When Retelling Story of the 2023 Jaguars, Injuries Must Play a Key Role

The Jaguars deserve flak for their play down the stretch, but injuries must remain in the context.

The story of the 2023 Jacksonville Jaguars will always tough conversation.

After an 8-3 start to the season showed so much promise, the Jaguars fell apart down the stretch and lost five of the last six games. There were constant themes throughout the season, ranging from turnovers, self-inflicted mistakes, and more. 

But one theme that should remain in the context of conversations is clear: injuries. It isn't an excuse for any team, but it often becomes a defining characteristic for unfulfilled potential around the league. 

“Yeah, you never know. Each year is different, some years you have very few, some years you have quite a few. For us this year was quite a few, but it was the ones that guys were missing four games," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said the day after the season ended. 

"The IR, missing four games, it disrupts a lot of things. It disrupts them individually; it could disrupt a unit. In our case, particularly the offensive line with the amount of injury there, especially on the left side. Guys that missed, Cam’s [OL Cam Robinson] situation, it all can impact your football team. We never want to use injury as an excuse to why we win or lose games, it’s our job to make sure that we prepare everybody to play. The players who are elevated, it’s their job to get themselves ready to play.”

The Jaguars had great injury luck in 2022, but it didn't repeat in 2023. After starting three receivers missed a combined two games in 2022, the Jaguars saw them miss 13 games in 2023 -- along with a handful of missed games from top backup Jamal Agnew. 

Hit wide receiver Zay Jones perhaps the most, with Jones missing eight games and dealing with a multitude of injuries that impacted him throughout the 2023 season. 

#Jaguars WR Zay Jones played a majority of the season with a PCL injury & damage to the cartilage in his femur.

Even though he & the team fell short of their goals, Jones still found moments of gratitude this year: https://t.co/iX9DguQfoc

— Juston W. Lewis (@JustonLewis_) January 17, 2024

Jones wasn't the only one who faced injuries on offense. Wide receiver Christian Kirk missed the final five games -- and really the final six games -- after suffering a core muscle injury on the first offensive play in Week 13. 

The offensive line was hit, too. Cam Robinson missed eight games, with four due to injuries. Walker Little missed a handful of games, Ezra Cleveland battled injury, and right guard Brandon Scherff and right tackle Anton Harrison were frequently on the injury report as well.

“I don’t think so. I just think we need to stay healthy. Again, when guys are playing together for three games, it’s not long enough because then we’re making another switch. He gets hurt, then they’re playing together for three or four more games, then Cam [Robinson] is out for four games with an injury or something," Pederson said. 

"The consistency and the continuity, that’s what really drives the offensive line. We’ve talked about it in here too, as a staff, we got to get back to what we feel are the best plays for us as an offense and our backs. Sometimes, we get away from that and we start searching for things to try to generate that run game a little bit. Sometimes, just go back to basics sometimes, things we’ve been good at in the past. That’s the one thing that we have the most reps on typically.”

The injuries didn't stop there. Cornerback Tyson Campbell and DaVon Hamilton each had their entire seasons defined by missed time, while safety Andre Cisco dealt with injuries for over half the season. 

Then there was Trevor Lawrence. The third-year quarterback missed his first ever start in Week 17 and ultimately battled through four different injuries: a knee injury after Week 2, an ankle injury after Week 13, a concussion after Week 15, and a shoulder injury after Week 16.

"It’s been a tough year physically. Not just for me, for a lot of guys on our team. We need some time to heal up. It won’t affect it, I’m going to take some time off anyways just to let the body recover," Lawrence said after the season. 

"My shoulder just needs some time to heal. I’m not going to have to get surgery or anything like that, so it’s nothing like that. I just need a little bit of time to let the body do it’s thing and heal up.”

"Everything is honestly feeling pretty good besides the shoulder. It’s still sore, that’s the fresher injury. The other things have healed up pretty good over time. I’m feeling okay on that front, just going to let the shoulder heal and recover. Mentally and physically, it’s been a long year. It’ll be much needed.”

"No, football just sucks. It doesn’t suck, I’m sorry. We just don’t feel good all the time. You get injuries, your team is not always together and weeks are just hard. Somewhere in those weeks, we kind of lost it I think," Jaguars receiver Calvin Ridley said last week. "We couldn’t nail those moments that we needed to and we just needed our juice. We didn’t have the juice I felt. We kind of lost it right there a little bit. We needed some juice.”

Injuries aren't an excuse and shouldn't be one for the 2023 Jaguars. But when one looks back on this team and where things went wrong, it will be one of the appropriate starting points all of the same. 

“Yeah, they're teams that get the bug early, they're teams that get the bug late. It's football, it's a violent sport we play. I think you've got to find a way around it, you've got to find a way to battle through it," Evan Engram said. 

"Obviously, you don't want to see your best guys go down and we had a lot of key players get hurt this year in crucial moments of the season. We don't make excuses, everybody deals with it. So, its football, it's a violent sport but we're in the business of next man up. We didn't get that done with that response.”