Jaguars Have Grand Opportunity Despite Key Injuries

Out for the foreseeable future are safety Eric Murray and one of the team's best overall players, in rookie two-way phenom Travis Hunter, with injuries. This forces several players to step up in key roles on both sides of the ball. Parker Washington and Brian Thomas Jr. will need to show they are capable and reliable targets after the latter has struggled for much of the season.

"I have a lot of confidence in [Brian Thomas Jr.], and he's such a young player," said quarterback Trevor Lawrence. "I mean, he is in his second year, and I think that's part of developing as a player in this league, and I've gone through a lot of my own challenges as well in times where maybe I didn't play my best and felt like I was leaving some stuff out there."

This connection will need to be solidified as soon as possible, and they have a chance to do so in the next couple of weeks, as the team hopes the bye helped everyone refocus for the months ahead.

Murray and Hunter's injury forces the secondary to reassess and get a closer look at their depth in the coming weeks. Antonio Johnson will make his first start of the season, garnering a key look for what he could bring to the Jaguars for the next four weeks.

"[Johnson] obviously made a huge play for us at Houston, has been a big part of our dime packages throughout the year," Coen said on Friday. "Being able to move him around in different positions in terms of playing that linebacker, the safety, a lot of talent and he knows, ‘Hey man, I got a great opportunity here.’"

"Everybody needs a reset and an opportunity to get away from it," Coen said. "Spend some quality time with family and friends and have that nice little mental and physical reset to now come into the building with everything ahead of us."

Now, the Jaguars have the final 10 regular season games ahead of them with five of their opponents with losing records, a Houston team that Jacksonville defeated at home in Week 3 on the road, play the Colts twice, host an injury-rittled Los Angeles Chargers squad, and a trip to face the Denver Broncos later next month.

It wouldn't be surprising to see Jacksonville finding itself in postseason contention. However, the biggest key is finding and maintaining a level of continuity and consistency on offense, a challenge that has remained since training camp, even if no major changes were needed during the bye.

"You have a feeling and what comes out is statistics, you're looking at data, but also the big picture of every game's its own entity, like the stats don't always align with the flow of a football game and what actually could have occurred or did occur within games," Coen explained.

"So much of it is looking at it from a big picture lens, but then dissecting individually per side of ball, ‘Okay, where can we improve?’ And then where are the things that we have done well? What are the things we've done well that we can now just change the presentation to the opponent to be able to continue to have success doing."

These changes, even if minor, could make all the difference for the Jaguars. Now, they must put it to the test against the Raiders on Sunday.