Why Jaguars GM Trent Baalke Likes the Fact the AFC South is Competitive

Trent Baalke threw out a lot of praise for the AFC South on Thursday.

The AFC South did a 180 in 2023. After fielding two of the worst teams in the NFL a year previously, the division had three teams win at least nine games and have a chance at the playoffs entering Week 18.

Unfortunately for the Jacksonville Jaguars, they were on the outside looking in this time. A 9-8 record and a 1-5 performance over the final six weeks doomed their season and left them with a second-place finish behind the 10-7 Houston Texans, who were led by a rookie head coach and a rookie quarterback.

Now, the pressure is on the Jaguars to catch up to Houston, to keep the Indianapolis Colts at bay, and to make sure the Tennessee Titans don't nip at their heels. And that is just the way Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke wants it.

"First of all, you want to be against the best," Baalke said on Thursday. "You want to compete in the best division because if you're going to be in the best division and you can win that division, you've got a great chance to go into the next round of the playoffs and win a lot of football games and be the last one standing and that's the goal." 

The Jaguars went 4-2 in the division in 2023, though one of the two losses was a Week 18 loss to the Titans that officially knocked them out of the playoffs. 

After finding moderate success against their divisional foes during the Doug Pederson era, the Jaguars now have their biggest AFC South challenge yet in the form of Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud. Stroud, the favorite for Offensive Rookie of the Year, had genuine MVP hype during a record-breaking rookie campaign and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. 

"So, you can't ever shy away from competition, they've done an excellent job there, Indianapolis has done an excellent job, Tennessee's going to be fine. This division is better than people gave it credit for being, and I think you can sense how quickly it turned," Baake said. "A year ago, we were in the same position Houston was in this year. Almost storybook endings for both organizations. Both of them won the last game, back-to-back years to put themselves in the playoffs and win the division." 

For the Jaguars to turn things around in 2024, it will take a strong effort to keep pace with the rest of the AFC South. That seems to be a challenge Baalke and the Jaguars are embracing. 

"I like the fact that this division's competitive, you don't want it any other way. That's why you're in this business. So, let's roll out the ball, let's go to work and let's see where we are at, at the end of this next year.”