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Touchdown Jaguars!
Touchdown Jaguars!
Episode 120: 2025 Regular Season / Bold Predictions!
The Jacksonville Jaguars enter a new era with optimism after a complete leadership overhaul, giving fans legitimate hope for the first time in years. We examine what makes this season different with James Gladstone, Liam Coen, and Tony Boselli bringing a much-needed fresh approach. We also discussed our predictions for Week 1’s game against Carolina, plus the following talking points:
• Travis Hunter's unprecedented two-way role as both starting wide receiver and defensive back
• Record prediction and the Jags’ chances to make the postseason
• The importance of improving last year's 3-10 record in one-score games and how to change the losses to wins
• Annual Bold prediction for the 2025 Jags
• Annual Super Bowl predictions for the 2025 NFL season
Join us all season long and leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your podcast app of choice. Follow us through the Linktree in our show notes and use promo code "Touchdown Jaguars" on SeatGeek to save on your first purchase.
James Johnson and Phil Barrera bring you the best and most up to date Jacksonville Jaguars news. "Touchdown Jaguars!" is a tribute to the prospective ownership group "Touchdown Jacksonville!" In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams and "Touchdown Jacksonville!" announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists. In November 1993, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville. James and Phil have been fans of the franchise ever since and have had the honor (and sometimes dishonor) of covering the team professionally since 2017. The rest as they say, is history.
Welcome to the, the, the, the, the Still running and go. That is a goal and go. Touchdown Jacksonville. A hundred and nine yards Incredible. Play action. Portals Upstairs Wide open. Tommy Bohannon Touchdown Jacksonville. Looking for Jimmy in the end zone. Touchdown Jaguars. Touchdown Jaguars. Touchdown Jaguars.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. Here are your hosts, james Johnson and Phil Smith. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast. I'm your co-host, phil Barrera, and joining us, as always, is your other co-host, james Johnson. And Jay, we are here.
Speaker 1:It's the evening of September 3rd. It's basically like Christmas Eve. The NFL season is back tomorrow, with the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the pinnacle of just level headedness in Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys tomorrow night. So that's going to be a fun game to watch and you see how everything pans out. But, more importantly, jaguar football is upon us. So welcome in to another episode. Thank you for all of you that may be listening for uh, maybe your new listeners because of our episode last week with dilla. Shout out to him once again and thank you guys for giving that episode a lot of love. We hope that we are in your podcast rotation in 2025 amongst many, many other Jacksonville Jaguar content creators. But, jay, how are we feeling a couple of days away from week one? It's good to be back here with you and back to work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just kind of rehashing what I've said. Man, I feel rejuvenated, man, because we didn't know if this podcast would make it to this point and I'm grateful you know that we have made it to this point.
Speaker 1:There's a little touch and go there for a bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it was. But as I did back in February when they let Balki go, I think or that might have been late January I feel way better now that you know, even if we will get into our predictions right later, that, even if we will get into our predictions right later, but even if whatever we feel like is the outlook for the Jacksonville Jaguars isn't the playoffs, it still feels refreshing you kind of talked about this last week with Dillon it still feels refreshing in a sense that we're not in that mindset of well, it doesn't matter what we did in the offseason, it doesn't matter what we did in free agency to draft. We're doomed because Trent Baalke's still here. There is some sense of optimism, whatever that is, whether that's again us believing we'll go to the postseason or not, which you all will find out in just a bit but yeah, man, like, I am glad, like we do have something to look forward to, whatever that is, and we have a breath of fresh air in here and we just have a organization that seems to have like at least the pieces of a functioning organization in place.
Speaker 2:You got Tony Bocelli here making sure we don't go to the mistakes of the past. You have Liam Cohen, who they made a nice article on on the New York Times, by the way of like how he's always like a step ahead of defensive coordinators. That's kind of refreshing, like since when have we ever heard of an offensive mind on the Jacksonville Jaguars played at advance right, um and Gladstone. He's a breath of fresh air too. You know, some people might think he's a little weird, but he's a breath of fresh air too, man. So yeah, man, I am excited about what the season holds for us here in 2025 for the Touchdown Jadwars podcast.
Speaker 1:No, no, J Jimmy Gladstone. He's not weird, he's a sicko. Remember, we established that he's a sicko.
Speaker 2:Well, look, man, he's not the only one. We've been doing this podcast for how many years?
Speaker 1:Different iterations.
Speaker 2:We're sickos too. We keep coming back for some reason.
Speaker 1:So he's right there with us. You have to be in order to support this football team. So, yeah, this is our annual predictions episode. Historically hasn't gone that well for me, but we'll see what happens this year. I did not get a chance to go back last year and look at what our hot takes were heading into 2024, but I'll try and bring it up here as we get through this conversation. Maybe I can pull up like the transcript as we go through this episode.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, there is a, like you said, a renewed optimism here in Jacksonville and a belief that we are at least heading in the right direction. And you know what? Our head coach and general manager are going to Disney World with their families together. Like when did Doug Peterson and Trent Baalke ever even go to like I don't know Renna's Pizza together? Probably never. Like they didn't do anything together. And now we got these families going on trips. You got Trevor going on a vacation with Baker Mayfield. I hope that's like. I hope he's like having like a good you know, maybe a joke with him. Like, hey, I stole your defensive coordinator. You know something along those lines. Like, hey, I stole your defensive coordinator. You know something along those lines, but we'll yeah, we have plenty to talk about here this evening, as we will talk about not only week one, but also some bold predictions and record prediction. Go ahead, jay.
Speaker 2:So it was funny. You mentioned Baker too, like he's literally one of the only people from the Brown excuse me, not Brown the Bucs organization at fan base that's not mad at Liam Cohen, like literally, for coming to Jacksonville. He was like I think he's the only.
Speaker 1:He was so happy for him. He like joked about it, Like.
