While the Jaguars aim for a championship, their opponent faces immense pressure to win, creating a unique playoff dynamic.
Every team in the NFL playoffs is under pressure, but the Jacksonville Jaguars may feel less pressure than their first-round opponent, the Buffalo Bills.
Jacksonville is somewhere between "just happy to be there" and "championship or bust."
"Just happy to be here" describes the NFC's Carolina Panthers, who haven't had a winning season since 2017, but netted the NFC South title with a 8-9 record.
Carolina will play a loaded Los Angeles Rams squad, probably lose, and nobody will care.
"Championship or bust" describes the Jaguars' first-round opponent.
The Bills are regulars in the AFC playoffs, having made the postseason in eight of their last nine years, with two AFC Championship appearances included.
Let's compare that to the rest of the AFC bracket.
The Pittsburgh Steelers haven't been to the AFC Championship Game since 2017. The New England Patriots haven't since 2019. The Los Angeles Chargers haven't sniffed an AFC title game since 2008, when they were still in San Diego. The Denver Broncos haven't been earned their way there since 2016. The Jaguars haven't been there since 2018, and the Houston Texans have never been.
Buffalo has been there twice in the 2020s, but nobody else.
That's one reason why the Bills have more pressure on them to win the Super Bowl than any AFC team and probably any team in the NFL.
Buffalo's franchise QB and reigning league MVP Josh Allen will turn 30 in May. The Bills have the NFL's 2025 rushing champion in James Cook, and, perhaps most importantly, the biggest roadblock between Buffalo and the Super Bowl for all of these years, the Kansas City Chiefs, are not in the postseason.
If Buffalo doesn't win the AFC, some-- maybe not many-- will want coach Sean McDermott fired, and there will be people who don't want him fired that will still be critical.
Jacksonville can use all of this to its advantage.
Make no mistake, the Jags aren't the Panthers.
Jacksonville has realistic Super Bowl aspirations, what with being 13-4, having won eight straight, having beat the AFC's No. 1 seed by two touchdowns on the road and, once again, with the Kansas City kingpin not in the picture.
With all of that said, one has to remember that Jacksonville went 4-13 last season.
If the Jags lose to Buffalo, more people will want Liam Coen to be Coach of the Year than will want him fired, and that's a big difference from the situation in western New York.
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