Where Do the Jaguars Land in ESPN's Latest Power Rankings?

The Jacksonville Jaguars landed right around the middle of the league in ESPN's preseason power rankings.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles, left, and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson shake hands after a preseason NFL football game Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-7. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union] / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK

After back-to-back 9-9 seasons, the pressure is on the Jacksonville Jaguars to get over the hump and solidify themselves in the AFC's pecking order.

To do that, the Jaguars will need to out-do mot externa expectations set for them. In ESPN's latest power rankings, the Jaguars are ranked at No. 14 -- one spot lower than they were ranked after the 2024 NFL Draft.

As for the rest of the AFC South, the Houston Texans are at No. 6, the Indianapolis Colts are at No. 18, and the Tennessee Titans are at No. 24. The Jaguars rank No. 8 in the AFC.

For the Jaguars to leap these rankings throughout the season, they will need an improved year of production from the offense and a resurgent year from new defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen.

“It’s always a work in progress. You always want to get one play better, one game better. We’re working on the things that we see that we’ve got to fix, tweak a little bit—maybe not necessarily fix—but tweak and continue to push the guys’ fundamentals," Nielsen said on Tuesday.

"The knowledge of the scheme, feel like they’re doing a great job, the players, our coaching staff, that combination of those guys working in the meetings and things like that, picking things up. Walk-through was awesome today. Those guys were on top of it, really locked in, fired up about the direction that it’s going in terms of the whole combination of everything. We’re going to keep pushing every day.”

The Jaguars; will have a chance to earn some respect across the NFL if they can exit their Week 1 battle against the Miami Dolphins with a victory. In ESPN's power rankings, the Dolphins are ranked at No. 8.

“Well… maybe we have, maybe we haven’t," Nielsen said when asked if the defense has started looking ahead at Miami. "But yeah, we’ll take care of them when the time comes. We’re focused on Atlanta and winning this game.”

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