Coen frustrated as Jaguars suffer pre-season defeat against the Steelers

Jacksonville Jaguars kicked off their preparations for the upcoming 2025 NFL season with a frustrating 31-25 home defeat against Pittsburgh Steelers.

Jaguars’ head coach Liam Coen bemoaned his team’s ill-discipline which resulted in them committing eight penalties for 49 yards at the EverBank Stadium.

With bookmakers rating the Jaguars as 100/1 shots to win the Super Bowl this season, they cannot afford to be as generous to their opponents when the real action gets underway.

However, while Coen was understandably frustrated after the game, there were several positive elements for him to take from the game.

They include rookie Travis Hunter, who was the number two overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft. He could be a major asset on both sides of the ball this season.

He has been tipped to be a future star by the NFL expert at SportsView and it is impossible to argue with that assessment following his first appearance against the Steelers.

Hunter admitted that he was anxious playing both ways, but showed enough promise during the game to suggest he could make a major impact this season.

“He made a couple good catches on some option routes and missed the one tackle defensively that I noticed,” Coen told ESPN.

“I’ll have to watch the tape on how he operated defensively a little bit more, but I thought offensively he made the right decisions on those option routes.

“He made a good catch – almost broke out of that one where Trevor (Lawrence) put it behind him on that third down we talked about, but I’ll have to go watch the tape a little bit more to know more.”

Hunter’s promising performance was not the only positive takeaway from a game which highlighted why many people are tipping the Jaguars to improve this season.

Cam Little’s staggering 70-yard field goal was a standout moment in the game, sparking wild celebrations with his ecstatic teammates.

Little was denied an NFL record as he achieved the feat in a pre-season game, but his ability to successfully kick from long distances could serve the Jaguars well this season.

Baltimore Ravens’ Justin Tucker holds the NFL record, having made a 66-yarder at Detroit Lions in 2021. Jaguars’ quarterback Trevor Lawrence thinks that Little could eventually set a new mark.

“I don’t think we’re necessarily going to be kicking 70-yarders in the first quarter or anything like that,” Lawrence said.

“But it was unbelievable to see him make that. That’s huge, especially in those two-minute drills. If you can get him near the 50-yard line, you got a really good shot. Having a guy like that is a weapon.”

While Hunter and Little provided Coen with some reasons to be optimistic, he acknowledged that his team still has plenty of scope for defensive improvement ahead of the new season.

The Jaguars allowed the Steelers to rack up 367 total yards and 31 points, despite having home advantage. Teams that allow four touchdowns do not tend to win too many games.

With a pre-season game against the New Orleans Saints next on the agenda, Coen admitted that the team’s defensive unit needs to step things up.

“It was disappointing to see some of the communication errors that we did have, but also just alignment-assignment issues,” Coen said.

“We have new systems on both sides of the ball. It’s going to probably take a little bit more than a pre-season game to maybe correct some of the things that we wanted to get corrected and play as sound as we would like to play.”