There’s probably a lot of things that the Jacksonville Jaguars–and a number of other teams–can learn from the Washington Commanders. But perhaps the biggest thing is the importance of having the right leaders and culture in place.
In just the last 12 months the Commanders have hired a new general manager, a new head coach, new offensive, defensive, and special teams coordinators, and drafted quarterback Jayden Daniels with the second overall pick.
And the results of this massive change have been wildly successful.
Washington would win 12 games during the regular season, their most since 1991. They made the playoffs for the first time since 2020–when they were 7-9–and for just the second time in nine years. Washington has also reached the NFC Championship Game for the first time since 1991 as well.
Without a doubt, if you hit a homerun at the quarterback position, that can certainly help do a lot of the heavy lifting in turning a franchise around. But also an important part of that equation is having the right GM and head coach leading the way.
“That’s the great thing about a culture,” said Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin, “because before that, sometimes anything goes. … But when you have one sound, one standard, and everybody’s held accountable to it, you got no choice but to live up to that … because if you don’t, you stick out like a sore thumb.”
That culture element is something that the Jaguars have to reshape, regardless of who the next head coach and general manager are.
In a recent article from Michael DiRocco of ESPN, while it was made clear that the Jaguars played to win every week, Tank Bigsby noticed over the final month that sometimes players were “defeated before they even stepped on the field.”
Travis Etienne would add that “nobody’s angry” and that the team “don’t take things personal enough.”
As head coaching searches unfold, the conversation can center around whether the team should hire an offensive or defensive-minded play-caller or what the scheme is.
However, while that’s important, that isn’t at the top of the to-do list in terms of what quarterback Trevor Lawrence wants.
“I think from a leader standpoint, whether it’s an offensive coach or defensive coach just a guy that’s going to instill that culture,” Lawrence said.” That toughness into our team and just that confidence that it doesn’t matter when we’re playing, who we’re playing, just spot the ball and we can beat anybody. And just a tough team that other teams don’t want to play against.”
Having said that, while the general manager and head coach set the direction for the franchise, as the old saying goes, the best teams are often player-led teams.
This is something that Lawrence also acknowledged as well–the players have to take ownership of the culture–and it was something also mentioned in DiRocco’s article as well.
“It seems like we’ve lost that in the past year-and-a-half or so for whatever reason, and we’ve got to get that back,” Lawrence said. “That’s something that us as leaders on the team really have to look at and we’ve got to take our part too. This isn’t just, we fired Coach Pederson, so now that’s all on him. It’s on us as players too.”
With how the last few weeks have unfolded, the Jaguars aren’t going to be choosing from the top head coaching candidates or the top general manager candidates. While not ideal, that doesn’t have to spell doom either. For what it’s worth, Quinn was the last coach hired during the 2024 hiring cycle.
The Xs and Os will always matter, but the Jaguars need to make sure they get leaders and culture setters into those two roles because when that happens, things have the potential to turn around quickly.
