Not long after celebrating the solidification of his franchise's stadium of the future, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan delivered a harsh condemnation of his club's recent past.
Khan tabbed the Jaguars' 2023 collapse -- in which the team dropped five of its last six to finish short of the postseason -- a structural disaster.
Though the Jags dealt with quarterback Trevor Lawrence nursing multiple injuries and the significant late-season loss of wide receiver Christian Kirk, Khan is of the belief that each team deals with ailments. This was a different story with the blame falling throughout the club.
"Injuries are a part of the game," Khan said, via The Associated Press’ Mark Long. "We had some of those injuries, but I think it's organizational failure that it happened. All of these players I talked to, it's like how could this happen? What happened?"
Khan's comments came after he and Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan signed a proclamation to formalize a $1.4 billion "stadium of the future" that portends to keep the team in Duval County for "at least another 30 years."
While the Jaguars seemingly have locked up their long-term future in Jacksonville, Khan didn't mince his words about the team's short-term onus.
"For us, winning now is the expectation," he said.
In each of the past two campaigns, the Jaguars finished the regular season with identical 9-8 records, though the path to those outcomes and the results they achieved were quite opposite.
In 2022, the Jaguars rallied down the stretch, winning six of their last seven to clinch the AFC South and claim a playoff berth. They rallied once more -- this time in historic fashion when they came back from a 27-0 deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC Wild Card Round before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, in the Divisional Round.
In 2023, Jacksonville got off to a fine start, beginning the season at 6-2 before the aforementioned collapse effectively stymied all the franchise's momentum set forth just a year prior.
Though Lawrence just signed a massive extension, the 24-year-old dealt with an assortment of nagging injuries that forced him to miss the first start of his career and more so seemed to plague him for much of the season.
During those last five losses, the offense sputtered, averaging only 19.4 points per game.
At season's end, the Jaguars were an unlucky 13th in total offense and points scored. It's hardly horrible, but there were clearly problems. It's led to questions as to who will helm the offense where play-calling is concerned: head coach Doug Pederson or offensive coordinator Press Taylor.
Khan has his take, but he's keeping it to himself.
"Yeah, I have an opinion," Khan said. "But I don't want to tell people, 'We need to do it,' because then things don't work out, they look at me and say, 'We did it because you wanted it.'"
Pederson and Taylor each called plays during the team's 2022 campaign before Taylor held the responsibility throughout the mercurial 2023 season.
"Doug, he's empowered," Khan said. "I'm going to let him decide."
In addition to Lawrence and outside linebacker Josh Allen inking big extensions, the Jags have added notable free agents such as defensive lineman Arik Armstead, wide receiver Gabe Davis and offensive linemen Ezra Cleveland and Mitch Morse.
Thus, Khan believes the roster has what it needs to provide Jacksonville with a winner and it's paramount the Jaguars finish stronger than they did a season ago.
"For me," Khan said, "it's really a cause for self-reflection and then something good to come out of it because we just can't have that this year."
