The Jacksonville Jaguars hit a home run when they hired Liam Coen as their head coach before last season.

In his first year in Duval, Coen turned the Jags from a 4-13 squad reeking of irrelevance into a 13-4 powerhouse with a bright future.

Now entering Year 2 with Coen and his excellent pair of coordinators, expectations for the Jaguars are higher than they have been in quite some time. Coen is tasked with ensuring his team is up to the challenge and showing the rest of the league they are not a one-year wonder.

With rookies and quarterbacks reporting to training camp today and the rest of the veterans on Thursday, Coen has shared the message that he has emphasized to the team.

Appearing on The Schrager Hour, Coen relayed what he has expressed to his players as their reward for building upon last season's success.

Respect.

Starts In Their Own Building

Neither Coen nor his players can control what anyone outside the organization thinks about them, which hasn't been what you'd expect for a team that won 13 games just a season ago.

As reported by Paul Bretl of Jaguars Wire, Coen preached that respect is a main theme for the Jaguars and that it starts inside their own building. Respect each other first, and then earn it from everybody else.

"'That's going to be a huge message to our entire team, is the word that you just used, is respect,'" Coen told Schrager. "'If we want respect, we respect each other in this building, we know we have here. Not sure it's always on the outside, which is fine. But if you want respect in this league, you got to go earn it. You got to go take it.'

Coen continued, "'And what is respect? Well, it's consistent winning, putting together a product and an organization and a team that is consistent. It's the truest measure of performance is consistency. And to earn that respect and take that respect as a player, as a coach, from your peers. I mean, that's next to winning a Super Bowl. That's what you want. You want respect from your locker room, your respect from your peers, your family, the people around you, money, fame, all that stuff's great. It comes with it, but we're hunting up respect. And that's something that we have to go earn and take on a day-to-day  basis.'"

He's right. One season of winning isn't enough. Especially for a team like Jacksonville, which hasn't gotten the media attention or prime-time promotion that other teams around the league enjoy. 

To make the rest of the NFL world respect the Jaguars, they must prove that their winning is sustainable. That, for Jacksonville, winning is to be expected, not just a pleasant surprise. 

Coen has begun to change the culture in Jacksonville, and now he must make it so the winning attitude is the new norm. Once that happens, other teams, fans, and the media will have no choice but to respect the Jaguars.

Final Thoughts

It is obvious that many have doubts about the Jaguars being able to build upon the success they had in 2025. 

Most are picking the Houston Texans to overtake the Jags in the AFC South. Others are expecting Jacksonville to be a middle-of-the-pack team this season.

If the wins keep coming, the respect will follow. The Jaguars need another year like they had last year to truly announce themselves to the rest of the NFL. They must not only make the playoffs again, but show they have what it takes to go on a run.

Now that training camp is here, the Jaguars' opportunity to earn everyone's respect is getting closer.

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