Speaker 2:I just don't understand. So, and you know yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also you know Baker Mayfield like, even though he is a Sooner, he is a Sooner, he's a guy that's easy to root for too. So you know, I think the Bucs are kind of a slept on team in the NFC. But we're not going to be talking too much about the NFC today. We're going to be talking about, of course, the Jacksonville Jaguars and how we think the season is going to go. But, jay, we would be remiss if we didn't open up the conversation with just talking about week one and how we feel going into this thing.
Speaker 1:Of course the Carolina Panthers are coming into town. There's been a lot of chatter over on Twitter between the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars perspective fan bases. The Panthers. We've been keeping up with them. A couple of pretty key players are going to be missing for them on the offensive side Ikea Kwanu, and you know they just shipped off Adam Thielen. They did bring in Hunter Renfro, but you know there are definitely going to be some concerns in terms of maybe protecting Bryce Young. He certainly seemed to be a little bit of a reclamation project toward the second half of the year. A feel good story. He's an easy guy to root for when it comes to Bryce, young Seems like a good kid, does a lot for the community, but he may be in for a rough time here this weekend. At least we think so, jay. So what's your early read on this matchup here in week one? And ultimately, who do you see coming out victorious and starting off their season on the right foot at 1-0?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean, you know, we are the Jaguars and we can jag this up, you know. So there's that. But on the flip side, they are the Carolina Panthers and the same could be said about them as well. Okay, so there's that. But I think, one thing to really monitor, heading into this game first and foremost, the situation with Iki Ikuonu. Uh, so I think he had like appendicitis or something like that and uh, he didn't practice. So we, we've talked about Iki Ikuonu on this actual podcast, because it was one point in time where we wanted to draft him right, you know, in mock draft episodes and stuff, but his career hasn't gone as we thought it would go right. And, um, I think that didn't. We take trayvon that year, phil, if I'm not mistaken, I believe so yeah so we, we definitely made the right decision there.
Speaker 2:So, um, and ironically, you know, uh, trayvon, um, you know that might be somebody that he would be going against if Icky was able to suit up, but you know, all of that said, though, with his potential absence, I think that speaks volumes about what they could be in store for with the pass rush. That's a little scary, putting a backup lineman against the likes of Josh Allen and Trayvon Walker. So that gives me optimism. That situation alone, and I mean even like, if you like, want to think of this from the worst case scenario for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The crazy thing about it is, phil, we came to a shocking discovery this year, right With and me, and you already knew how good our special teams were, because we've advocated for the special teams here, but I think, like there's a newfound discovery that our kicker can, if you just get them to the 50, we could just kick field goals all day, like now typically against. If you're playing the likes of the Kansas City Chiefs, that's not going to get it done, right, but we're not playing the Kansas City Chiefs. So even if our offense is sputtering and we just have to resort to field goals all day. I still like our chances at that point because at that point we need what you know, one touchdown, maybe two touchdowns, whatever the case may be. So even if you're looking at it from the worst case scenario, where the offense is struggling, I still think we could keep them within reach. I don't think they'll ever like get away from us in terms of the score from that regard. And, like I said, man, I like our chances. We'll see how the status on Icky he didn't practice today but we'll see if he, you know, practices tomorrow and Friday. But right now, man, I like our chances.
Speaker 2:In terms of Bryce Young, yeah, I know he had a little resurgence last year, but their preseason wasn't all that impressive.
Speaker 2:Like I don't like and we would know about this field too If, if I am a fan of a team, I don't like my team going into the regular season with a Uneventful preseason right or a preseason where you know that left some doubt in our mind. We've gone through plenty of regular seasons where in the preseason it pretty much told us what we were going to go through in the regular season, where we had a slow preseason, had a slow regular season start as well. So I think that's also a sign of you know what the Panthers could be up for as well is that their preseason in terms of looking at the starters wasn't all that great. So, yeah, man, I think we get the W here and I think we start the season one, and, oh, you know, that'll give us especially Dilla a lot to to go to Twitter and just go off on a few panthers fans about. But, um, yeah, I can't wait to uh see the guys hit the field and see if all the work that we put in pays off.
Speaker 1:Um, in week one yeah, I'm also predicting a jaguar victory here as well. And, granted, you know I've talked about this before. One of the things that I have just learned doing this podcast with you over the years is, obviously, we don't have time to catch up with all 32 NFL teams. You know. We just don't have that, and that's why we usually like to bring in a guest and get an idea of what are the vibes like. What are you know? What are people feeling in terms of the? You know this team? How are things going? Who are some players that we've never heard of? That we need to be on the lookout for. So but yeah, like you said, you know they they're coming out of the preseason really, you know, not making too much noise. Obviously, all of the focus on young quarterbacks has been shifted over to Caleb Williams and Jaden Daniels, and and and guys like that, and, of course you know last year's rookie class, and and guys like that, and, of course, last year's rookie class and then this year's upcoming class. So, bryce Young, and maybe that's a good thing for him. No one's necessarily thinking too much. I can tell you, chris Canty from ESPN thinks the Panthers are going to win the division, so I'm going to leave that alone. But yes, they have a lot of interesting takes over there on that morning show. But yeah, I also see Jacksonville coming out on top here and I don't necessarily think it's going to be a blowout, but I also don't think it's going to be necessarily too stressful. Hopefully something around the lines of like a 27 to 17, 27 to you know, 16, something like that. And you know, I think Liam Cohen is probably very excited to see the Carolina Panthers in week one, based off of his history with them. So, yeah, you definitely want to come out and show that your offense, specifically in Trevor, and those guys get going.
Speaker 1:You know Travis Hunter. What does he do? I think we're going to get a good read on, like how they want to use Travis Hunter, based on what type of matchup they can exploit with him, because right now what he's listed as a wide receiver, starting wide receiver on the depth chart, and then I think what like DB2 on the defensive side, something along those lines. So I think you'll get a really good sense of how they want to use him, because next week you got Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins, so like I would expect to see more of him on the defensive side in week two. I think that's how they're going to to kind of like stray a little bit away from the game.
