September 5, 2025 • 10 mins
Jacksonville host, Joe Cowart joins the show, as Joe gives us the perspective on the Jaguars, he talks about the similarities between the two teams, the pressure on Trevor Lawrence to deliver after getting paid, he gives us some insight into how they'll use Travis Hunter, & more
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our next guest has been a staple there way back then,
and he is still rocking and hosting XL Primetime on
ten ten x L weekdays at noon. He is Joe Coward,
and he joins us to give us some insight on
the Jaguars. Joe, what is going on down there in Jacksonville? Man,
how you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm doing great, man, But it does kill me when
you say two decades ago. That's put a little age
on both of us.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Bro seriously rocking dude. We were like young bucks back then.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We were two different stations back then, so you know,
I had to act like I didn't like you and stuff, but.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Like we were so young back then. Man, look at
us now, Oh god, hey, do you guys want to
take him back yet?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
It's been two decades here now, So I'm just I
think curious.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, you want us to go ahead and ship them
south of the Queen Cities.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I didn't last long down there. They fired me, Cox Radio,
fired meself a as Bone. I didn't even know what happened.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
All right.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Anyway, let's refocus, though, Coward, because we got to get
some intel on your Jaguars new coach, new schemes and
the Cohen Trevor Lawrence relationship. It kind of reminds us
of last year. I know Trevor's more of a vet,
but last year with Canalis and Bryce. What are the
early returns on Cohen and his effect on Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, dude, everyone's super positive. As you can imagine, anytime
there's change, you hope change is good. They needed to
quote take out the trash with the Trent balke era
as the general manager. Jimmy Gladstone's I'm calling him. He
comes in, he takes over as GM. Liam first ever
opportunity to be a head coach at you know, back
back Attack when we were here, we were young. But
(01:34):
I also described the Jaguars as a technical center of
sorts because everyone had on the job training. It was
first timers everywhere, be it offensive coordinator, defense, head coach,
and honestly, it's the same exact thing right now. Liam,
first ever, you go to Anthony Campaneely on the defensive side,
first time as a defensive coordinator, Granton u Dinsky first
time as an offensive coordinator, so it could easily blow
(01:57):
up Gladstone young GM first times. So we will see
where it goes. Bro but right now the energy is high.
But back to the original thing you said, Trevor Lawrence
has got to play so much better than he has
stay healthy and play better.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
How much of a make or break year is this
for Trevor with his future in Jacksonville.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
It's massive. They've already signed him to the big contract.
Leos Hirsh's on our show, calls of it seventy five
because of how much money they signed him for, and
so you can't cut him, you can't whack that salary.
He gets paid a lot. Now he's got to do
a lot, and I think more than anything else between.
Remember he started with Urban Meyer and that was a
shipwreck of a season, and then he goes from there
(02:41):
to Doug Peterson, they get to the playoffs, and then
the last two years just you know, a pile of
whale poop, and so they haven't been able to sort
things out. And turns the ball over more than anybody
else since he's been in the league. So eliminate the fumbles,
make sure you make better decisions, quicker decisions, and so
basically Fellows Liam cohnan been brought in to resurrect Trevor
(03:03):
Lawrence's career turn him back into that quote generational one,
and he looks like he's got the offensive mind and
play calling ability to do that. We will see if
it all comes to foolish.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I know this man.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
We ain't gonna say a bad thing about Liam Cohen
and his offense after what they did to the Panthers
last year. I mean, I know he doesn't have the
bucks full personnel, but my god, that was ugly last year.
Joe Coward is with US ten ten XL radio in
Jacksonville giving us some thoughts on the Jaguars, giving us
some insight on Jacksonville. All right, So Travis Hunter is
one that we just I mean, even the Panthers' coaching
(03:36):
staff when they're asked about him, they've got to just
plead ignorance. They don't know exactly how he's gonna be used,
and they just got to kind of wait and see
it adjust on the fly. What's your I mean, I
know they're being you know, they're they're not being fully
transparent with the plan. What is your kind of educated
guests based on what's being talked about there? For like
(03:56):
how many what percentage of snaps he plays offense? Say
as you play on defense.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I think they're going to go heavy. Oh. First, they're
going to try and make him become a play producer
on offense. See if he can ignite this offense, score
some points, make people account for him, and Brian Thomas
Junior give Trevor that one more weapon. Brian Thomas Junior
had a huge year last year, fellows over twelve hundred yards,
ten touchdowns with zero zero playmaking on the other side
(04:26):
of that offensive unit. And so now you take some
attention away from him, Travis Hunter can do his thing.
