Why owner Shad Khan expects Jacksonville to win now

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Things are markedly different — and significantly better — for Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan in 2024 than when he assumed ownership of the franchise in 2012.

In the past three months, the team signed two cornerstone players — quarterback Trevor Lawrence and linebacker Josh Allen — to long-term contracts, reached a deal with the city on a $1.4 billion renovation of EverBank Stadium and agreed to a 30-year lease that would begin in 2028.

On the field, the team is showing some consistency and growth — posting back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2004-05. Despite missing the playoffs last season after finishing 1-5 down the stretch, the momentum has been building and Khan is ready to see results.

“For us winning — winning now — is an expectation,” Khan said last week.

The Jaguars haven’t made the playoffs in consecutive seasons since 1996-99, and they’ve made only four appearances since then — including twice in the past seven years.

“You talk about the growth in a football team that if [back-to-back winning seasons] had happened five years ago or 10 years ago, you’d be patting yourself on the back,” Khan said. “Now it’s like, yes, you want to have a winning season, but I think we want to be in the playoffs.

“You want to be in the playoffs every year.”

Intermittent success isn’t enough any longer. Not after what Khan has invested in just this offseason alone. In addition to signing his franchise quarterback through 2030 and agreeing to a long-term lease, he locked down Allen through 2028 and agreed to pay $625 million for his share of the stadium renovation.

There’s optimism in Jacksonville that the struggles of Khan’s first decade as an owner are finally over. After purchasing the team for $700 million in November of 2011, Khan’s first season ended with what was then the worst record in franchise history (2-14). The bad times didn’t end there — the Jaguars went 17-63 from 2012 to ’16.

Khan then brought in Tom Coughlin as executive VP of football operations and Doug Marrone as head coach. The moves worked at first, with the team going 10-6 in 2017, winning the AFC South for the first time, and advancing to the AFC Championship Game before losing to the New England Patriots. But after that season, the team declined again. In 2020, Khan became tied for the second-fastest owner to reach 100 losses in NFL history (141 games). Only former Tampa Bay owner Hugh Culverhouse hit that mark faster (140 games).

The turnaround began when Jacksonville drafted its franchise quarterback in Lawrence at No. 1 in 2021. And then continued when Khan hired Doug Pederson in 2022.

And though Khan called last season’s collapse an organizational failure, the franchise has been building momentum in what has been the most positive offseason of his tenure. Khan guaranteed a total of $301.2 million to eight players this offseason. When you invest that much, you expect results, and Lawrence is confident that will happen.

“The overall team that we have, the leadership we have on the team as far as players, we have such a good group,” Lawrence said. “I think a lot of the guys we brought in two years ago; it was their first year. You talk about like, Evan [Engram], Christian [Kirk], [Brandon] Scherff and Foye [Oluokun] on the defensive side. … We started to build this thing from the ground up in ’22. Then last year it continued to grow, and then this year like I said, the free agents and then the draft class that we got, I’m really excited about it.

“I think this is definitely the best team that we’ve had here in my eyes.”

And he might be right. The Jaguars signed six major free agents this offseason who have a combined 49 playoff games, 12 conference title game appearances and three Super Bowl appearances: center Mitch Morse, receiver Gabe Davis, returner/receiver Devin Duvernay, safety Darnell Savage, cornerback Ronald Darby and defensive lineman Arik Armstead. Included in those contracts is $82.7 million in guaranteed money.

The Jaguars have also seemingly hit right on their first-round picks in 2022 (pass rusher Travon Walker) and 2023 (right tackle Anton Harrison). Walker was second on the team in sacks last season. Plus, running back Travis Etienne Jr. — the 25th pick in 2021 — had his fifth-year option picked up.

General manager Trent Baalke has been building for success with Khan’s willingness to invest. Now all that’s left is to win.

“Hey, we’ve had decades to work on it,” Khan said. “I’ve been kind of patient, but it’s painful. But that’s what we had to do.”