Speaker 1:But people are kind of wondering how this is going to work, and I think that's how it's going to work, depending on what matchup they want to exploit. So, of course, put him on defense next week when you have two of the best wide receivers in the NFL, and then another week when you know maybe the secondary is a little bit weaker, you play him more on offense and sparingly on defense, and vice versa throughout the entire year. So there's going to be a lot of people excited about this matchup and a lot of people obviously with their eyes on Travis Hunter and Jacksonville and seeing how they utilize him. But I do expect them to win yeah, I agree about the um.
Speaker 2:His usage is gonna depend on matchups and you know something to consider here with travis and how he'll be used um and um. This might be, this might help people with fantasy advice. So, uh, sleeper or draft or FanDuel if you want to sponsor us by all means, but yeah, like, keep in mind it's to fill with him. What also could dictate where he's going to play? The health of Tyson Campbell. Right, Tyson Campbell hasn't had the healthiest career and he's very high on our depth chart. Healthiest career and he's very high on our depth chart. That doesn't bode well for the Jacksonville Jaguars, who already have secondary questions to begin with with Tyson Campbell on the field. So, that being said, if he's not healthy you know those games that he's not healthy, expect to see a lot of Travis Hunter. I would think, as the you know, number, as you said, technically number three, cornerback on the depth chart, but second with the second wave. So I would, you know, that's something to monitor here. It's like, how healthy is Tyson Campbell throughout the season? When it comes to that question about how Travis Hunter will be utilized, let him tell it, though he wants to play a hundred percent of the snaps on both sides of the ball and I know it's going to be moments where Liam has to and Liam has already had to do it. He had to do it in the preseason, actually in the first game. He's going to have to tell Travis hey, hey, dial it back.
Speaker 2:Okay, Like you just came off the field, Go get you a little bit of Gatorade. My guy, you know we got it. You know Tyson got it. Jordan Lewis can handle it. You know, just save that energy for the offensive side, We'll get you on defense eventually. But yeah, that's going to be an interesting dynamic to watch Because it's never been done before. Really, when you look at it. And the Jaguars don't really have a blueprint, aside from Deion Sanders and how Deion Sanders used him at Colorado. Deion Sanders and how Deion Sanders used him at.
Speaker 1:Colorado. Yeah, they're going to have to, I think, temper Travis's expectations, especially because we want him to be here for a decade. Right, you want him to be a star, and you know I but but very excited to see how he is utilized here in the first game. I will also say, to play devil's advocate, the Jaguars have a tendency to make subpar receiving groups and quarterbacks look very good. Hopefully we are past that here in our in this new age of Jaguar football. But, yeah, also day for to for the segment a little bit later when we do bowl predictions. I do have last year's up and I feel pretty good, so we'll we'll talk about that here in just a moment. But we are going to talk about our regular season schedule predictions. We're not going to go game by game. Well, in previous years we've gone like four games, four games, four games and then five games or whatever to switch it up. We're trying to streamline the episode a little bit. So I will just go over the entire schedule with you guys right now, from week one to 18. Week one, of course, carolina. Week two at Cincinnati. Week three versus Houston. Week four at San Francisco. Week five Monday Night Football here against Kansas City. Week six at home against Seattle. Week seven in London I'm sorry at Wembley against the Rams. Then their bye week. Week 9 at Las Vegas. Week 10 at Houston. Week 11 here against the Chargers. Week 12 at Arizona. Week 13 at Tennessee. Week 14 here against Indy that's a win. Week 15 at home against the Jets. Week 16 out at Mile High versus Denver at Indy in week 17. And then closing it out here at home against the Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 1:So, jay, we kind of were talking about this before we got started, and the way that I'm coming into the season is like whenever I get optimistic about this team, they always let me down. So I thought about going a little bit on the lower side and then I started looking at the games that I are counting, the games I really think that they are going to lose, and I really only came up with well, the number was a lot lower than I thought it was going to be. I'll put it that way. So kind of talk through your thought process as we get to our uh, our uh record predictions, because you've already kind of put like a soft prediction out there over on our TikTok. So how are you feeling here today Again, a couple of days from the season starting. Are you going to stay where you were? Are you going to go a little bit higher or lower?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I will stick with the 10 wins that I predicted in the TikTok video and the reason I came to that conclusion me and you were talking beforehand. Right, and it may not even more so be optimism for the Jaguars. But again, history, me and you talk about this I always stick to history in football. You know, if you end out, go to history, what does history say? What does you know? And then you know, when it comes to the stuff on the field, what does the film say? You know in terms of the stuff on the film, but history and I went back and looked at some of the things in history and one thing that keeps standing out is the fact that when a lot of analysts make these predictions of playoff teams, they always miss one or two or many in some cases, as you kind of talked about a little bit beforehand here. And I say, okay, well, that's bound to happen, because it happens in most years than not.
Speaker 2:What team makes the most sense to making it into the playoffs? That people aren't predicting to make it into the playoffs this year? And when you just kind of look around the afc, honestly the jaguars make the most sense, right? The other one that makes a little bit of sense because they got raids now, is the Patriots. So that's the other one that you know I kept getting stuck on and when, when I kind of came to that realization, I was like, well, maybe I shouldn't shave a game off of my 10 win prediction that I had, you know, because that's where I was going to shave one off of that 10 and just go with nine, which still, by the way, you know, I've seen predictions where nine wins could get it here in the AFC South. You know I'm not saying that's going to be the case and that's, you know, going to happen, but it could. But I digress from my point.
Speaker 2:It just feels like we make the most sense of being the team that people are missing in terms of these playoff predictions over some of the other teams that you would want to put in that boat that missed the playoffs last year. So that's what really made me kind of stick with my guns here of a 10 win season.
