National Football League

What's next for Jaguars after season-ending loss to Titans?

Published Jan. 7, 2024 6:52 p.m. ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Jaguars' beatdown last week of the woeful Panthers, the NFL's worst team, served as a reprieve.

That didn't take away from their implosion. How they lost four straight games in December, when a contender is expected to play its best football. How they unraveled from a hopeful for the AFC's No. 1 seed at 8-3 — a relatively simple path to the playoffs — to a team just hoping it could hang on for its division. How their own stumbles created a must-win regular-season finale.

All that has come to bite the Jaguars — with the same errors and miscues and lapses that put them in that predicament in the first place.

"Today's game was sort of our season in a nutshell," coach Doug Pederson said.

The Jaguars were stunned Sunday, falling 28-20 to the Titans to be eliminated from playoff contention, capping the biggest collapse for a team this season. Their 2023 campaign ends as losers in five of their last six games. With the Steelers beating the Ravens on Saturday, the Jags had no path to the postseason without beating Tennessee and clinching a division title.

Those same issues for the Jaguars on Sunday? Start with the turnovers at the wrong place and time.

Like in the third quarter, a drop by tight end Evan Engram was picked off by Terrell Edmunds, giving the Titans the ball at the Jacksonville 36 (Tennessee scored a touchdown seven plays later).

Like the end of the first half, when the Jaguars were in plus territory and had a chance to cut their deficit to four points, quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw too high for wide receiver Zay Jones and he was again picked off, this time by cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting.

We saw the issues of the Jaguars' takeaway-dependent defense exposed, too. We saw the sloppy tackling that defined the second half of the season.

Derrick Henry, playing in what was quite possibly his last game as a Titan, bit them for it. He erupted for 153 yards and a touchdown on 8.1 yards per carry, his best performance of the season.

"We had missed tackles again and some of the same self-inflicted gap integrity rules and things like that," Pederson said. "Until we really dive into the tape, it's hard to fully comment on that."

The Jaguars emerged on the national scene last year with their will to finish. After starting 4-8, they won five straight to get into the playoffs and secure an AFC South title.

This season, they added standout receiver Calvin Ridley to the lineup. They returned the majority of their starters on both sides of the ball. They had momentum and increased familiarity with one another. But they never had the same magic as a year ago.

"I feel like last year, we had a spark," outside linebacker Josh Allen said. "We just followed that and rode that wave. And this year, we were looking for it too much, hoping it was going to come. It never came."

Pederson agreed with Allen's sentiment.

"You can't sit around and wait for a spark," the Jaguars coach added. "You have to be the spark, right? That's either me being it or Josh being it or Trevor being it or something. And that's how a team catches a fire. That's all part of learning how to win. Learning how to do things right."

An offseason of tough questions awaits for the Jaguars.

At least part of Jacksonville's shortcomings can be tied to its nonchalance during this past free agency and the trade deadline. It didn't make significant strides in the areas it needed to in order to take the next step as a contender, most notably in the pass rush to support Allen and Travon Walker. The personnel approach needs to change in 2024.

Tough conversations about the coaching staff will have to be had, too. What is offensive coordinator Press Taylor's future after a disappointing year? Will Pederson take back play-calling duties?

But perhaps nothing will have a bigger microscope than Lawrence's contract situation. He's due for an extension. Lawrence's camp is going to want the big-money deal done, and the Jaguars will have every reason to hesitate; to push back on giving him the record-setting contract that seemed to be a given coming out of last season.

The former No. 1 overall pick played through a shoulder injury on Sunday. But in a got-to-have-it game, he flashed the same inconsistency that he'd shown all year. In addition to the two interceptions (he entered the week tied for an NFL-high 19 turnovers), he missed a wide-open Ridley on a third-and-2 deep shot on the Jaguars' final possession, what appeared to be a walk-in touchdown that would've tied the game with a successful two-point conversion. Then he airmailed his final two passes.

Lawrence is an integral part of Jacksonville's 2023 story.

It's the story of a talented team that could never figure out how to get out of its own way.

Ben Arthur is the AFC South reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.