They’re the franchise earmarked as the UK’s team, potentially quite literally if the London franchise plans ever come to fruition. It’s perhaps the Jacksonville Jaguars’ claim to relevance these days. Can they become more than a lovable underdog?

2014 summary

The Jaguars actually got off to a stunning start, taking an eyebrow-raising 17-0 lead into the locker room at halftime against the Philadelphia Eagles on the opening Sunday of the season, undrafted free agent Allen Hurns scoring two touchdowns in his first quarter of competitive pro football.

Then a routine 36-yard field goal for a 20-0 lead was blocked, the Eagles came back to win 34-17, and so the tone for another dismal year was set.

Just three games were won all year – a yawner of a clash with the Cleveland Browns, an improbable comeback against the New York Giants, and a late-season Pyrrhic victory over the Tennessee Titans that was to cost them the second pick of the NFL Draft and all the accompanying possibility to acquire a colossal haul of picks and/or veteran players from a Marcus Mariota suitor.

Judging from the way the team played in many of those 13 defeats – certainly the secondary and offensive line – the roster needed that much of an injection.

Personnel changes

Instead, the Jaguars got the third pick, used it on Dante Fowler Jr. – the consensus pick of a highly touted class of edge rushers this year – and then watched helplessly as he tore his ACL in his first day training with the franchise.

Speaking of ACL tears, standout defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks suffered one in week 17 last season and it’ll be a race against time for him to start the regular season, but the Jaguars can handle that courtesy of the free agency acquisition of Jared Odrick from the Miami Dolphins. Odrick has played both 3-4 DE and 4-3 DT, and the defensive front Gus Bradley ported from the Seattle Seahawks upon becoming the Jaguars’ head coach has a spot for both of these; Odrick can cover for Marks at the start of the season as an interior pass-rusher, and then move to end later.

Another notable acquisition in free agency was tight end Julius Thomas, who put up huge numbers when paired with Peyton Manning in Denver, but had some question marks having missed a number of games in that time and being seen as a product of the future Hall of Fame signal-caller. While there is bust potential in his acquisition, Thomas is too much of an athletic mismatch to count out as a major contributor. The Jaguars also structured his contract (and that of Odrick) very wisely, with big money over two years but no guarantees beyond 2016 – which happens to be the end of the four-year cycle against which team spending is measured against the “salary floor.”

The need to spend also saw the Jaguars make Jermey Parnell – the former swing tackle in the Dallas Cowboys’ superb O-line – the best-paid right tackle in the NFL, and former Green Bay Packers backup Davon House get a deal that suggests he’s earmarked as a starting cornerback. Jacksonville almost certainly overpaid for both, but it’s tough to criticise them for this when they were addressing huge needs with money they essentially had to spend.

Besides Fowler, notable draft picks included running back T.J. Yeldon, who is set to be an instant three-down starter having reportedly taken well to pass protection. There were also later steals in guard AJ Cann in the third round and defensive tackle Michael Bennett in the sixth; both appeared significantly higher in many mock drafts, and the latter could even step in right away as cover for Marks, allowing Odrick to settle in at end.

Team strengths

Blake Bortles showed a few flashes of brilliance in a largely frustrating 2014, and with a full offseason under his belt – and new offensive coordinator Greg Olson, who has a record of getting the best out of the mostly inept quarterbacks he has worked with – he looks likely to take a step up in 2015 and become at least an adequate starting QB.

When teams draft a signal-caller as high as the Jaguars did last year, they usually follow this up with offensive help, and the Jaguars certainly did that by double-dipping on second-round picks in a loaded wide receiver class. One of those picks was used on Allen Robinson, who had a somewhat injury-affected 2014 but still showed substantial promise – in fact, the “Reception Perception” analysis by Matt Harmon on his blog The Backyard Banter led him to argue that he was “on the precipice of a massive breakout.” Fantasy experts – a group Harmon is a part of these days as part of NFL.com’s fantasy team – seem inclined to agree, sending Robinson soaring up draft boards.

The Bortles-Robinson connection could be the key to a Jaguars renaissance, along with perhaps the defensive line – which, with the exception of the “Leo” stand-up defensive end pass-rusher spot Fowler was drafted to fill, now has both quality and depth, the latter all the more important for a position where players get tired in a hurry.

Team weaknesses

It’s no good having a top receiver to throw to if you don’t have time to find him, and Bortles certainly has lacked for that behind a putrid offensive line so far in his NFL career. Parnell is an upgrade, but he’s largely unproven as a starter, and the list of players who get big money off the back of limited evidence and end up as a bust is a very, very long one. Meanwhile, Luke Joeckel continues to perform drastically below expectations of the second overall pick.

It’s the same story in the secondary – utter ineptitude in 2014, patched up with one overpaid free agent in 2015. The aim with the Fowler pick might well have been to deny opponents the time to exploit that weakness, but that now won’t happen for another year.

Best case

The Bortles-Robinson connection single-handedly drives the Jaguars to relevance. Robinson becomes a top-12 receiver in fantasy and an even better one in reality once one accounts for the lack of other elite players on offense, though Yeldon does well enough to ensure reasonable balance. The defensive front shrugs off the absence of Fowler to be a solid unit, and the Jaguars are legitimately in playoff contention. It’s a year too soon for them in the end, but they go into 2016 with real belief that they could even give the Indianapolis Colts a real run for their money… 8-8, second in AFC South

Worst case

Bortles gets obliterated again, Chris Clemons’ age-related decline creates a hole in the vital “Leo” position that the interior rushers can’t fill well enough to hide the secondary, and the new acquisitions provide ample evidence that they went to Jacksonville for the money. Bradley is fired, the Jaguars have yet another top-three draft pick, Fowler’s ACL tear turns out to not be the “clean” type that players can and do recover from perfectly well these days, and relocation to London starts being talked about in terms of “when” rather than “if.” 2-14, fourth in AFC South

Prediction

Fowler’s injury appears to be the harbinger of yet another lost year at EverBank Field, but the rest of the Jaguars draft class looks hugely promising – I believe that few, if any, teams drafted better. The veteran additions might not add the same value, but the young guns should offer enough to give the Jaguars their least-bad season in years. Judge them by whether they look like another year of development, and the addition of Fowler and another high pick in 2016, can carry them into the wild card race next season. My suspicion is that they very well might, with Bradley surviving another Black Monday to get a shot at just that. 5-11, third in AFC South