(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Meta Description: Jacksonville Jaguars went from 4-13 to division champs. See the key stats, players, and moments that powered their dramatic 2025 turnaround.
Remember praying for seven wins? Now we’re talking about hosting playoff games at EverBank Stadium. The Jaguars went from funeral vibes after a 4–13 nightmare in 2024 to division champions celebrating a 13–4 season in 2025. This wasn’t some lucky bounce. This was a complete organizational reset that turned the franchise around overnight.
A year ago, Doug Pederson got fired after another lost season. Fans were throwing out “Trevor for Sam Darnold” jokes on social media. The national media had written off Jacksonville as another rebuilding disaster. Then Liam Coen walked through the door, and everything changed.
The Wild Card loss to the Bills stung. It always hurts when the season ends. But Jaguars fans aren’t mourning another wasted year. They’re proud of a team that restored credibility and rebuilt excitement around the franchise. For the first time in years, January football in Jacksonville felt earned.
The betting markets didn’t totally write off the Jaguars at the start of the 2025 season, but they made their skepticism clear. Coming off a dismal four-win campaign, Jacksonville’s Super Bowl odds sat around +9000.
Their win total was set at 7.5, basically lottery ticket territory. They were listed fourth in the AFC South at +300, behind the Texans, Colts, and even the Titans.
The early season did nothing to change those perceptions. The Jaguars started 3-3, looking like the same team that had disappointed fans for years. Trevor Lawrence threw interceptions at an alarming rate. The run defense got gashed. Close games slipped away. Fans started thinking “here we go again” as another mediocre season felt inevitable.
But Coen had other plans. Fans tracking how dramatically the odds shifted as the season progressed can check current futures at the best online sportsbook to see where the Jaguars sit heading into 2026. The turnaround that followed made believers of everyone, and the stats show significant improvement across all personnel.
Before we can even talk player stats, we have to give props to the HC. Thirteen wins marked the third-most ever by a rookie head coach in modern NFL history, placing him alongside Sean Payton and Mike McCarthy.
More importantly, Coen became the first rookie head coach in NFL history to win 12 or more games after taking over a team that had four or fewer wins the previous season.
That achievement speaks to more than just wins and losses. Coen set the tone immediately. Standards were raised. Accountability became public. Underperformance was no longer protected by reputation.
The Jaguars stopped looking disorganized and started looking prepared. Structure replaced chaos. Belief replaced apathy. By season’s end, Coen was being discussed as a Coach of the Year finalist and the architect of Jacksonville’s next era. For a small-market franchise that had endured years of false hope, Coen’s arrival felt like the reset button everyone had been desperate to hit.
The Streak That Changed Everything
For all the eventual success, this run didn’t feel inevitable at the time. Midway through the season, the Jaguars looked like a team heading toward another disappointing finish. Lawrence entered a brutal stretch of turnovers, throwing interceptions that put games out of reach before halftime. The offense sputtered. The defense couldn’t bail them out.
Fans began questioning whether Lawrence was regressing instead of progressing. Even Coen made the rare call to briefly bench his quarterback during a particularly rough game, a moment that could have fractured the locker room and destroyed the season.
Instead, it became the turning point. Over the final eight games, he threw 18 touchdowns and just two interceptions, including the overtime game-winning drive against Kansas City that ignited belief.
Together, these performances transformed Jacksonville into a genuine contender. For fans, this stretch delivered something rare in Jacksonville. Weekly excitement with real stakes attached. It turned skepticism into belief and made the playoffs feel earned rather than accidental.
The numbers tell the story of a team that didn’t just get lucky. Lawrence’s late-season turnaround set the tone, but the whole team played their part.
Defensively, Josh Hines-Allen anchored the transformation with 17 sacks and four forced fumbles. His momentum-shifting strip-sack on Lamar Jackson in a crucial divisional game became the play of the season. Foyesade Oluokun sealed the division with a pick-six in Week 17 that sent EverBank Stadium into pandemonium.
On offense, rookie wideout Brian Thomas Jr. exploded for 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns, setting franchise rookie records. His three-touchdown performance against Miami showcased the kind of playmaking ability the team had lacked for years. Travis Etienne II powered the ground game, averaging nearly five yards per carry and closing out games during the winning streak with physical, punishing runs that wore down defenses.
Together, these performances transformed the Jaguars from a league afterthought into a genuine contender. The stats weren’t empty. They represented a team that had figured out how to win when games were on the line.
The playoff exit to the Bills still hurts. Losing at home in the Wild Card round after everything the team accomplished feels brutal. Lawrence’s interception on the first play of the potential game-tying drive with under a minute left is the kind of moment that haunts you all offseason. However, this loss felt different than the playoff failures that came before. Jaguars fans weren’t mourning another wasted season; they’re proud of a team that exceeded every realistic expectation, and a roster that stayed healthy and fought through adversity. For a small-market fanbase that has endured years of false starts and broken promises, this season felt like the start of something sustainable. The Jaguars are no longer chasing relevance. Next season isn’t about making the playoffs. It’s about winning when you get there. The 2026 outlook is brighter than it’s been in years.