Jaguars Land at No. 19 in Yahoo! Sports' Power Rankings

The Jaguars have room to climb in Frank Schwab's power rankings.

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) stretches during training camp Monday, Aug. 7, 2023 at Miller Electric Center at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. This was the 11th day of training camp. / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA

When it comes to pre-Week 1 power rankings, the Jacksonville Jaguars have plenty of room to climb and doubters to turn to believers. So is the case when a team is riding the heels of a disastrous late-season collapse.

The Jaguars were the favorites to win the AFC South this time last year, with some even having them as a dark horse contender for the conference's top seed. Now, the Jaguars are largely the third team media members are signaling as AFC South contenders, with the Houston Texans taking a clear hold of the No. 1 role while the Indianapolis Colts have gotten plenty of support as well.

As a result, expect to find the Jaguars in the mid-late teens of most rankings until they actually take the field and show people whether last year was a fluke or not. One such case is in Yahoo! Sports' power rankings, which has the Jaguars at No. 19.

"The Jaguars might be underrated because of some recency bias. Trevor Lawrence got hurt when Jacksonville was seemingly cruising to a division title. The Jaguars fell into a deep slump to miss the playoffs and the Texans became the AFC South team everyone focused on this offseason. The Jaguars are a flawed team but maybe better than we remember. Lawrence seems likely to play well enough for the Jaguars to be competitive, then the rest depends on the team around him. For now, we'll leave the Jaguars out of the playoffs in the AFC, but that might be an overreaction to what we saw late last season."

- Frank Schwab, Yahoo! Sports

The Jaguars clearly still have a lot of work to do to win back the hearts and minds of the national NFL bubble after last season's collapse. And that is to be expected, with the Jaguars' 1-5 finish in the final weeks demonstrating one of the worst late-season collapses in recent NFL history. It was a collapse big enough to undo most of the goodwill the Jaguars received from their 2022 season.

---

• Follow and like us on Facebook.
• Submit your questions for our mailbag.
• Subscribe to the Jaguars On SI Podcast on Apple and Spotify.
• Check out the Jaguars On SI YouTube Channel.