Speaker 1:Before I get to mine. This is also how we looked at it before we got started is, you know, there are always a few new playoff teams in both conferences every year. So the teams that we were here, the seven teams that made the playoffs last year, of course Kansas City, buffalo, baltimore, houston, the Chargers, the Steeler, pittsburgh and then Denver. So who there do we think could be out? I think Pittsburgh's out. I don't trust Aaron Rodgers whatsoever and I think that this is going to be a kind of a year where it's like a last last dance kind of thing with Mike Tomlin I think he's going to be coaching somewhere else next year, which is crazy to say and then probably Houston. So again, I'm I'm not one of those guys. I do think that CJ Stroud regressed last year, but they still have won a playoff game two years in a row and that's not easy to do. I'm not going to throw away the fact that they've won two playoff games in two years.
Speaker 1:And their defense is elite and their defense is excellent. They still have a good coaching staff, even though they got a. You know well, yeah, they still got a jackass over on defense over there in Houston, but you know that's neither here nor there. So do you remove Houston, you remove Pittsburgh. Here are the teams that almost made the playoffs last year Jay, cincinnati, indianapolis and Miami 9-8 for Cincy, 8-9 for Indy, 8-9 for Miami, a 9-8 for that Bengals team.
Speaker 1:By the way, you may have been able. If you gave Joe Burrow the MVP last year, I wouldn't have been like One. He was my MVP prediction last year, but also I wouldn't have been like super mad about it, even though they missed the playoffs. So 9-8, 10 and seven gets you in contention for even a wildcard spot. So I also I went with nine and eight. I want one less win than you did, but, like you said, that could win the division or even get them into the playoffs.
Speaker 1:With the way things look and there's always when you look at the schedule, there's always a game that they should have won, that they lost and they should have lost that they won. So that's always going to happen. So the teams that I like, I said the way that I look to this, who are the teams that I think they're for sure, or at least have the highest likelihood of losing to? I think they lose to Cincinnati. I think they split with Houston. I think they lose to San Francisco in San Francisco, because they just don't play well out there.
Speaker 1:Lose Monday night to Kansas City. I think they lose to the Rams at Wembley. I think they lose to the Chargers I figured I wasn't keeping count again, but I think that's like five or six and then lose to Denver in Denver. And then you look at another split between Indy. I think they can. I don't ever want to say they're going to sweep the Titans just because it's the Titans and even when they're supposed to beat them they don't. So like again, that's like 7-8 losses. So I feel good about 9-8, with the ability with not being super surprised if they do win 10 or maybe even 11 games. But also, if you told me they're going to be 7 and 10, that wouldn't shock me either yeah, I was about to ask that.
Speaker 2:So, phil, if they win like seven or more, so eight games, how would you feel about the season then? I I wouldn't you know I'll be mad because I'm predicting them to go to the playoffs, but I wouldn't be like terribly disappointed.
Speaker 1:That's certainly something to build on for a first year head coaching, first year gm and first year um evp if they go seven and ten and listen, there's no such thing as a uh, you know a loss is a loss, you know there's not really anything to take away from that. But if you play kansas city and the rams and the chargers really tough, you know what do they lose 10, one score games last year. Uh, go to denver and be and play really really well, you know. And then that Rams game is one of those games that they can win, even though the Rams, I think, are better because it's in London. So that's easily.
Speaker 1:That's one of not easily. That's one of those games where they're like oh, we've done this, you know, they go out there and they, they, you know, overperform. So that's one of those games that can flip flop and then you lose to like the Jets, who I don't think they have any business losing to, you know, in December, but who knows what that team's going to look like over them. So I wouldn't be upset with seven, I think anything less than seven, then I'm a little concerned. If it's less than seven and we don't see any progression, and maybe Travis Hunter and BTJ and those guys are kind of regressing or not figuring it out, then I'm a little concerned. So obviously there's a lot of optics that go with that, but I wouldn't be terribly upset with seven wins.
Speaker 2:Right, right, and something else that you mentioned. That kind of plays into this I think for you as well, but certainly for me, is I pulled it up too I was looking at it and Bill Barnwell, who typically he's with ESPN he doesn't really give the Jaguars a chance in a lot of his work, but he does a lot of analytics right With with ESPN and for ESPN. He's a columnist there and he uses a lot of like the football power index and all of these analytics that he likes to use that play into his predictions and his articles. And you know he brought it up that the Jaguars went three and ten in one score games and a key to this is, well, how do you win a lot of one score games and also three and ten with them going? He also mentioned that they, like in his analytics, they felt like the most, like one of the least lucky teams in terms of those situations, so they weren't very lucky either. They would have some unfortunate luck in these games. That would just decide those, you know, one possession games or, yeah, one score games or whatever the case may be. But how do you win a lot of three and ten games that you were close to winning and you know that you were just on the cusp of winning. Well, you win that with a run game and, that being said, you I know it was the preseason, but I like what I see out of this run game. I like the fact that you know it seems that Liam Cohen has something. Don't know exactly what it is and what exactly call it, and I don't know if it's the scheme or whatever the case may be, but he has that ability to, when there's an issue, to have the Jaguars overcome it just by the simple aspect of more repetition and practice and what have you?
Speaker 2:And that didn't seem to be the case last year. No matter how much repetition we had in situations, the offensive line still look bad and remain bad. Keep in mind, we have some of those same offensive linemen from the Doug Peterson era who look way better than they did last year, and I'm talking about Walker Little. I'm talking about Ezra Cleveland. You know like we were thinking, like Millum was going to like overtake Cleveland Now, granted, millum is on, he's injured right now, but Ezra Cleveland, we didn't hear a peep out of him, which is a good thing in the preseason. We didn't hear a peep out of Walker Little, which is a good thing.
