JACKSONVILLE – They looked back, with an eye on looking forward.

This was the 2025 bye week – and as Head Coach Liam Coen looked to the second "half" of his first season as Jaguars head coach, he called the chance to reassess strengths and weaknesses "huge."

"Everybody needs a reset," Coen said, adding that the Jaguars enter the final 10 games of the season with "everything ahead of us."

Coen on Monday morning spoke to the media a day after the Jaguars' 2025 bye, reemphasizing what he said last week – that at a game over .500 through seven games, the Jaguars need not implement major change. Players that afternoon after a one-hour practice at the Miller Electric Center agreed, with running back Travis Etienne Jr. saying the Jaguars "haven't played our best ball yet."

"We're just shooting ourselves in the foot," Etienne said.

The Jaguars, after a three-game winning streak moved them into a tie for the best record in the AFC, lost back-to-back game before the bye – 20-12 to the Seattle Seahawks in Jacksonville and 35-7 to the Los Angeles Rams at Wembley Stadium in London.

After trailing just 9:10 in the first four games of the season, the Jaguars led just 7:40 in the two losses leading to the bye.

"We have to find that formula of winning and stick with it," Etienne said. "We have to come out faster and we have to control the controllables."

Coen on Monday added, too, that bye week emphases were:

• Executing first and second downs better to be in more third-and-"manageable" situations.
• Getting the best players the ball in space offensively.
• Getting pass rushers "home" defensively.
• Limiting "explosive" plays defensively.

"You look at all those things and so much goes into it," Coen said. "These guys did a lot of work as a staff and some of those things you want to get tweaked, but we're not going to go and reinvent the wheel."

The Jaguars (4-3) trail the Indianapolis Colts (7-1) by two-and-a-half games in the AFC South. They were in the seventh and final postseason position in the AFC entering Monday's game between the Kansas City Chiefs (4-3) and Washington Commanders.

"There's no wiggle room in the NFL; you can't take anything for granted," Etienne said as the Jaguars began preparing to play the Las Vegas Raiders (2-5) at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., Sunday. "For us to get to where we want to be at the end of the season, we have to take it one game at a time.

"We can't look over this one trying to look forward to the next one. At the end of the season, whenever that comes, we'll worry about that when we get there."

Cornerback Greg Newsome II called the Jaguars' situation through seven games "an amazing position."

"We have to take it a game at a time and it has to start this week," Newsome said. "Still being in the thick of things is great. We just have to take it day by day, a game at a time and by the end of the season we'll be where we want to be."

NOTABLE

• Coen on Monday said the Jaguars have no plans to trade wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr., referencing a media report this past weekend that the team was receiving calls about the second-year veteran. "We have no plans on moving Brian Thomas Jr.," Coen said, adding that he is "very optimistic" about the player who played in the Pro Bowl following his rookie season. "I talked to him for a good amount of time this morning and it was just a good reset for a lot of these guys to come in fresh, 4-3, with everything ahead of us," Coen said of Thomas, who has 27 receptions for 365 yards and a touchdown this season after setting franchise rookie records with 87 passes for 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns. "I have a lot of confidence in him. I really do believe we can turn the corner and get better in the pass game that way."

NOTABLE

• Coen on Monday said he plans to alter the practice schedule this week, moving the team's padded practice to Wednesday. Coen during the first seven regular-season weeks typically scheduled the padded practiced for Thursday to allow better physical recovery from the previous game. Coen called Monday's practice a "helmets practice, about an hour on the grass – just get these guys back up and running, hearing the calls again, fundamentals, a lot of individual work. We'll do alignment assignment and just get them buzzing a little bit."