Gene Frenette: Jaguars should focus on winning, not fret over lack of primetime TV exposure

The last time the Jaguars were given prime-time exposure other than Thursday Night Football on NFL Network, president Barack Obama was still in his first term in office, the football world hadn’t yet heard of Shad Khan and Mel Tucker was coaching his first game as the team’s interim head coach. 

Save for the 2017 outlier season, everything since that 38-16 home debacle on ESPN’s Monday Night Football (December 5, 2011) against the then San Diego Chargers has been a descent into football hell. 

Thus, it’s fitting the Jaguars — still looking to exit from the darkest decade in franchise history — have received bare minimum exposure under the NFL bright lights. 

Considering the Jaguars had a losing record or were already out of the playoff hunt entering their last dozen televised primetime games, what appeal is there for the casual NFL fan to tune in? 

None of those Thursday night games since 2011 were remotely compelling except for last year’s game at Cincinnati, where the Bengals rallied from a 14-0 halftime deficit to win 24-21 on a game-ending field goal. 

Entertainment-wise, the Jaguars have been about as riveting to watch the last decade as a USFL highlight package. Wouldn’t you know it, the one year they were efficient over that span and went to the 2017 AFC Championship game, the Jaguars had zero primetime games for the only time in franchise history? 

That’s what happens to small-market teams, at least ones not named the Green Bay Packers, when they get stuck in perpetual mediocrity. They don’t receive the choice TV time slots because ratings tend to dip with them on the big stage.

Gene's previous three columns:

Lambo's leap:Lawsuit by kicker Josh Lambo against Jaguars a bizarre end to stellar career

Seven wins:Jaguars' winnable games in 2022, Leftwich diplomacy, Dunand's big MLB moment

Only just begun:Welcome to NIL reality, where colleges knew chaos was part of deal

Jaguars must earn TV exposure 

As first-year head coach Doug Pederson begins the task of rebuilding this moribund franchise — and his tag-team partnership with GM Trent Baalke has so far produced a better roster — primetime exposure is the least of his concerns. 

While fans tend to bemoan the Jaguars’ minimal time on national TV, Pederson understands that’s more about rewarding success, not discriminating against small-market Jacksonville. 

During his five-year tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles, which included three playoff appearances and one Super Bowl title, Pederson’s team was in front of primetime cameras 22 times in the regular season, winning 14 of those games. 

That’s because Philly had the benefit of both a bigger market and a history of success for 14 seasons under coach Andy Reid. The Eagles had cachet when Pederson took over and built it up even more. The Jaguars haven’t had sustained football cred since Tom Coughlin roamed the sidelines.  

So when the 2022 schedule came out and we learned the Jaguars had just one Thursday night game, a less-than-sizzling road matchup against the New York Jets on Dec. 22, Pederson did the right thing by not acting as if Jacksonville was short-changed. 

Hey, any team going 4-29 over the last two seasons is going to get leftovers from the TV networks, so just deal with it. 

“You try to look for those prime-time games,” said Pederson. “I know the history here and listen, we have to win in order to do that in the future, to be on a Sunday or Monday night. I get that and that’s a challenge for us to do.” 

Follow Buffalo Bills blueprint 

It’s not as if the Jaguars have to be continually saddled with NFL anonymity and 1 p.m. starting times before a small regional television audience.

They can force their way into primetime by simply doing what another previously struggling small-market franchise, the Buffalo Bills, have done since head coach Sean McDermott arrived in 2017. Buffalo drafted quarterback Josh Allen the following year, and literally overnight, the Bills went from a television afterthought to a desirable national commodity. 

From 1999-2017, the Bills had only 16 primetime TV games over 18 seasons. They had none from 2002-06 and only one in 2018 after breaking a 17-year playoff dry spell the previous season. 

That all changed once Allen became the trigger man of a prolific offense that now has Buffalo regarded as a Super Bowl contender. The Bills were on primetime TV 11 times the past three years, and scheduled for five more games this season. 

Once Allen endured his rookie-year growing pains and became a more efficient passer, the Bills became must-see TV, going 10-6, 13-3 and 11-6 the past three years. Had Buffalo’s defense been able to hold a three-point lead Allen gave them in the final 13 seconds of an AFC Divisional overtime playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bills might have won their first Super Bowl last season. 

But that misses the larger point: the team Jim Kelly brought to national prominence and its legion of Bills Mafia is relevant again. The NFL wants this entertaining offense and stout defense featured extensively on primetime television. 

Two or three years from now, why can’t the Jaguars follow the Buffalo blueprint? They have a Super Bowl-winning coach to help reboot Trevor Lawrence, better weapons around the second-year quarterback, and all that baggage from the Urban Meyer era is being tossed to the curb. 

The idea of Lawrence pulling off what Allen has done in Buffalo isn’t some pipe dream. Remember, their stat lines as rookies were practically mirror images. 

Here were Trevor’s pertinent numbers: 12 touchdown passes, 17 interceptions, 59.6 completion percentage, 71.9 quarterback rating. By comparison, Allen’s injury-marred rookie season also had a pedestrian stat line: 10 TD passes, 12 interceptions, 52.8 completion percentage and a 67.8 QB rating. 

The Jaguars are currently a work in progress, just as the Bills were in 2018 when they decided to reboot their offense with a No. 7 overall draft pick at quarterback and went 6-10. 

Buffalo is now on the NFL marquee as a primetime TV player, joining 11 other teams who also have five games in night-time slots. Only the Detroit Lions, coming off four last-place finishes, are featured less prominently than the Jaguars with zero primetime appearances. 

That’s no injustice. It’s the way the NFL works. The Jaguars are paying the price for a decade of ineptitude with minimal television exposure. 

The only way off that hamster wheel is getting on a path to sustained winning. Otherwise, the Jaguars will keep settling for TV crumbs. 

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540 

Gene Frenette Sports columnist at Florida Times-Union, follow him on Twitter @genefrenette