Why Jaguars Need to 'Set the Tone' Against Panthers

The Jacksonville Jaguars are looking to leave their past behind in the 2025 NFL season. They've put that into action, cleaning house on the sidelines and bringing in Head Coach Liam Coen, Offensive Coordinator Grant Udinski, and Defensive Coordinator Anthony Campanile to lead them into their next era.

General Manager James Gladstone has also brought in a host of new on-field talent along with him to form this new version of the team. There are still a few talented holdovers from the previous regime, but Gladstone hasn't been afraid to cut ties with the disappointing pieces from his predecessor.

As different as they look in the front office and on the depth chart, a losing team is still a losing team, no matter who's doing the losing. To prove that they're truly nothing like the squad that went 4-13 last year, all they have to do is win this season. That all starts in Week 1 against the Carolina Panthers.

Jacksonville Jaguars, NFL, preseason, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cam Little — Jacksonville Jaguars place kicker Cam Little (39) is congratulated by his team for a 70-yard field goal during the second quarter of an NFL preseason matchup at EverBank Stadium, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025 in Jacksonville, Fla. | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Jaguars need to start 2025 season off on the right foot

One of the most disappointing parts of Doug Pederson's tenure as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars was his teams' tendency to start slow. Even in his two 9-8 campaigns in 2022 and 2023, the Jags started those seasons 2-6 and 1-2, respectively.

Head Coach Liam Coen is hoping to change that this year. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence has only won in Week 1 once in his NFL career, back in 2023. He'll have a good chance to improve that record in Jacksonville's season opener against the Carolina Panthers. Coen expressed the importance of this game to the media after practice:

"We want to go and set the tone 100 percent. I wouldn't say I want these guys to put an all-or-nothing approach into the first game just because, shoot, you don't know how any season's going to play out, but it is important for us to get the ball moving a little bit in terms of playing the way that we want to play. Whatever the result is, we've got to live with that ultimately.

But if we show, coming out, playing with great energy, execution, playing tough... is it going to be perfect? We all know it's not, but it is important for those guys to be able to get some confidence. Okay, in a game setting, these systems and these fundamentals that I've been getting coached on for months now work."

The #Colts are the only team in the #NFL who haven’t won a week 1 game over the past 10 seasons.

They are 0-9-1 in week 1 since 2014. pic.twitter.com/8qcooyQNIT
— NFL Stats (@NFL_Stats) September 3, 2024

He went on to reiterate that he doesn't want his team to think the season's lost if they can't come up with a victory against the Panthers, but they sure would like to get it done. For a young team featuring a lot of new faces, though, the process matters more — throughout this individual Week 1 game and throughout the year.

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