Opponent Breakdown: Jacksonville Jaguars

An inside look at the Miami Dolphins' upcoming opponent

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) looks to pass during the first quarter of a preseason matchup Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville in 2023. / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Miami Dolphins will be facing the Jacksonville Jaguars in their season opener at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.

It will be the first season-opening matchup between the teams.

Jacksonville is coming off a 9-8 season that fell apart after the team started off 8-3.

Longtime Jaguars beat reporter John Shipley of Jacksonville Jaguars On SI joined the All Dolphins Podcast earlier this week to break down everything related to the team and the matchup.

Here are excerpts from that interview. The full interview can be found below.

For a team that made the playoffs two years ago, that has a very big name quarterback, they do seem to fly under the radar like nobody's business. How much of that do you think is because they play in a small market? How much of that is due to the fact that Houston and CJ Stroud are sucking up all the oxygen in the AFC South?

JS: I mean, I think a lot of it obviously has to do with just being the Jaguars by nature. Unless it's a prime-time game or on Red Zone, most people naturally aren't putting their eyes on them, which for most of the Jaguars' existence, you can't really blame them for, especially a lot of the past 15 years. I think when you have success, people start to pay attention to you more. I mean, last offseason, a lot of people had the Jaguars picked as top team in the AFC, a potential Super Bowl contender. They were getting Peter King, all these national folks out of practice. You slip up one time when you're not a perennial team and you lose all that.”

The Jaguars were in contention late last season, but it kind of fell apart. It kind of coincided with Lawrence getting that high ankle sprain in that Monday night game. What went wrong down the stretch for Jacksonville last year?

JS: I think injuries were the major reason the Jaguars went from 8-3 to losing five in their last six and missing out in the playoffs. Not only was (Trevor) Lawrence injured, and like I said, he only missed one game but you could tell him the games that he was playing that he wasn't close to 100%. I think it was a mix of the injuries and him not being 100%, and him probably trying to do too much to overcome for deficiencies that they had.

What's your level of confidence in Mac Jones as the new backup?

JS: He actually can do a decent job. He had a solid preseason He had an up-and-down training camp at times to me. A lot of Jaguars fans when they traded for him were like, oh, wow, we just got one of the best backups in the NFL because he was just a top pick. To me, he's a serviceable quarterback who's probably like the 15th or 14th best backup in the NFL. He's fine, but at the end of the day, he's a backup quarterback, and that's probably what his ceiling's always going to be.

HOW GOOD CAN JACKSONVILLE BE IN 2024?

Do you think the Jaguars can make a run at Houston in the AFC South? Do you think the Jaguars are, again, a playoff team like they were in 2022?

JS: Yeah, I do think the Jaguars can contend with Houston. I mean, it's not like Houston necessarily was blowing them out of the water in the standings last year. It took a Jaguars collapse for Houston to make the playoffs last year. I think it's gonna be a competitive division between Jacksonville and Houston. Trevor Lawrence, yeah, not top five quarterback, but I think with him, they at least have a chance in the AFC South. And I think the Colts will be feisty. The Titans, I think, are a little bit behind everybody, but I think the AFC South, you have three fairly similar teams who all should put a good fight against each other.

Is anybody in the secondary physically equipped to keep up or stay close to Tyreek and or Jaylen Waddle?

JS: I mean, Tyson Campbell was a legit track star who has legit 4.3 speed. He's a taller cornerback, but he's always shown the ability to hang with guys deep. I think he's up there. Andre Cisco has really good range in the back end as a safety well I think the plan is gonna be to keep two safeties back the whole game and try to use the speed of Campbell and the speed of Cisco to try to eliminate some stuff over the top.

OK, other side of the ball, I think the big story, the big change with the Jacksonville offense is the wide receiver corps. Drafted Brian Thomas. Signed Gabe Davis as a free agent from the Buffalo Bills. Brian Thomas is a guy the Dolphins studied before the draft. Mike McDaniel had some good things to say about him pre-draft And from all we heard is he looks like the real deal.

JS: Yeah, so he had honestly a really slow start to trading camp. I'd say like the first two weeks or so. He was struggling getting open, especially against veteran corners like Darby and Campbell. He was struggling with his hands a little bit and they weren't really letting him go vertical very often.And then a few days before the first preseason game, he gets one of his first vertical routes in practice in one-on-ones against Ronald Darby and he just burns him for a touchdown. And Christian Kirk said he thinks that like ever since that playing practice things have clicked for him. He gets a great 41-yard, one-handed catch against Kansas City. He's made two nice grabs in the other two preseason games. And then in joint practices when Tampa Bay came in, he was the talk of the practices. He definitely looks like he can provide a vertical threat early on. It shouldn't be surprising that the Dolphins talked to him because he seems like out of all the players on the Jaguars offense, he seems like the one who would fit the most on the Dolphins offense, and he's definitely brought it.

What's your level of confidence looking from a Jacksonville standpoint that the Jaguars can come to Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday and leave Miami with a 1-0 record?

JS: If you do like a scale of 1 to 10, it's probably like a 5. I think these are two good teams. Miami went to the playoffs last year, Jacksonville just missed out. I don't think either team is far and away ahead of each other. But I do think the Dolphins have the X factor in Tyreek Hill. I don't, and this is gonna be the Jaguars' first game under Ryan Nielsen too. I mean, what a first game to put your defense together against the best receiver, the best weapon in the NFL. So I think that's two good teams. I think it'll be a close game. But ultimately, the Dolphins do have the best player on the field. And I think that matters a good bit.