Jacksonville, Fla. — It’s so important to start fast in the NFL. Whether it is a season, game, quarter, or drive, how it starts can be so advantageous or detrimental to one’s success.
The 2024 Jaguars never seemed to get off the line too quickly at anything. The team started the season 0-4, scored just 3.2 points on average in the first quarter (27th), and went three and out a whopping 25% of the time.
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The Jaguars always seemed to be playing catch-up and simply weren’t good enough for it. The team finally started getting into a groove on offense following the Colts game; however, it was too little, too late, especially considering the injuries to Trevor Lawrence, Christian Kirk, and Evan Engram.
The defense, however, never got into the groove, ranking dead last or nearly so in almost every major statistical category. A big one happened to be turnovers. The Jaguars forced just nine turnovers, three fewer than any other team in the NFL.
To make matters worse, the defense was only responsible for eight of them. It’s a big reason why the Jaguars’ offense only started seven drives in opponents’ territory, the fewest in the NFL.
The offense never got to play on easy mode, having the worst average starting field position (27.6) in the NFL, forced to go the length of the field more often than any other team. Asking your offense to go the distance every drive just isn’t realistic.
To be fair, the offense didn’t help the defense either. The team’s proclivity to go three-and-out, combined with their 32nd-ranked time of possession (26:59), made it difficult for the defense. The offense just could never stay on the field long enough to give the defense a real break.
The defense played an astounding 1,125 snaps; the majority of that time was spent trailing due to criminally slow starts from the offense. The Jaguars’ offense and defense found themselves in a perpetual state of self-harm.
The defense couldn’t create turnovers for easy points, and the offense could never stay on the field to give the defense a rest. Thus, the 2024 season ended up how it did, a major disappointment after back-to-back winning seasons.
A new regime now enters Jacksonville, as does a completely remodeled offensive line and secondary. Admittedly, some of this is simply bad luck as turnovers are partially a luck-based statistic; however, the Jaguars have to set themselves up for success in 2025. They can’t make their own lives harder.
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