No joke: Lawrence, Jaguars look like playoff contenders

After being the laughing stock of the NFL for years, the Jacksonville Jaguars are a different team with Doug Pederson at the helm and there's a path to them clinching a playoff birth for the first time since 2017.

Video Transcript

VOCH LOMBARDI: What's up, y'all? It's Voch Lombardi watched every second of the NFL season when and where you want it, only on DAZN.

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So something that we always talk about in the National Football League that gets all the headlines, that stirs up all this conversation, is when older quarterbacks get moved on from, and we bring up the younger guys, right?

So we couldn't wait to get rid of Philip Rivers and guys like Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan is on his way out. But then we're moving on to the Pat Mahomes, Josh Allens, Dak Prescotts, Lamar Jacksons. Like, we're ready for those dudes. Now there's this group that's right up under them, to where they're ascending to their next level. But we tend to prop up the younger guys a little bit more than we should sometimes, right?

Justin Herbert's a guy that's super talented, I think that can make every single throw, but I think we overrate him just a little bit. He hasn't done very much. And when we grade these other guys, we like to talk about playoff accomplishments, right? We don't talk about Justin Herbert in that kind of way. But he has potential.

Also, guys like Jalen Hurts. It seems like they couldn't wait to find an anti-Cowboy guy to try to bring them up or whatever, right? So he's another young quarterback that we're just trying to bring up slowly.

What is interesting, right? The one dude that had the most pedigree in college out of all those guys is Trevor Lawrence. We were looking at Trevor Lawrence-- we called him sunshine. He's the next big thing. Coming out of Clemson, he was going to be the next Peyton Manning. And what happens is, when you give someone that kind of unfair expectations, they have to live up to that. They've got to be fantastic They've got to take the Jacksonville Jaguars to a playoff their rookie year, or else people are going to look at them like they're a bust. Is that fair? Hell no, but it is what it is. That's just kind of how this world works, this whole media thing, right?

Trevor Lawrence shockingly over the past couple of weeks or so, he is 2-1, OK? He has had a loss versus the Washington Football Wizards. I refused to call them Commanders. He gets a win versus the Colts, and they put their foot all over the LA Chargers. And it seems like nobody seems to notice this until you beat a team that's good. And I always wonder, how long do we have to wait until we call a team good? Do we have to wait two years to call a team good? Or do we have to wait until we beat a good team?

Well, they just beat the hell out of the Chargers. That's a real life thing. Trevor Lawrence went out there and threw three touchdowns in a shootout versus Justin Herbert. But the bad part is that Justin Herbert didn't hold his side of the bargain in the whole shootout department, which leads you to believe, is the Jacksonville Jaguars defense a little better than we thought this was, right?

This is going to be interesting, right? But why aren't we talking about this? We've been waiting to see big things from Trevor Lawrence this whole time, right? You get this debacle with Urban Meyer. His team looks ridiculous. They turn into a laughing stock. It looks like a circus over there.

Then you go in and bring Doug Pederson, and he just kind of changes, small things. He doesn't make big changes, right? Because big change takes a little while to get acclimated to. But these little bitty small changes. And I think the one victim of this is guys like Travis Etienne. He is another Clemson guy. He was brought in and he was going to be the next big thing in this Urban Meyer offense.

But Urban Meyer leaves and all of a sudden, the dadgum Jacksonville Jaguars are 2-1, and they're doing it via running the football, and then that run opening up the pass for Trevor Lawrence. And then after that, they just let dudes like Josh Allen. Josh Allen, the pass rusher, not to be confused with the dude in Buffalo. They let guys like Josh Allen, Travon Walker, and the other guys on that Jaguars defense, they just let those dudes play fun Jaguars defense as the Jaguars offense is scoring points.

But why are we hearing about this? We've been waiting on Trevor Lawrence to be great for a long, long time. But it's Jacksonville. you know what I mean? That's the only thing that makes sense here. We're just talking. We're not talking about it because they are Jacksonville, and you did kind of lose to the Washington Football Wizards in the very first week of the season, so that doesn't help with what you're doing here.

But Voch says this. I'm not going to make any bold declarations, or anything like that. But I just do think we need to have a conversation here. I think the Jacksonville Jaguars, as I pull up my numbers here, the Jacksonville Jaguars are a playoff team. Now, relax. I'm not saying that the Jacksonville Jaguars are a playoff team by way of them just being so talented that there is no way that they can't make the playoffs.

But look at the rest of the division, right? In the AFC South the Colts are 1-1-1. I don't even know how we even got there.

The Tennessee Titans, who are 1-2, they don't look as good as they were last year. They have not gotten into a groove on offense. Their defense is a little bit suspect.

And then we have the Houston Texans. They're 0-2-1, and we kind of saw that coming with the Texans. They're in first round pick territory, but we'll cross that road later in draft season.

Now, Jacksonville Jaguars. You ain't got to be amazing, but all you got to do is play against the teams that they put you against, and you have got to just beat the dudes in your division, which are the Colts, Titans and Texans. And that is an easy walk to the playoffs in my personal opinion. Now, what happens to the Jacksonville Jaguars when they get to the playoffs? I don't know. It is what it is.

But I will say, once you get to the playoffs, nothing else matters. Once you're in the tournament, everything else erases, and it doesn't matter who you are. It's about who gets hot at the end of the season. And the dude that's head coaching for the Jaguars right now won a damn Super Bowl with Nick Foles.