With the Jacksonville Jaguars kicking off Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season at home against the Carolina Panthers, let’s make some predictions–and do our best to make some bold ones at that.

So after looking into the crystal ball, here is what we came up with. Obviously, we don’t expect all of them to hit, but let’s see how close we can get.

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Jaguars rush for 130 yards as a team

Last season, averaging 130 rushing yards per game would have ranked top 10 in the NFL–so accomplishing this is an impressive feat.

So why can the Jaguars do it? Well, the run game in Liam Coen’s offense is going to be a major point of emphasis. For one, a strong run game keeps the offense out of predictable long down-and-distance situations, but also, in this scheme, the running and passing concepts go hand-in-hand.

In addition to that, Anthony Rizzuti, the managing editor of Panthers Wire, mentioned the front seven as Carolina’s big question mark entering the season. This was a unit in 2024 that allowed the most rushing yards per game with 179.8 per contest.

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Now, the Panthers did make several additions to their defensive front over the offseason and have Derrick Brown back in the mix. However, we’re picking the Jaguars to win this specific matchup.

Jaguars’ defense generates five sacks

The Panthers are most likely going to be without their starting left tackle Ikem Ekwonu in this game. He was listed as doubtful on the injury report. And this was already a Panthers’ offensive line unit that ranked 30th last season in ESPN’s pass-block win rate metric.

A backup tackle against Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker, a revamped interior defensive line unit for the Jaguars, and a more aggressive scheme under Anthony Campanile is going to result in the Jacksonville pass rush causing some disruption.

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Travis Hunter has at least four receptions and a pass breakup

What Hunter’s workload on offense and defense looks like remains to be seen. As of Friday, Liam Coen and the coaching staff were still finalizing those plans.

However, my expectation is that he sees the bulk of his playing time come on offense, where, if the preseason opener is any indication, the Jaguars want to find ways to get the ball in Hunter’s hands quickly on short to intermediate throws. If that remains the case, over the course of the game, he’ll be able to stack some receptions.

Defensively, Hunter may only see playing time during obvious passing situations, which will increase his chances of being able to make a play on the ball. As we saw at Colorado and throughout the summer, Hunter has impressive ball skills, so if a pass comes his direction, I like his chances to make a play.

This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars vs. Panthers: 3 bold predictions for Week 1 game