Speaker 2:Right, the talk about this team coming out of the offseason was hey, they kept Trevor clean and they ran the ball well. The offseason was hey, they kept Trevor clean and they ran the ball well. Those are the things that help you win those. You know that record of three and ten in games that were won by, you know, or lost by one score or possession or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 2:That's exactly how you combat that and win those games is with a run game and protecting Trevor Lawrence, and it seems like they were well aware of that, like they really put emphasis on fixing that, and I think that is what gets this team over the hump field in terms of that nine to ten win bracket that we're putting them in. I think that's going to be the key to getting them to those nine to ten wins, especially late in the season, because, like late in the season, they can rattle off a lot of wins, because that's the weak part of the season. Right, the hardest thing they play late in the season is the broncos, so they can catch fire mid-season you know that around that rams game that you mentioned, or after that rams game, catch fire and just rattle off a few and that can get them. That stretch could get them to nine to 10 wins, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I didn't even think of it that way because, like you said, after the bye week, you know you go to Las Vegas, which going out West, you never know. Then you have at Houston, then the Chargers, cardinals, titans, then you play the Titans and the Colts. You know four times between those two teams. So, yeah, that is a really, really good point, like you said, going to mile high, and I think Denver is going to be really good. I'm not like the biggest Bo Nix believer, but I am a Sean Payton and Denver Broncos defense believer. No-transcript game difference in terms of 2024 combined opponent record between those two teams. So it's not that big of a gap, even though it's a six um slot difference. But yeah, uh. But, jay, let's get into the bold predictions. Did you have anything else you want to touch on as far as the schedule before we move on?
Speaker 2:no, I mean you. You pretty much touched on it, man okay.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm about to unfortunately make you look real bad here, because I do have 2024's bold predictions. Do you remember yours from last year?
Speaker 2:no, I tried to look it up in the transcripts, but it was probably terrible, bro, it was probably terrible.
Speaker 1:I think my last three was worse. It's pretty bad.
Speaker 2:It can't be worse than the one before that. I think the one before that was pretty bad, but go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yours was that Andre Sisco will lead the league in interceptions.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, I did say that, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:You know how, with six or seven? Do you know how many he had?
Speaker 2:one what yeah he had one.
Speaker 1:Listen, I was on that cisco hype train as well. You know that I was, and I have an andre cisco jersey hanging in the closet over there amongst some of my other poor purchases. But listen, man, I wasn't against you on that one. So, yeah, that was Jay's last year. Mine again, I feel very good about myself, jay, when you edit this, if you want to put in a round of applause, you certainly can, no pressure. Mine was that Brian Thomas Jr will lead rookie receivers in touchdowns. Nice, guess who led the lead rookie receivers in touchdowns last year? One, brian Thomas Jr. I said let's see, we're talking this is what I said. We're talking anywhere between 10 to 12 touchdowns. He could be on the top of that list when it comes to this rookie class and all those guys there. I'd take any day of the week because I'm uh, contemplating getting your brian thomas jersey and if he gets us 10 touchdowns, my purchase will be very valid.
Speaker 2:So I still need to get that jersey, but yeah, so that was. Let me ask you this, phil last year, yeah, how did you sense it? Was it conversations we had, or it was preseason?
Speaker 1:remember he was lighting it up in the preseason. He had those really good games in the preseason. I was like, okay, we might have one here. We also were thinking pretty highly of the Gabe Davis signing at the time, so we thought that would help him a bit.
Speaker 2:Who's returning to the Bills, by the way?
Speaker 1:Maybe that's what he needed, man, we'll see. Shout out to Gabe Davis. So I feel pretty good, as we are years and years removed from the Josh Oliver take, I feel pretty good about that one. But, jay, I'll go first for my bold prediction this year and I'm not going to go anything too spicy, I just want to go something fun.
Speaker 1:And when we're talking about our guy Travis Hunter, I don't know that he'll win the award on either side, but I do think that travis hunter will finish in the top five voting of rookie of the year on both sides of the football.
Speaker 1:I think when we're talking about the way jimmy gladstone talks about him and they talk about how they want to use him, I think you know he doesn't have to have a ton of interceptions to win defensive rookie of the year. If he's out there making an impact each and every single week and then if he catches six, seven touchdowns, I mean, if he's doing it on both sides of the football, you got to consider him for the award on both sides. If he is putting up numbers again, I don't know how much of a hot take that is. I know a lot of people have lofty expectations, but the national media, especially former players, don't think he can do this at all. So I'm betting on Travis Hunter, and I'm betting that, when it comes down to it, he will at least be in the conversation for Rookie of the Year, on both the offensive and defensive side. What do you think?
Speaker 2:And current players don't either. You know, we've heard Nook Hawkins and all of these people say it like aside from his teammates, but no, yeah, no, that's. I don't even know if it's like Super Bowl, but yeah, I could see that happening. And you know, actually, now that you mention it, I could see Travis Hunter, because this is something that me and Jamal talked about. I could see Travis Hunter being a, like a pro bowler this year on, like either one side or both sides of the ball because of popularity, like it is a popularity contest. Make no mistake about it. He is the most popular Jets player on the roster, but more so.
Speaker 2:Getting back to, yeah, your prediction, yeah, no, I could, I could see that. I like to think that, um and this is not my bold prediction, but I like to think that he's at least capable of winning rookie of the year on one side of the ball at the least. So I'm more a little bit like higher on where he might end up, but um, which side do you think would be more likely if he were to win?
Speaker 2:Again, it depends, man, Like if Tyson Campbell stays healthy on the receiving side, if Tyson Campbell don't stay healthy, then on the defensive side.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm trying to think who are the best receivers he's going to go up against, of course, the duo in Cincinnati. Is Tank Dell back for Houston, or is he still out? I haven't been, he's out for a year he's still out.
Speaker 2:Okay, he's gonna oh, that's what happened at the end of the year, didn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah?
Speaker 2:that injury.
Speaker 1:San Francisco, iuke will probably still be out. Kansas City, obviously like that. It doesn't really matter who lines up at receiver. Uh, the Seahawks have a pretty decent receiving group. Of course. You have the Rams Raiders. You have Brock Bowers, but I don't think he'll be lined up against Bowers. The Chargers, marvin Harrison Jr with the Cardinals, tennessee. Well, you have Ridley Indy. They have a couple of guys, the Jets, garrett Wilson, denver. There are definitely some top-tier receivers on this list list, but he's not facing a ton of them. So, um, you know well, we'll see. But yeah, like you said, it does depend on. I think a lot of this rides on the health of Tyson Campbell.
