- Jacksonville led the NFL in dropped passes: Jaguars receivers dropped 40 of 417 catchable targets, posting a league-high 9.6% drop rate that consistently stalled drives despite an otherwise productive passing attack.
- Trevor Lawrence delivered the best season of his career: Lawrence earned his first 80.0-plus PFF passing grade while thriving in Liam Coen's offense, improving as both a passer and scrambler despite taking a career-high number of sacks.
- The offense is positioned for another leap: With the core receiving group returning, Parker Washington emerging late in the season and drop rates typically regressing toward league average, Jacksonville has a strong chance to become a significantly more efficient passing offense in 2026.
Last season, the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ skill position players struggled with one of football's most fundamental skills: catching the ball.
Jacksonville’s receiving options dropped 40 of their 417 catchable targets in 2025, producing a 9.6% drop rate. It was the highest mark by any NFL offense since the abysmal 2021 New York Jets (who were worse by a fraction of a percentage). Regardless of how productive an offense may be elsewhere, giving away that many completions makes it significantly more difficult to sustain drives.
The frustrating part for Jacksonville is that the rest of its receiving production was quite impressive. Jaguars pass catchers combined for 32 receiving touchdowns, tied for the seventh-most in the NFL. They also averaged 11.7 yards per reception and recorded 57 contested catches, both figures ranking inside the league’s top 10.
While these numbers suggest there is plenty of playmaking ability within this offense, they are also heavily influenced by the quality of quarterback play, while contested catches often reflect how aggressively that quarterback is willing to attack tight coverage. Drops, on the other hand, generally fall squarely on the receivers, and Jacksonville’s league-leading drop rate renders the rest of their receiving play useless.
Fortunately for the Jaguars, Trevor Lawrence gave them plenty of reasons to be optimistic despite the issues surrounding him. He produced the best season of his career in 2025, earning a PFF passing grade above 80.0 for the first time. After several seasons showing flashes without consistently putting everything together, he took another step forward in Liam Coen’s first season as head coach.
One of the biggest changes came in how Lawrence operated within the offense. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, his average time to throw ranked third-fastest in the NFL. Coen’s system incorporates longer-developing route concepts, requiring the quarterback to be more patient. Lawrence consequently slowed all the way down to 21st in average time to throw in 2025.
When nothing developed downfield, Lawrence became increasingly willing to create with his legs rather than forcing throws into coverage. He posted career highs in scrambles (48), rushing yards (417), explosive runs (16) and missed tackles forced (13). His mobility proved especially dangerous near the goal line, as he led all quarterbacks with four scrambling touchdowns.
Longer-developing concepts inevitably expose quarterbacks to more pressure, and while Lawrence escaped plenty of collapsing pockets, no quarterback can avoid pressure indefinitely. For the first time in his NFL career, he was sacked more than 40 times in a season.
In the passing game, there is no doubt that Jacksonville’s receiving corps left production on the field. Twelve different Jaguars offensive players dropped at least one pass during the season, illustrating that the issue extended well beyond one or two struggling receivers. Brian Thomas Jr. finished with a team-high eight drops.
Lawrence’s willingness to put the ball up for grabs becomes clear when you dive deeper. A remarkable 21.4% of Jacksonville’s targets were contested in 2025, the second-highest rate posted by any NFL team over the past five seasons. The only team to finish higher was last season’s Cowboys, whose offense frequently relied on throwing 50-50 balls to George Pickens.
That figure says as much about Lawrence’s mentality as it does the receivers. Rather than avoiding tight-window throws after repeated drops, he continued trusting his pass catchers to win in traffic. Interestingly, his faith in his pass catchers only grew as the season progressed.
Before Jacksonville’s Week 8 bye, 19.0% of the team’s targets were contested. After the bye, that figure climbed to 23.4%, indicating Lawrence became even more willing to attack tight coverage despite the drops continuing to pile up throughout.
Parker Washington emerged as one of Jacksonville’s biggest breakout performers during the second half of the season. Following the bye week, he secured 15 of his 20 contested opportunities, establishing himself as one of the league’s more reliable receivers in traffic and giving Lawrence a dependable option whenever all else was covered.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Brian Thomas Jr. converted just 12 of his 33 contested targets, while Jakobi Meyers landed around the middle at 7-for-16. Thomas struggled to consistently finish plays through contact, which previously wasn’t much of an issue at LSU.
Heading into 2026, the core of the group remains intact. Thomas Jr., Meyers and Washington all return after combining to form one of the more productive receiving trios in the AFC, while tight end Brenton Strange also remains an important part of the passing game. Continuity should benefit a passing attack entering its second season under Coen, particularly after Lawrence became increasingly comfortable operating within the system as last season progressed.
The biggest addition is Travis Hunter, although early reports suggest his offensive role may be relatively limited. After suffering a major injury during his rookie season, the former second overall pick is expected to spend the majority of his snaps on defense while contributing only selectively on offense. Jacksonville appears set to deploy him for a handful of offensive plays per game rather than asking him to become a full-time receiving option immediately.
This is probably the sensible decision for the Jaguars. While their drop numbers were undeniably alarming, it is also the type of statistic that tends to revert toward the league average over time. Drops fluctuate significantly from season to season, particularly when they are spread across an entire receiving room rather than concentrated on one player.
Because of that, wide receiver does not feel like an area where Hunter needs to shoulder an immediate workload. Much of last season’s “hands problem” should correct itself without dramatic personnel changes.
Jacksonville also added sixth-round receivers CJ Williams and Josh Cameron in this year’s draft, giving the coaching staff two productive Power Four prospects to evaluate during training camp. Neither enters the league with significant expectations, but both have shown enough collegiate production to compete for roster spots.
Cameron, in particular, could attract attention if the Jaguars continue searching for greater reliability. Across his career at Baylor, he posted a drop rate of just 4.3%, demonstrating the dependable hands that Jacksonville too often lacked in 2025.
There is every reason to be optimistic about the Jaguars offense entering 2026. Trevor Lawrence is still only 26 years old with a largely untapped ability to create outside of structure up until recently. This group of receivers brings varied skill sets and can generate explosive players both on contested targets and after the catch.
If Jacksonville can simply stop wasting catchable targets, which they likely will, the offense may have everything it needs to take another step forward in 2026.
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