Nothing about an NFL roster stays frozen for long, and the Jaguars are walking into 2026 with a playoff core that looks familiar on paper but a handful of important twists underneath it.
Jacksonville is bringing back most of its starters from last year’s postseason team, including 10 of 11 on offense if guard Patrick Mekari is counted while he remains on the injured reserve/designated to return list. Still, the unit that lines up for Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns will not look exactly like the one that finished last season.
The biggest changes start up front. The Jaguars have only one new technical starter on the offensive line, but the shuffle has been significant.
Rookie guard Emmanuel Pregnon appears to have won the left guard job, taking over a spot that Ezra Cleveland has mostly held over the last few years. Pregnon was not expected by many to be a Week 1 starter when camp opened, but he quickly made himself one of the team’s five best linemen.
That move has triggered a chain reaction. Cleveland has shifted to right guard for the first time in his Jaguars tenure, while Anton Harrison has slid from right tackle to left tackle.
Harrison starred at left tackle in college at Oklahoma, but he had not played the position in the NFL until now. The only lineman who has mostly stayed put is center Robert Hainsey.
The backfield is changing in a more obvious way. Travis Etienne carried the load for Jacksonville in 2025, but he is gone after leaving in free agency to sign with the New Orleans Saints. Now the Jaguars are counting on Bhayshul Tuten and Chris Rodriguez Jr. to help replace that production and keep the run game moving after it faded late last season.
Ameer Abdullah adds another layer to that picture. Jacksonville usually carried three backs in the mix last year, with Etienne, Tuten and 2025 seventh-rounder LeQuint Allen Jr., aside from the one game Tank Bigsby played with the team.
Allen is back as the passing-down back, though he is currently dealing with an injury. That opens the door for Abdullah, a 12th-year veteran who was not widely projected to make the 53-man roster but could end up as the team’s top pass-catching back while Allen is out.
The tight end room may be the most transformed part of the offense. Jacksonville opened 2025 with Johnny Mundt and Hunter Long as the top backups behind Brenton Strange, but neither is around anymore.
Mundt was released in March, and Long was traded to the Arizona Cardinals last week. In their place are rookies Nate Boerkircher and Tanner Koziol, who are set to make their NFL debuts in Week 1 against Cleveland.
The roles there already seem to be taking shape. Boerkircher looks positioned to handle an important job in two-tight end packages, while Strange remains the clear centerpiece of the group, especially in the passing game. Behind him, though, the room is almost entirely new outside of backup tight end Quintin Morris.
In Other News...
Browns QB Pressure Is Building Faster Than Fans Expected
The Browns quarterback picture is still taking shape heading into Week 1, and it is already generating more discussion than most teams would want at this point in the calendar. Deshaun Watson is the starter, but the conversation around him has become less about the job being secure and more about how quickly the coaching staff will start weighing other options if the opening stretch does not go as planned.
Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com noted the possibility of rookie Taylen Green working his way into the QB2 spot, while Shedeur Sanders could end up inactive as the depth chart sorts itself out. For a team trying to settle a room that has been in flux, the uncertainty matters, especially with the pressure on Watson expected to be immediate and the backup roles still far from settled. [Read more 🡒]
Jaguars Camp Just Changed Several Week 1 Roles In A Big Way
Training camp always reshuffles a few depth-chart assumptions, and this one has already nudged the Jaguars into a different look heading toward Week 1 against the Browns. Travis Hunter has been used more on defense at cornerback, while rookie guard Emmanuel Pregnon has moved into a starting role up front. On the other side of the ball, BJ Green has claimed a meaningful edge-rushing job, giving Jacksonville a few new pieces to sort through before the games count.
The surprises have not stopped there. Branson Combs has worked his way from the practice squad into a defensive role, and Ameer Abdullah has pushed past expectations in the running back group. For a roster still taking shape, those developments matter because camp jobs are rarely handed out for long and the early-season pecking order can change fast once the Jaguars start lining up against Cleveland. [Read more 🡒]
Travis Hunter Could Change Everything For Jaguars In One Unexpected Way
Travis Hunter is already the kind of player who forces a team to think bigger about how it wants to use him, and ESPNs Ben Solak sees that possibility carrying into Jacksonvilles 2026 outlook. In Solaks view, the Jaguars most important swing piece could end up being Hunter on defense, where his cornerback traits give him a chance to disrupt throws, create turnovers and tilt games in ways that do not always show up in a box score.
The wrinkle is what happens on the other side of the ball. Hunters value as an offensive option figures to depend heavily on how the Jaguars receiver room holds up, since his workload there could stay relatively light if the group stays healthy. If injuries start to pile up, though, the conversation around how much Jacksonville can ask of him may change quickly, which is part of what makes his role one of the more intriguing questions on the roster. [Read more 🡒]