Speaker 2:It's a good point yeah, yeah, I agree, man. Um, hopefully Tyson stays healthy and he could just focus on um offense more so than defense. He's still going to see time on both sides, but if he can really just hone in on the offensive side of the ball, I think that'll really help him in regards to the votes, because wide receiver is a glorified, more popular position anyway and I feel like anything he does on that side will be kind of heightened. Any positive highlights he make will be heightened more than anything he does on the defensive side. So we'll see and time will tell, man, but I'm excited, you know, I'm really happy to see like and excited to see what the future holds for him and shout-outs to him and Trevor in the Adidas commercial man, yeah, to see two.
Speaker 1:Jacksonville Jaguars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, two new. Well, Trevor's been a husband for two years now.
Speaker 1:Newer dads, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so dope, it's so dope man. But I guess I'll get into my take.
Speaker 1:I guess there's only nowhere to go but up for years, jay.
Speaker 2:So there you go, there you go and actually what you said, you know um about travis hunter kind of ties into mine.
Speaker 2:It's not a travis hunter prediction but it does tie into this um and I think if things go like me, you think they're going, based on the predictions, I think Liam Cohen will be and I know it's hard to do as a Jaguars coach, but I think he'll be coach of the year and the reason is because there's so much talk about Trevor Lawrence is a bus and if he can rejuvenate Trevor Lawrence like he's literally the punching bag of the league, if Liam Cohen can rejuvenate the punching bag of the league in Trevor Lawrence, that will help his case a lot. Because keep in mind, phil, one thing about the feeling on Trevor Lawrence it's not just within the fans, right, it's not a fan thing. I think, like other executives and coaches, think trevor lawrence isn't good too, and you could tell by these articles that are written where they talk to other executives that you know they'll do. An anonymous executive or anonymous coach and the things that are said about trevor lawrence makes me feel like the league. You know coaches and general managers and assistant general managers.
Speaker 1:They've moved on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are. So if Liam can rejuvenate him and also, going back to what I was saying, bringing it back home here, something that you touched on Travis Hunter and his usage and his usage again, we're going into unprecedented territory here, something we haven't seen in the league ever, with how much they want to use Travis Hunter. So, essentially, liam Cohen has been given the keys of doing something that's never been done before with playing Travis Hunter, and this is them saying this. They want at least you, it feels like it at least 70% on both sides of the ball. If he can do it or not, time will tell on that. But for Liam Cohen to be given the keys and just be given the ability to guide Travis Hunter through that, I think that'll help his case to be the coach of the year as well, because again, it's something that has never been done.
Speaker 2:The only thing Liam Cohen has to go off of again like is he can't go, and you know how I was just talking about, right, you always go back to history, right? Well, you can't go back in a vault and find film of somebody who's been used as much as they want to use Travis Hunter on both the offensive side and the defensive side of the ball. Yeah, people say like prime time, he wouldn't use that much on the offensive side like they want to use. Like you know, prime was seeing like 10 offensive snaps Right and the rest were defensive snaps. It wasn't nothing too crazy, the rest were defensive snaps. It wasn't nothing too crazy. It was just that prime was so good with the few offensive snaps you gave him that it looked like he was just like inhuman and he is to this day Hall of Famer man. You're like one of the greatest to ever do it. But there is no film vault that Liam Cohen can go into and figure out how to use Travis Hunter and I think like if they're successful with their plan, at least for this year, all he has to do is be successful with them this year and that plan.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter what the rest of Travis Hunter's career looks like the Jacksonville with the Jacksonville Jaguars, because we hope he has a long career with us.
Speaker 2:But in the future if they want to dial back on his offensive snaps or defensive snaps, they can, but this year if they want to use back on his offensive snaps or defensive snaps, they can, but this year if they want to use him like they say they're going to use him and they're successful and the Jacksonville Jaguars get either that nine wins that you said or the 10 wins that I said they will get, then Liam Cohen needs to be the coach of the year, and also to this too, man man again, like all he has to feel really to go back on in history. The only person that can help him with this really is Deion Sanders and how they used him at Colorado. Aside from that, nobody can help Liam Cohen on this matter of how they will use Travis Hunter. But I think, if all goes well, you got to get that man offensive player. Excuse me, you got to get that man coach of the year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, like you mentioned that right out of the gate, like it's difficult for a Jaguar coach to win that award. But if they say, if they really overachieve, and it's like 11 and 6, 12 and 5, I can see it because I think that's what, if Mike Vrabel turns this thing around, you don't think they're going to be so eager to give this back to New England, new England's back baby. Look at Bill Parcells getting dragged through the mud in North Carolina and Mike Vrabel's got them. He's right in the ship. Belichick what did I say? Parcells? Oh, parcells. Yes, I'm looking at this former New England Patriots coaching tree. Yeah, belichick is down there with his sorority girlfriend getting destroyed on Monday Night Football. They'll be eager to give it back to Mike Vrabel, who obviously has done it and been very successful.
Speaker 1:Trying to think of some of these other coaches that wouldn't be maybe as obvious, like Sean Payton. They'd be really eager to give it back to Sean Payton if Denver wins the division. I don't even think it would take that much, you know. So I could see somebody like that. But if he gets them to 10 wins, he should definitely be in the conversation for sure, because all the rest of the coaches like as far as well. I'm only looking at AFC right now. Obviously it could be somebody in the NFC too. You gotta feel like who's the coach down in Tampa again?
Speaker 2:Bowles.
Speaker 1:Todd Bowles.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like he is. You gotta feel like maybe he's overdue for one If Tampa continues to do well and maybe he puts up like 12 wins, something like that. I don't know, but I definitely think he could be in the in the running, especially if they win, like you said, 10 or 11 games. I think if they overachieve, he for sure should be in the top three conversation. But, um, the guy that I would bet on would be rabel if they, if they turn that thing around. But I don't hate it. It's a lot. Um, you're covered a lot better than the andre cisco one.