That should be a much more a complete offensive package
of weapons. So they're going to go on that side first.
Then you can visualize the situation where they maybe put
him in and down in distant situations on the defensive
(04:47):
side where you pretty much can say they're going to
throw the football. He's not the biggest cat. He's less
than one hundred and ninety pounds. He already landed on
the injury report with an upper body injury. They held
him out the last two preseason games, So you guys
know it. Durability is going to be the major question.
It's already tough enough for anybody to play this game
on one side of the ball. Now you've got to
(05:08):
take on Shubba Hubbard. Think about him, Rico, if you
if you're at the corner and you've got to handle
that guy on power play, that's going to be the
biggest concern.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Joe, where do you think the Jags have an advantage
in this game? And what's an area from the Jacksonville
perspective that worries you?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Well, you guys gave up a ton of points last year.
Carolina did worse than the NFL history, I think, so.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Thank you for reminding us if we were trying to
turn a page.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Baby. Yeah, that was one of my killers stats down
here in dow Ball.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Oh yeah, I would say if I was still down
there in Jacksonville being the being a homer for y'all,
I would I would.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I would have said that a thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, it's true. So how healthy is Derek Brown? Can
you run the football at him? They are going to
make sure that they established the run. So that is
one hundred percent top of mind for Liam Cohen. Establish
the run. See if your line is any good, you
can get that going, you get the word play action
in and then all of a sudden, you got you
got an offense which has not been worthy of bragging
(06:07):
on in the last couple of season. They couldn't run
the football, they couldn't knock anybody off the ball. I
would always joke fellas, they couldn't get a third and one,
they couldn't stop a third and one. And so those
are the two things they got to do. Prove that
they can defensively man up with Carolina and stop Hubbard
and Rico, and then make sure that they obviously get
to a point where they can run and control the clock.
(06:30):
That is a number one for them right now.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I want let's go to the defensive side of things,
because Joe, as you can imagine, as you are telling
the Jaguars fans, hey, they gave a diverse most points
in NFL history. I am down here saying our defense
was horrendous, but their defense was pretty bad too, all right,
So I'm saying that. But you guys have addressed it,
not only Travis Hunter, Jordan Lewis and the secondary. I
think you've got a new starting safety in the secondary.
(06:54):
What do you think this defense is going to be
improved this year? How vulnerable are they still? What do
you think?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, it's got to be better. Like you just said,
historic bad performance is this one, dude. Ronald Darby last
year gave everybody basically a perfect passer rating. Don't watch
the uniform on where the exact same one. Next week
he gave up more big play. So the back end
is it really is high stakes poker right now to
(07:21):
see whether or not they can avoid the big play.
They would set up a nice little third and eighth,
but then they give up twenty one on that third down,
and so that has to happen. So Eric Murray, Jordan Lewis,
those are the two veterans that they brought in. Tyson
Campbell needs to have a better year. They now have
Travis Hunter, Jari and Jones a couple of guys that
they can work in on that secondary. But the other
(07:41):
part of this spellas is that you've got to make
sure that the pass rush is there if you're Jacksonville.
They did not get to the quarterback enough and now
Takuanu being out on helping his fellows, but that should
be something that Jacksonville can take advantage of. And Josh Signs,
Allen Trayvon Walker need to be dudes. Aren't enough Last
year they did not have the season that people were
(08:04):
hoping for. They don't create enough pass pressure, so Eric
Armstead needs to play his natural position inside and get
something done. In terms of getting to the quarterback.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
We spend a lot of time here Joe talking about, Hey,
what would make this a successful season realistically for the Panthers.
From the Jacks perspective, what do you think would make
this a good season for you guys down there?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, I think if you take the combined win total
of Carolina and Jacksonville last year, either would be happy
if they got there. Yeah. Really, we're talking about butt
bad towards the end of the season and and butt
bad at the end of game they were three and ten.
Jacksonville was in one score game, so when the fourth
(08:47):
quarter win the one score game, that type of thing.
So it may be pie in the sky if they
get to nine and eight, but that's what's won the
division the last three years run it. AFC South is
nine and eight, Jacksonville nine and eight, Houston twice. So
I believe it's doable. If they can get through the
first half of the season, go to London, come out
of there, maybe three and four, four and three would
(09:08):
be unbelievable. A lot of big targets to pick off early.
