The Jacksonville Jaguars may have had a very disappointing season but there are some who believe they can bounce back in 2020. In a recent post via NFL.com, analyst Gil Brandt ranked the Jags fourth on his candidates list of teams that could go from worst to first next season.
The reason? Well, Gardner Minshew’s potential, the defense being a few tweaks away from being respectable again and the AFC South’s competitiveness.
4) Jacksonville Jaguars (AFC South, 6-10)
This team has some players, although the quarterback position is a glaring question mark. Sixth-round pick Gardner Minshew looks like a potential franchise QB, having supplanted Nick Foles as starter, and Minshew is expected to hold that position in 2020, though he remains relatively untested (while Foles is promised a hefty paycheck). The Jaguars don’t need to overhaul their defense, but they should seek to add a run-stuffing tackle and more difference-making linebackers if they want to return to the Sacksonville heyday of 2017. The fact that none of the other teams in the AFC South finished with more than 10 wins this season reflects how close the organizations in that division are.
I personally believe the Jags have a lot of issues on both sides of the ball, but in Brandt’s defense, the Jags do have a lot of draft capital to make it happen. Their No. 9 overall pick could be a spot where they could draft a playmaking linebacker like Isaiah Simmons of Clemson, or maybe they could be lucky enough for Auburn’s Derrick Brown to fall to them for some help in the defensive trenches. Either could help the Jags in a tremendous way on defense.
As for the part about catching up with the rest of the division, that could be easier said than done. The Jags had two division foes (the Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans) play in Saturday’s wildcard games and both won their respective games. Meanwhile, the Jags went 1-3 against the two teams combined in 2019 and have also traditionally struggled against both under owner Shad Khan.