Speaker 2:So that's a good call yeah, yeah, man, I don't know. Man andre came out there, bro, and had I been reflecting on the um the prediction I would have seen early, like, oh man, I'm in some trouble here, man because man he looks sluggish but, to be fair, that whole defense was overweight.
Speaker 1:And I don't mean when I say overweight.
Speaker 2:They put on too much muscle is what I mean by the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they didn't focus on the right things. Is there another guy before we get to our Super Bowl predictions? Right things, yeah, who is there another guy before we get to our Superbowl predictions and wrap the episode up? Is there another guy who was in that conversation of players that had that crazy drop off from, like their opening years and then you know, then they were no longer with the team. All of a sudden, like LaVisca Chanel comes to mind, like, thinking about him, got off to a great start.
Speaker 1:Everybody thought he was going to be this incredible weapon for the jaguars for years. Those are the. That's one of the more recent examples that I can think of. But, like again, I thought cisco was going to be a pro bowl player for years, like one of the best safeties in the league. Um, who was at? Our old colleague over, I believe, joel de leon, he, he loved andre cisco. So, you know, maybe we, maybe we'll see. If you know, if you, I don't. Well, he didn't put up, he was getting cooked in the preseason, so I don't know how he's going to do with the Jets. I don't. I don't know that he's going to follow the Quincy Williams tree and have a reclamation in New York. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 2:But I mean, hey, I guess it's not a bad thing to have.
Speaker 1:I was just about to say that if anybody can save you, man, it's, it's ag man, if anybody can. We haven't heard anything about the jets the entire offseason. That's how tight he's. He's running that ship. He's like everyone shut the hell up and come to work. That's what eric is doing over there in in new york. So I don't think they're going to be good this year, but I think they're going to be good in the coming years over there and, uh, with the jets.
Speaker 1:So, um, but, jay, to wrap up our episode, we want to talk about our super bowl picks. Do you remember who yours last year was? I remember mine being the chiefs and the lions, and I honestly that probably there's a possibility. I wouldn't have been wrong if the Lions weren't just decimated injury wise in 2024. I'm trying to remember what yours was. Was it bills? Did you put the bills in last year too, or did you put in the bills last year? I'm trying to remember. I'll see if I can find the graphic that I put up. Um, but what are you feeling as far as early on here, you know our Super Bowl picks. Obviously, a million things can change. But what are you feeling here in September when are you going to go?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm going to go with. If I went with the Bills last year, I'm going with the Bills again this year. I just think, like this is and I think it's more so pete prisco kind of put this into like my thought process man, um, you know he, he has the bills also um, going to the like play like the super bowl and winning it, if I'm not mistaken. And you know we, we respect the heck out of pete prisco and his predictions. Man and I was already leaning to the Bills again, but when Pete said I was like you know what, I'm going to follow the OG on this, so I follow Pete on this one. I love their team all around. Man, love Sean McDermott, you know, great coach. By the way, josh Allen has just continued to prove me wrong. Like now, I have been on Josh Allen in terms of being a good player for the last three years, but like just in the beginning of his career, I didn't, I never would imagine he become what he has become to this day. Like he is the biggest prospect in terms of when you look at him in college and what you thought he could have been coming out of college until you know now he went in the total opposite direction. Like he's really proved me wrong. He's a great quarterback and that's what you need, man, that's what you need to get through this.
Speaker 2:And then, on the NFC side, I went with the Packers. And the reason I got stuck on the Packers is when I was like researching Anthony Campanile, I just became infatuated with their defense and you know their defense is very underrated. I know like in most eyes they're like top 10, but you know they might be like top four. To be honest with you, you know like that defense could get them a long way. I've always liked Jordan Love, even though he didn't get the opportunities he should have gotten early in his career. Like he didn't become a starter until what like year two or three or whatever the case may be, but he's made good strides year after year after year and he's improving steadily. I like what I see out of him.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I went with them just because, like just that defense really caught my eye when I studied Anthony Campanile and I just kind of stuck with them in terms of, like I already planted that chip in my head when I watched the defense. But then when I thought about it in the like the strides that Jordan Love could make in addition to you know what they have on that side of the ball. I was like you know what? I can see the Packers pulling this off. You know what they have on that side of the ball.
Speaker 2:I was like you know what? I can see the Packers pulling this off and you know, I even think, like they don't. Really the Lions might not be more so in their way like they have been in the past, because the Lions had a lot of overturn right, changing both offensive and defensive coordinators. Now that I'm thinking about it it we just talked about it ag is with the jets and um johnson is with the bears, so yeah, oh, wow, they let him stay in the division too. Uh, so there's that as well.
Speaker 1:Um lions not in their way as much as they used to be, but I'm gonna roll with the packers and bills phil, who you got yeah, I remember, like I know a lot of people think that jordan love regressed last year, but he got injured the first week of the season and I don't think he ever got right. And because they for some reason want to play this game in brazil, which makes no sense, you take away. If a fan base knows about taking away a home game from your audience, it's jacksonville. I just don't understand, like, why they're so set on. I understand wanting to grow the game internationally, but like that's not the way to do it, man, I don't, I don't like it at all. But, um, yeah, I don't hate that. I mean josh allen. I know I know bills fans and the bills in general not popular around here, but I've mentioned him before. I have a lot of friends in buffalo and I really think josh allen is one of the easiest guys to root for. He's a good person. Haley Steinfeld good for him. He's had the best offseason maybe of anybody.
