Jaguar Report

Damien Wilson Sees a Championship Mindset Mirrored in the Jaguars

Damien Wilson came to the Jacksonville Jaguars after two years, and two Super Bowls, with the Kansas City Chiefs. Under a new regime and with a fairly new roster, he sees the same mindset in Jacksonville that it took to turn around a franchise in Kansas City.

Kassidy Hill

Damien Wilson knows what it takes to win a championship. The Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker came to the First Coast via the free agency after two years with the Kansas City Chiefs. While with the Chiefs, Wilson won one Super Bowl and competed in another.

In other words, he’s seen up close the toil and trials a team must go through to reach the pinnacle. Perhaps even more importantly, he’s seen up close the dedication it takes to get there. Through an offseason and week of training camp, he sees that mindset in the Jaguars.

“You guys will see that first game when we come out against Houston” predicts Wilson. “Coach [Meyer], he’s been saying it, maybe a thousand times now. We’re not really here to get runner-up or just win the division. Everyone here wants a championship. That’s why we play the game, that’s what we’re playing for.”

When it comes to the actual playing part, Wilson can bolster a linebacker unit that was largely dependent on Joe Schobert and Myles Jack to do everything. Bringing in Wilson adds a versatility and depth of experience—at the highest level—the duo sorely needed for assistance.

“Over the last six years, I’ve played SAM, WILL and MIKE, so I feel like there’s really nothing that I can’t do from a linebacker perspective,” explained Wilson.

“To be honest, this scheme is similar to the one I had over in Kansas City for the last two years. So, I’m awfully familiar with it, changing verbiage and terminology and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, football is football and it’s a real linebacker-friendly defense. So, we’re just running and hitting out there.”

The Jaguars spent this offseason not only bolstering their linebacker corps, but building a team from top to bottom. The key is No. 1 overall pick, rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence. But it started with the hiring of new Head Coach Urban Meyer. A productive marriage between the two is the catalyst to any and all success the Jaguars hope to have and/or Wilson predicts. Lawrence buying in to Meyer’s message though is a good first step.

“His whole slogan for this team is ‘Own It’ — just owning everything and one thing he [Urban Meyer] says is just have ultimate authority and it’s basically you control what happens in your life by your decisions and there is a lot of people that want to blame other people for what happens in their life and he doesn’t like that so his message to us is to take ownership,” says an impassioned Lawrence.

“You control what you do, you control how hard you work, how you prepare, it’s no one else’s fault if we’re not successful. It’s ours. I think that message has been great for the team because we an opportunity every day to go out there and ‘Own It’ and do our best.”

Like Wilson, Lawrence promises a new team on the field for kickoff this season.

“We have all the motivation we need is what we do here in camp will dictate what happens when we step on the field August 14th and then again September 12th when we play the Texans. I mean, that’s all the motivation we need.”

Wilson laughs with Coach Urban Meyer at practice. [Bob Self/Florida Times-Union]

There’s something to be said for a culture of losing. When it becomes all you know, it becomes all you expect. To turn around a franchise—like the Kansas City Chiefs did, appearing in their first Super Bowl in 50 years and winning it while becoming a perennial contender—wins must come on the field. That’s a given and without them, everything else is just lip service. But those wins are built in the offseason, when a team decides losing is not an option or acceptable any longer.

It’s what Wilson saw happen in Kansas City. And it’s what he sees now with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“I see guys all over the place, all over the field out there that really want to win. And we’ve got the talent, I believe we’ve got the coaching, we’ve just got to get some experience and that comes from live bullets. So, maybe we can get some of that during the preseason, maybe it’ll take the first game. But I do believe that we really can cause some damage. And like I said, our goal is the championship and anything short of that is just a failure.” 

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Kassidy Hill
KASSIDY HILL

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