Quote:It's always interesting to see not only how those familiar with the team, like Dirocco and Prisco, but also those that aren't particularly familiar with the team feel about the upcoming Jaguars season.

 

Going by the predictions on ESPN's NFL nation blogs where each team's writer predicts wins and losses for their team on the season only three opponents see the Jaguars as getting a win against the team they write for. Kuharsky, who covers the titans thinks the Jaguars will split with a team that earned the #1 draft slot, Jeff Legwold, who covers the broncos, thinks the Jaguars will be a classic sneak up and steal a win trap game, and Paul Gutierrez, who covers the raiders thinks the Jaguars can win against the Raiders, probably because the two teams pay some attention to each other due to both having ascending young QBs from the same draft.

 

The sad thing is they're probably not far off in their beliefs. Sure the Jaguars will probably win more than 3 games, because it's hard to lose 13 times in the NFL if you're even close to competent and trying just because of the way the season can play out when it comes to opponent injuries and such, but the Jaguars are still seen as a bunch of clowns with an ice cream scooping sprinkles slinging head coach when it comes down to it.

 

My experience is that national writer's opinions usually ride a year or two behind reality.  That is to say, once the team starts winning you'll see a lot of writers claiming that they picked the Jags to turn it around (even if they didn't).  Expect ESPN to be no different.  It's the nature of the sports media to never admit they were wrong (exhibit A: Pete Prisco).  

 

On the other hand some are expecting that Jags to take the next step, so some people are clearly paying attention.  The great thing is, we'll know how it turns out in a few months!

---