Moderate Needs: TE*, OT*, backup RB, Outside CB
• Potential Sunk Cost Need: Off-ball LB
• Lowest-Priority Needs: K, S, C, WR
• Luxuries and/or Not Needed – QB, P, starting RB

*Asterisks denote positions subject to change based on re-signings.

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Why root for the Jacksonville Jaguars (by /u/GeckoRoamin)

This is a question most Jags fans have asked themselves, and for most of their time as a fan — so long as that time as been >1 year — the answer may have been "because I like to suffer." And we can't guarantee there won't be more suffering in the future. But truth be told, the suffering has built a lot of character. Jags fans are weird. Jacksonville is weird. (Jason Mendoza from The Good Place was more accurate than folks who haven't been here realize.) And most of us wouldn't have it any other way. It's really painful sometimes to love this team, but it makes the victories — even some of the moral ones — especially sweet.

So why root for the Jags? Because it's fun to hop on the wagon of a coach who loves ice cream and a young QB who can flip his hair like a majestic lion. Because it's really fun to join a fanbase who has never won the big one before and may actually stand a chance to in the next few years. And because we may question your sanity but not your dedication if you want to join us after all the historic crap we've "accomplished" in recent years.

And because you know, deep down in your heart...it was always the Jags.