The Jacksonville Jaguars head into their 2026 bye week at 4-2 with the AFC South in their hands, but the thing most likely to knock them off course has nothing to do with a lack of firepower.
It’s the self-inflicted stuff.
After a 34-31 loss to the Houston Texans in London, Jacksonville’s offensive talent is not the issue. The problem is that the Jaguars keep turning scoring chances into cleanup work with penalties and procedural mistakes that have made an already capable unit work too hard.
The numbers tell the story. Over the last three games, Jacksonville has been flagged 32 times, according to ESPN's Michael DiRocco, as cited by Yahoo Sports. Not every one of those penalties has landed on the offense, but the offensive ones have carried real damage.
Three touchdowns have already been wiped out by flags, including two short scoring runs by Bhayshul Tuten. Jacksonville managed to recover and score after earlier infractions against New England and Cincinnati, but that cushion was gone against Houston.
One holding penalty on tight end Brenton Strange took away another touchdown. Then, two plays later, Trevor Lawrence threw an interception in the end zone. In a game decided by three points, that sequence is the kind of thing that can’t happen if the Jaguars want to keep control of games like that.
The Week 6 win over Philadelphia offered another ugly reminder. Two delay-of-game penalties in the span of three plays turned first-and-goal from the one into a series that ended with no points.
That’s not a random hiccup. It’s the sort of breakdown that changes the shape of an entire drive.
For head coach Liam Coen, the bye week needs to be about discipline first. Jacksonville doesn’t need a new identity on offense. It needs cleaner operation.
That means breaking the penalties down instead of lumping them together. Holding calls are one issue, and they call for better technique and better judgment in the moment. False starts, alignment problems and delay-of-game flags are a different kind of failure, one tied to communication and execution.
The Jaguars also need to get more organized near the goal line. A smaller, more dependable set of plays would help, along with clearer substitution rules and enough time for Lawrence to get the defense lined up and evaluated before the snap.
That’s not a call to strip away creativity. It’s about making sure motion, personnel changes and adjustments actually help the offense instead of throwing it off rhythm.
The bye week should also be used to recreate the situations that have caused the trouble. Short, competitive periods with crowd noise, a tight play clock and quick personnel changes would put the offense right back into the same stress points it has struggled to handle. If a procedural penalty happens, reset it and demand a cleaner rep.
#Jaguars have had 5 touchdowns called back due to penalties in 6 games this season.
— Demetrius Harvey (@Demetrius82) October 18, 2026
Week 3 vs. Patriots:
* 7 yard pass to Washington
Week 4 at: Bengals:
* 44 yard Tuten run
* 3-yard Tuten run
Week 5 vs. Eagles:
*Cameron kick return
Week 6 vs. Texans:
3-yard Tuten run
The blocking, too, needs a sharper focus. Coaches have to keep stressing legal hand placement, steady footwork and avoiding panic grabs when a defender starts to win. Taking a small loss is better than turning it into a penalty that kills the play.
And the accountability should be tracked in plain numbers: pre-snap penalties, touchdowns erased by flags and drives pushed backward because of mistakes after the snap.
Jacksonville has already shown it can win. The next test is whether it can stop beating itself before the game reaches the opponent.
In Other News...
Jaguars Are Offering Fans A Permanent Place At The New Stadium
A new piece of the Jaguars stadium project is aimed at giving fans something more lasting than a seat in the stands. The team is partnering with Eternal Fan on a memorial outside the new venue called the 904Ever Club, part of the buildup to a stadium scheduled to open before the 2028 NFL season. The concept includes private and shared spaces where supporters can keep memorabilia tied to their Jaguars memories, turning the area around the building into a place of permanence as well as game-day traffic.
The idea also comes with a clear business structure, with membership tiers set at $904, $2,904 and $5,904. Eternal Fan will handle the construction, operation and revenue for the memorial, while the Jaguars will collect fees for the use of their marks and the stadium grounds. For a franchise planning its next home, it is another sign that the new stadium project is being built not just for the team, but for the fan base that will fill it. [Read more 🡒]
Jaguars Face One Bye Week Decision That Could Fix Their Secondary
A strong start has not erased the concern that surfaced in Jacksonvilles secondary during the loss to Houston, where coverage issues were easy to spot and hard to ignore. With the bye week giving the front office a little more room to think, the Jaguars are in the kind of spot where one move could make a real difference in the back end of the defense.
Budda Baker is the name that keeps coming up as a possible answer, and it is easy to see why. The Arizona safety brings veteran experience and multiple Pro Bowl nods, the sort of rsum that would appeal to a team trying to steady its defensive backfield, but whether he is available and whether he fits Jacksonvilles plans are still open questions. [Read more 🡒]
Budda Baker Is Back At The Center Of A Cardinals Debate
Budda Baker is suddenly back in the middle of a familiar kind of NFL conversation, the sort that tends to surface when a proven veteran on a struggling-looking roster starts drawing outside interest. CBS Sports writer Jordan Dajani recently put the Arizona Cardinals safety on a list of players he would like to see moved before the leagues November trade deadline, pointing to Bakers long track record as one of the teams most reliable defenders since Arizona drafted him in 2017.
For Jacksonville, the mention is at least worth noting. Dajani floated the Jaguars among the possible fits if the Cardinals were ever to entertain a deal, alongside Buffalo and Cincinnati, which speaks to the kind of value Baker still carries around the league. No trade has been confirmed, and for now the debate is just that - a debate - but his name is one worth monitoring if the market for defensive help heats up. [Read more 🡒]