Jacksonville’s trip to Denver arrives with a little more noise around the Broncos than their Week 1 result might suggest, and Liam Coen isn’t buying the idea that Sunday will be a simple follow-up to what happened last weekend.
The Jaguars coach made it clear at the start of the week that he expects a sharper Denver team after the Broncos were hammered 31-10 by the Kansas City Chiefs. Jacksonville, meanwhile, opened with a convincing 34-10 win over the Cleveland Browns.
“We know how they're going to respond,” Coen said at the start of the week ahead of their road trip to Denver.
That Denver opener was rough on both sides of the ball. The Broncos, who ranked 10th in total offense in 2025, managed only 176 total yards, including 115 total net passing yards and 61 rushing yards. They picked up just nine first downs and committed two turnovers, losing one of three fumbles and throwing an interception.
The defense had its own problems. After finishing second behind Jacksonville against the run last season and allowing just 91.1 rushing yards per game, Denver gave up 220 on the ground to Kansas City.
The Chiefs also didn’t need to force much through the air, finishing with 184 passing yards and two touchdowns. And one of Denver’s biggest strengths from last season, its pass rush, barely showed up.
The Broncos led the league with 68 sacks last year, but they got to Patrick Mahomes only twice.
Still, Coen is approaching this week as a Jacksonville problem to solve, not a Denver failure to exploit.
“So much of this week is truly about us. It is. I mean, we have to be aware of their good players and their good schemes and their good coaching, but also going into this atmosphere, the communication, both verbally andvisually, guys being on their screws,” Coen explained.
He said the Jaguars need to know the plan so thoroughly that players can operate without hesitation.
“I told them this morning that we have to know this plan so well that you know what the guy next to you is oging to be able to do without having to say it to him or talk about it. That's how well we have to be commected this week.”
Coen also pointed to the idea that the Broncos are unlikely to be the same team twice in a row, and he isn’t assuming Jacksonville’s Week 16 win over Denver last season means anything for this matchup.
The Broncos finished 2025 with a 14-3 regular season, earned the AFC’s top seed and a first-round bye, then fell 10-7 to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game. Coen said that kind of background only reinforces the need to expect Denver’s best.
“But, everybody's different. Our players are different, and so you've got to set it up fully expecting and anticipating them to play their best as well. That's kind of what we're anticipating, and knowing that we didn't run it great against them last year, and so those are some things we're obviously having to look at,” Coen said, pointing back to Kansas City’s 200-plus rushing yards against the Broncos in Week 1.
He added that Jacksonville will study how Kansas City attacked Denver and compare that to its own plan.
“Well, how did Kansas City set things up? Does that match things that we do?
If not, OK, can we go back and look at last year and try to find anything that could help us in this game formationally, personnel, motions, different schemes, whatever it may be?” Coen explained before mentioning the team will look for balance this week.
The challenge doesn’t stop with the opponent. Jacksonville is entering a brutal stretch of travel, with four of its next five games away from home.
The trip to Denver is only the first leg of it. After that, the Jaguars return home briefly before heading to Cincinnati in Week 4 and then to London for Weeks 5-6.
By the time they reach their Week 7 bye, the Jaguars will have traveled more than any team in the NFL except the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams. The total comes to roughly 12,674 air miles, which is more than half of the team’s estimated season total of 23,392 miles. Ten teams in the league will travel fewer miles by air through the next five weeks than Jacksonville will.
Coen said he has already addressed that reality with his players in plain terms.
“Just being honest, like, 'hey guys, if you're a part of this organization right now, this is the reality. This is our truth,'” Coen said.
“This is our reality and nobody in this league and in this fanbase, nobody's gonna care at the end of the day. It's not going to be an allowed excuse or an allowed reason because the results are what they are at the end of the season. Your record's your recorod, and nobody's going to look at it and say, 'oh, well, they had to go play a lot of games away from home," he continued.
Rather than treating the schedule as a burden, Coen said the Jaguars can use it to build something together.
“It’s good for us to be connected. It’s good for us to be around eachother and to keep learning and growing together,” said Coen.
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