After Jacksonville's 35-6 domination of the New England Patriots, more people are starting to believe in the Jaguars as true Super Bowl contenders.
The Jacksonville Jaguars came into the 2026 season as possibly the least-hyped 13-win team in NFL history.
Nobody expected the Jaguars to be good last year, let alone that good.
Under new head coach Liam Coen, the team took tremendous strides forward.
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence had a career season and was an MVP finalist. Wide receiver Parker Washington developed into a star and led the team in receiving. Running back Travis Etienne had a terrific bounce-back year, rushing for over 1,100 yards and scoring 13 total touchdowns.
Defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile turned the unit into the best in the NFL against the run. The defense also forced 31 turnovers, the second-most in the league.
Despite the success, plenty of analysts didn’t believe the Jaguars would be true contenders this season and expected them to be a middle-of-the-pack team.
Bill Barnwell of ESPN named Jacksonville as one of his five teams most likely to decline this year and predicted the Jaguars would miss the playoffs entirely.
Through three games this season, Jacksonville has made anyone who doubted them look foolish.
The Jaguars started the season with a dominant 34-10 win over the Cleveland Browns. This past Sunday, Jacksonville annihilated the defending AFC champion New England Patriots 35-6.
In between was a 20-13 road loss to the Denver Broncos, who were the AFC’s top playoff seed a year ago. The loss snapped Jacksonville’s nine-game regular-season winning streak.
However, it was the Jaguars’ response to that loss that sent a message to everybody that they are for real and one of the NFL’s elite teams.
It appears that the message has been received. More and more people are finally starting to believe in these Jaguars.
That includes Jacob Robinson of The Athletic, who compares this year's Jaguars to last year's Seattle Seahawks, who eventually won the Super Bowl.
Says Jaguars Have "NFL's Cleanest Product"
Robinson is impressed with Lawrence, calling him arguably a top-3 QB in the NFL over Jacksonville's last 12 games.
But he believes it is the defense that will be the key to the Jaguars' Super Bowl hopes, while also saying the Jaguars have the "NFL's cleanest product."
Robinson says that he believes in the Jaguars, citing that they are the least-penalized team in the NFL so far and the only team with a top-5 EPA on both offense and defense.
Final Thoughts
The way the Jaguars have started the season, especially how easily and thoroughly they handled the Patriots, makes it very hard for anyone to not believe in them.
They have looked like one of the league's elite teams through three games, and with the other teams in the AFC South struggling, the predictions of the Jaguars not making the playoffs look crazy.
While there are still folks out there who will continue to doubt this team, there are way more people who believe in them now than there were when the season started.
