JACKSONVILLE – The Jaguars on Friday practiced at the Miller Electric Center.
The Jaguars will open the 2025 regular season against the Carolina Panthers at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville Sunday. Here's a look at Friday around the Jaguars – with Head Coach Liam Coen speaking to the media for the last time before Sunday:
Coen liked the feel around the MEC two days before the opener.
"I thought the energy, the execution, the focus level was where you want it to be on a Friday," Coen said.
Coen on Friday reiterated his weeklong theme that a major emphasis Sunday will be on how the Jaguars respond to adversity.
"It's important to have success," Coen said, "but like we've been preaching this entire time – and specifically this week – it's not just about that. It's going to be more about our response. If we don't go down the field and score on our first drive, what does that look like for our defense going on the grass? How can they get a stop?
"That, to me, is going to be the difference for us. You have to sustain it and you also have to respond when good things don't happen."
Coen said a "game management" meeting will be held Saturday, at which time he will decide whether to receive or kickoff if the Jaguars win the pre-game toss.
"I haven't decided yet," he said Friday. "I was always in the defer world for a long time, then this past year in Tampa [where Coen was offensive coordinator in 2024], we kind of got to become a team that took the ball with having success on the first drive and what it did for our team. Each team is different. Each year is different."
Coen, too, said the Jaguars will finalize their plan for rookie wide receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter "over the next 24 hours."
Hunter, the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner and the No. 2 overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft, has practiced extensively on both offense and defense. He is expected to play significantly on both sides of the ball this season.
"We're going to have to all be flexible," Coen said. "We just need to make sure we're aware and engaged as coaches to make sure if he's getting a little lost or doesn't know what he's doing on a few things, the maybe we need to reel it back and get him a rest. Whatever it is, we have to be flexible.
"He has done a really nice job of dedicating himself to the plan on both sides of the ball over the last few days. He was flying around pretty good today."
The Jaguars on Friday released their third and final injury report of the week, with veteran cornerback Montaric Brown (ankle) and rookie offensive lineman Wyatt Milum (knee) not practicing for a third consecutive day and ruled out of Sunday's game.
Veteran offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen practiced limited for a third consecutive day with a shoulder injury and was listed as questionable for Sunday.
Coen on quarterback Trevor Lawrence's approach this week:
"He was extremely locked in. He did a ton of extra work on his own this week. He has been studying the crap out of the plays so he can spit them out as quickly as possible. He had a really nice week of preparation. I thought he had a really nice day throwing the ball today as well."
This is his time, and Andrew Wingard is embracing it.
"It means a lot," Wingard said.
Wingard, who signed with the Jaguars as a collegiate free agent following the 2019 NFL Draft, is among the team's most tenured players. Long a quality contributor and special teams ace, Wingard will start Week 1 for the second time in his career. He also started Week 1 in 2021.
"I've said it many times: 'This is what I see myself as,''' Wingard said. "I've become what I've thought about and I'm just going to keep going. I have a lot of aspirations and a lot of dreams, and it's cool because I've thought about and it has become reality.
"I'm super-excited. I love it here. I can't wait to be out there and here that crowd go again and get this placed turned up."
