The Jaguars' season ended in a hard-fought home Wild Card loss to … basically just Josh Allen … but like that one random reporter told head coach Liam Coen afterward: Hold your head up, Duval! This squad looked every bit like a legit top-10 team throughout 2025, and there's plenty of reason to believe they could shine brighter in 2026 and beyond.

• 2025: 13-4 (+138 point differential, preseason win total: 7.5)
• Points per game: 27.9 (6th)
• EPA per pass: +0.11 (10th)
• EPA per rush: -0.07 (19th)
• Points per game against: 19.8 (8th)
• EPA per pass against: -0.07 (4th)
• EPA per rush against: -0.11 (7th)

All good vibes from last season aside: There is the problem of the Jaguars having the seventh-least effective cap space entering 2026, and the Travis Hunter trade leaves them without a pick before No. 56 in the NFL Draft. Jaguars GM James Gladstone does have a trio of third-round picks to work with. Let’s just realize the main characters from this year's squad, led by Trevor Lawrence, are probably going to be back for Season 2.

What Do The Jacksonville Jaguars Need To Address In The 2026 Offseason?

Need 1: Secondary

The top 3 free agents the Jaguars are dealing with in terms of highest percentage of 2025 snaps played: S Andrew Wingard, CB Greg Newsome and CB Montaric Brown. Throw in a season-ending foot surgery for Jourdan Lewis, who will be 31 by Week 1, and it's clear where Jacksonville might want to spend one or two of their Day 2 picks.

Of course, an easy solution could just be asking 2025 No. 2 overall pick Travis Hunter to focus more of his efforts on the defensive side of the ball. The passing game certainly seemed just fine down the stretch with a starting trio of Jakobi Meyers, Parker Washington and Brian Thomas Jr., so perhaps now Hunter can be a full-time defensive player. He played well on that side of the ball in limited action last season:

• 9 of 15 targets into Hunter's coverage were caught (60%)
• Targets gained 96 scoreless yards
• Hunter racked up 2 PBUs and allowed a 78.8 passer rating (same as Cooper DeJean)
• PFF graded Hunter as the league's 25th-best corner in coverage among 138 qualified players.

Kudos to last season's defense for allowing only 6.2 yards per pass attempt (3rd best); just realize work needs to be done here even if it's as easy as simply getting the band back together for another year.

Need 2: Offensive tackle

This has been one of the league's worst run-blocking units in recent years. One way of measuring this is how many yards *before* contact running backs gain on average:

• 2025: 1.09 yards before contact per rush (24th)
• 2024: 1.09 (25th)
• 2023: 0.78 (32nd)

The 2025 Jaguars combined this effort with a bottom-10 pressure rate, leading to PFF giving them an end-of-season ranking as just the league's 24th-best unit.

On the one hand, the Jaguars don't have any of their linemen hitting free agency after locking down LT Cole Van Lanen to a three-year, $51 million extension. On the other hand, you know what they say about doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Need 3: Running back

Travis Etienne is hitting free agency fresh off totaling 1,399 yards and scoring 13 TDs. Injuries haven't helped the 27-year-old veteran consistently flash the sort of tantalizing big-play ability that made ETN a first-rounder back in the day, but he's still proven capable of working as one of the league's more productive backs when able to stay healthy for a prolonged period of time.

That said: The Jaguars don't necessarily need to invest too heavily in the position should they decide to let Etienne walk, as Bhayshul Tuten flashed in a big way as a rookie on his way to posting top-13 numbers in yards after contact and tackles avoided per carry. LeQuint Allen also boasts a pass-down-friendly skill set. A between-the-tackles grinder is probably the best archetype to go after here in the absence of the franchise's third all-time leading rusher.

Honorable mention

Defensive line depth is needed with multiple backups hitting the open market both on the edge and inside. Still, this unit will remain a strength as long as Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker continue to hold down the fort off the edge: Only the Texans, Seahawks, and Broncos generated more consistent havoc—pressure, TFL, forced fumble, INT or pass breakup—than the Jaguars last season.

If I were GM …

I'd reverse Hunter's job description to full-time cornerback, part-time receiver, and then split up the team's four top-100 picks on the secondary and offensive line. There's talent everywhere at the skill positions, plus this is the eighth-most expensive front seven in the NFL entering 2026, so the two most realistic areas that can be upgraded are across the o-line as well as in the safety and cornerback rooms.