Speaker 1:I really considered if Matthew Stafford was healthy I would very much consider the Rams and actually a shout out to our buddy Maurice Jones-Drew Rams over Bengals is his pick for the Super Bowl. But if you told me that Matthew Stafford was going to be healthy the whole year and maybe, like Aaron Donald, decides to come out of retirement in week nine, then maybe I would go with the Rams, the, the very boring and safe pick that my head wants to say is chiefs eagles, because I really do feel that people are writing off the chiefs too easily. But if they have that offensive line fixed, which was obviously their biggest concern, especially in the super bowl, then who's to say that the, that the ravens or the bills are ever going to get over that hump this year? But I'm going to go with what I want to see and I'll go Ravens-Lions. Actually oh, last year, by the way, jay, last year we both went Lions-Chiefs. You picked the Lions to win it all. I picked Kansas City, but we both picked the Lions and the Chiefs to be in the Super Bowl. But I'm going to go with what my heart wants to see and that is Ravens, lions, love Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 1:The Lions are my first ever NFL fandom, so I still follow and root for them to this day and I would just love to see it, even though, like you said, there's so much turnover but there is so much talent on Detroit and like, come on, you got the NFL. Gods have to reward them for being this franchise that has been in in the gutter longer than Jacksonville has, and a franchise that has the history that it does. I would just love to see the Ravens over Lions. But, jay, come January or February we're going to be gearing up for another Travis Kelsey Taylor, gearing up for another Travis Kelsey Taylor or sorry, travis Swift, patrick Mahomes Super Bowl and we're gonna be like great, we gotta watch this all over again. But I want to see Ravens Lions, so that's what I'll go with yeah, it took my best not to put the Ravens in there.
Speaker 2:it took my the Lions. It was easy to to keep the Lions out because of all the overturn, but the Raves, it took my best because Lamar Jackson is truly the best player in this league and you know he should be a Jacksonville Jaguar. There's that.
Speaker 1:Boy. But who's to say we wouldn't have just ruined him?
Speaker 2:That's true, that's so true, man.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:But you know they're long overdue for one man, um, I think harbaugh, harbaugh is overdue for one and um, you know it's always like that one micro mistake they make in the playoffs that keeps them off mark andrews last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah you know, but I I do feel like lamar has kind of figured it out in the postseason but yeah, like I mean he has that bad interception but I mean playing in buffalo in in the playoffs with that weather, like it's not easy. He threw 41 touchdowns to four interceptions last year, man and. And they still gave the award to josh allen, who was also great. But like, come on, he had a better season than the two years that he won MVP.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, and look, we just had the conversation about the issue with the Lions is the overturn and losing Ben Johnson and losing Aaron Glenn. Well, lamar Jackson is keeping Todd Monken, who has done phenomenal with him. I love Todd Monken Go Dawgs, by the way so we see what Todd Monken can do in college. And look, he's looked even better on the pro level, man. So Todd Monken is still there. He's not going anywhere. I think we even interviewed Todd Monkenfield, by the way, for the job here when we were looking for a coach. But, yeah, man, all of that, said man, like that continued growth with your offensive coordinator, especially one that good you know it's. You know, some people might not put Todd Monken in their top 10, but I definitely would. I got a lot of respect for that guy but, yeah, that continued growth with him and that continued relationship with him and Lamar, you got to think that helps them as well, because that's what I'm saying, that's the thing that's going to maybe hurt the Lions. So, yeah, man, no, I like that idea. And you said the Lions. For the other one, one thing I will say that gives them a chance, right. One thing I will say that gives them a chance.
Speaker 2:Right, brad Holmes is a great GM. He didn't go anywhere and he's probably not going to go anywhere for a long, long time, and that's a lot of why Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn were able to have the success that they were having so long. As you have Holmes there, you know you're still in it, so there's that. And also, too, of know you're still in it, so there is that. And also too, of course, dan Campbell isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Great coach as well. So you know they do have those two pieces still there in place, still continue growth with Jared Goff, even though he has a new offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2:You know we're talking about the team here, who their receivers are mostly returning, except for Tim Patrick, because he traded him to, they traded him to us. But most of their receivers are coming back. I can't remember what the shakeup is on their offensive line I'll have to look into that but a lot of their skill guys are returning, the guys that you know made them a lot of put up a lot of points for them are returning. So look, it's not out of the realm of possibilities, man, it's certainly not. And they get Aiden Hutchinson back, hopefully healthy, you know, hopefully. We'll see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would certainly like to see Detroit and those fans have something to cheer about once again and finally get into the big game. But yeah, folks, there is our 2025 season preview episode. What do you think, how do you guys think, the season is going to pan out for Jacksonville? What do you think the floor is? What do you think the ceiling is? What do you think about our bull takes and what is your bull take and Super Bowl pick for 2025? But, jay, anything else we need to cover before we get out of here. And we got a game to watch here this weekend in Duval County. I know the fans are going to be ready. Shout out to those of you that are going to brave that heat man. I could not do it anymore, but we're only a couple years away from at least a cooler game day experience.
Speaker 2:But, jay, anything else you want to cover before we get out of here for the night no, man, we hit on it all today that I wanted to cover, um, hopefully, I don't want to say I think we'll look back at this episode and be happy happy about what we said, but hopefully we will um, it is the jaguars. But uh, yeah, as I mentioned earlier, man, just glad that we got a new regime to at least give us something to look forward with, regardless of what the record ends up being man. But, yeah, man, I enjoyed this episode, as always.
Speaker 1:Hopefully we'll have many, many more predictions to come and many, many more prediction episodes to come yeah, hey, liam cohen and the jaguars make it so that we don't want to stop podcasting five games into the season this year. That would also very much be appreciated. Don't start off oh and four. And then we're like what are we even doing here? Let's keep the existential dread away from at least until the end of the season. So yeah, folks, thanks so much for listening to this episode of touchdown Jaguars. Make sure you tune in all season long. Head on over to Apple Podcasts, spotify or whatever podcast app that you are using and leave us a five-star review. Click that Linktree link in the show notes to follow us both on social media as well as the podcast, twitter, and make sure to use that promo code Touchdown Jaguars all season long over on SeatGeek. Save yourself some money on your first purchase.
Speaker 1:But, folks, that is my co-host, james Johnson. I am Phil Barrera. You guys have a good time this weekend. Everybody, stay safe. Don't forget to tune in to Touchdown Jaguars for each and every Jaguar touchdown. We'll see you next week. Week one baby Go Jags.
