Jaguars need more from former 1st-round picks Lawrence, Thomas, Hines-Allen and Walker after bye
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — It’s difficult to identify long-term building blocks on Jacksonville’s roster.
When coach Liam Coen took the job in January, he pointed to a talented foundation that included quarterback Trevor Lawrence, receiver Brian Thomas Jr., cornerback Tyson Campbell and defensive ends Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker.
None of them has played particularly well through seven games, and Campbell already has been traded.
The remaining four — all former first-round draft picks — will need to deliver at a much higher rate for the Jaguars (4-3) to regroup from consecutive losses and gain ground on Indianapolis in the AFC South following a bye week.
“We cannot, absolutely not, go back and try to reinvent the wheel here,” Coen said. “Everything’s ahead of us. We’ve got to play cleaner football. That’s the reality. Until you play cleaner in between the whistles, in between the white lines, playing more fundamentally sound, having better situational awareness, executing and handling the controllables, that’s where we’re at.”
The Jaguars have been penalized 83 times for 528 yards, both tops in the NFL, and have had another 18 penalties declined. They have drawn double-digit flags in four games.
The past two have been particularly eye-opening, a 20-12 home loss to Seattle in which the Seahawks dominated both lines of scrimmage and a 35-7 drubbing in London at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams.
The Jags committed a combined 24 penalties and allowed a combined 14 sacks in those games, raising doubts about Coen’s belief that he has a smart and physical team.
“We have not played our best the last two weeks going into the bye,” Coen said. “It’s not a great feeling, but everything’s ahead of us.
“And my thing to this team is, ‘Man, guys, we have done so many good things. We are a really good football team, but not when we hurt ourselves.’”
Equally troubling: the Jaguars’ top talent has failed to play to its potential.
Lawrence, the No. 1 overall pick in 2021, has completed a career-low 58.7% of his passes for 1,620 yards, with nine touchdowns and five interceptions. He also has a lost fumble.
He’s been plagued by a league-leading 25 dropped passes, including eight by Thomas. The 23rd overall pick in 2024, Thomas caught 87 passes for 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns as a rookie. He made the Pro Bowl and looked as if he was the solution to the franchise’s decades-long search for a No. 1 receiver.
But he seems much more hesitant this season, especially when going over the middle, where he’s short-armed at least three attempts.
Coen responded by getting rookie Travis Hunter and Parker Washington more involved against the Rams. Hunter played 67 of 77 offensive snaps, and Washington was on the field for 68. Thomas, meanwhile, played 51.
Hunter finished with eight catches for 101 yards and his first NFL touchdown.
“We are going to play the best 11 as much as humanly possible after this bye,” Coen said.
The Jaguars won four of their first five games thanks mostly to a league-leading 14 takeaways, including a 99-yard interception return for a touchdown against Kansas City on “Monday Night Football.” Those turnovers masked all sorts of issues, most notably a lack of consistent pass rush.
Jacksonville is tied with Baltimore for the fewest sacks (8) in the NFL. Hines-Allen, the seventh overall pick in 2019, has half a sack. Walker, the No. 1 overall choice in 2022, has two. It’s hardly enough of a return on the team’s investment considering the duo counts $27 million against the salary cap.
“It’s not always about how you start, but it’s about how you finish,” said Walker, who played the past two games with a protective club on his left wrist following surgery. “We got 10 weeks left of the regular season and we’re going to go out there and make the best of all 10 of these games.”
The Jaguars insist they won’t panic, but there has to be a level of concern considering their top players aren’t performing, their newest free agents have been inconsistent lately and their 2025 draft class has barely contributed outside of Hunter.
“We haven’t even sniffed our best football,” center Robert Hainsey said. “We have so much to look forward to and so much improvement to make. Us making that improvement … is what’s going to dictate how the rest of the season goes.
“You’re not trying to do anything crazy.”
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