Why Jaguars Have Circled Week 2 on Their 2025 Schedule

Ja'Marr Chase wants to avoid another slow start, Jacksonville Jaguars want to win potential AFC tiebreaker.

Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd (33) chases down Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase (1), making the tackle just short of the goal line during early fourth quarter action. The Jacksonville Jaguars hosted the Cincinnati Bengals at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida for Monday Night Football, December 4, 2023. The Jaguars were tied 14 to 14 at the end of the first half an fell in overtime with a final score of 34 to 31. [Bob Self/Florida Times-Union] | Bob Self/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Jaguars should make sure they took note this week when Ja’Marr Chase said he wanted to reverse Cincinnati’s trend of slow starts. That’s because the Bengals’ home opener is Week 2, Sept. 14 against Jacksonville – and the Bengals are 0-6 in Week 2 games under head coach Zac Taylor.

Cincinnati opened last year with a home loss to New England, which eventually fired head coach Jerod Mayo following a 4-13 season. The Bengals dropped their first three games and sat 1-4 entering Week 5. They finished 9-8 but missed the playoffs, despite incredible individual seasons from Chase and quarterback Joe Burrow.

And when Burrow, the No. 1 overall choice in the 2020 draft, meets the No. 1 overall selection from the 2021 draft, Trevor Lawrence, rest assured the Bengals will have extra motivation. Barring unforeseen circumstances, their starters also will have more preseason playing time.

“The one thing I do feel good about is playing our guys in the preseason,” Taylor told beat writer Ben Baby last week. “That's always subject to change, depending on health and how things go with our team during training camp, but that's one thing that we've openly talked about with our players, and I think will help us as we do it.”

Taylor and Jaguars head coach Liam Coen spent the 2018 Super Bowl season together on Sean McVay’s staff in Los Angeles, so they both know how fast starts can spur an NFL team. That year, the Rams opened 8-0 and won 11 of their first 12 before eventually losing to New England in the Super Bowl.

Coen’s team last year, the Buccaneers, began the season 3-1 and finished with an NFC South title. But Jacksonville has a brutal early season gauntlet and no one knows better than the Jaguars that fast starts can be extremely disappointing, too. In fact, the Jaguars’ collapse two years ago is one of the primary reasons Jacksonville fired Doug Pederson and replaced him with Coen.

In 2023, after Pederson led them on a storybook 2022 campaign, the Jaguars opened 8-3. But since that day, they’ve lost 18 of their last 23 games entering this season. Ironically, that downfall began with a 34-31 overtime loss to the Bengals at EverBank Stadium on Dec. 4, 2023. Chase had 11 catches for 149 yards and a touchdown.  

This year, the Cincinnati game could present another watershed moment for Jacksonville. In the first road game for Coen and first-round selection Travis Hunter, Jacksonville could be competing for an eventual AFC tiebreaker. If the Jaguars are able to surprise the league, as some believe they will, a head-to-head win over AFC foe Cincinnati could pay significant late-season dividends.

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