But if you can get to nine and eight and
stay in the playoff race, well then that's the hell
of an improvement.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Joe, Can you get on the air today and tell
your listeners when they go to the game, the ones
that sit in front of the visitors owner's suite, can
you tell them to take it easy on David Tapper place?
All right, we don't we don't need a drinks flying,
all right, tell them to be nice.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Because this time it's gonna be the fans fault. All right,
you know what's happening up there.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, they're gonna beat him. This is this is gonna
be a basis. Listen, this is no magic lookey coming
out of the suite or anything you guys are talking about.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Before we suggested the fans that sit right there need
to like some umbrellas or something.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Oh y'all could go with that one too. Y'all can
tell your listeners way I should I'm.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Not giving I'm am.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I giving you all that smart ass idea All right, Jackson,
go back and back all right, man, Hey, good to
catch up with you. I'm looking forward to doing the
same thing on your show later on today. Man, I'll
talk to you then, but good to catch up with you.
Appreciate you all right.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Always good mag attack boning you guys do well?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
All right man, be good. That is Joe Coward
Our next guest has been a staple there way back then,
and he is still rocking and hosting XL Primetime on
ten ten x L weekdays at noon. He is Joe Coward,
and he joins us to give us some insight on
the Jaguars. Joe, what is going on down there in Jacksonville? Man,
how you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm doing great, man, But it does kill me when
you say two decades ago. That's put a little age
on both of us.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Bro seriously rocking dude. We were like young bucks back then.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We were two different stations back then, so you know,
I had to act like I didn't like you and stuff, but.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Like we were so young back then. Man, look at
us now, Oh god, hey, do you guys want to
take him back yet?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
It's been two decades here now, So I'm just I
think curious.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, you want us to go ahead and ship them
south of the Queen Cities.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I didn't last long down there. They fired me, Cox Radio,
fired meself a as Bone. I didn't even know what happened.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
All right.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Anyway, let's refocus, though, Coward, because we got to get
some intel on your Jaguars new coach, new schemes and
the Cohen Trevor Lawrence relationship. It kind of reminds us
of last year. I know Trevor's more of a vet,
but last year with Canalis and Bryce. What are the
early returns on Cohen and his effect on Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, dude, everyone's super positive. As you can imagine, anytime
there's change, you hope change is good. They needed to
quote take out the trash with the Trent balke era
as the general manager. Jimmy Gladstone's I'm calling him. He
comes in, he takes over as GM. Liam first ever
opportunity to be a head coach at you know, back
back Attack when we were here, we were young. But
(01:34):
I also described the Jaguars as a technical center of
sorts because everyone had on the job training. It was
first timers everywhere, be it offensive coordinator, defense, head coach,
and honestly, it's the same exact thing right now. Liam,
first ever, you go to Anthony Campaneely on the defensive side,
first time as a defensive coordinator, Granton u Dinsky first
time as an offensive coordinator, so it could easily blow
(01:57):
up Gladstone young GM first times. So we will see
where it goes. Bro but right now the energy is high.
But back to the original thing you said, Trevor Lawrence
has got to play so much better than he has
stay healthy and play better.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
How much of a make or break year is this
for Trevor with his future in Jacksonville.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
It's massive. They've already signed him to the big contract.
Leos Hirsh's on our show, calls of it seventy five
because of how much money they signed him for, and
so you can't cut him, you can't whack that salary.
He gets paid a lot. Now he's got to do
a lot, and I think more than anything else between.
Remember he started with Urban Meyer and that was a
shipwreck of a season, and then he goes from there
(02:41):
to Doug Peterson, they get to the playoffs, and then
the last two years just you know, a pile of
whale poop, and so they haven't been able to sort
things out. And turns the ball over more than anybody
else since he's been in the league. So eliminate the fumbles,
make sure you make better decisions, quicker decisions, and so
basically Fellows Liam cohnan been brought in to resurrect Trevor
(03:03):
Lawrence's career turn him back into that quote generational one,
and he looks like he's got the offensive mind and
play calling ability to do that. We will see if
it all comes to foolish.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I know this man.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
We ain't gonna say a bad thing about Liam Cohen
and his offense after what they did to the Panthers
last year. I mean, I know he doesn't have the
bucks full personnel, but my god, that was ugly last year.
Joe Coward is with US ten ten XL radio in
Jacksonville giving us some thoughts on the Jaguars, giving us
some insight on Jacksonville. All right, So Travis Hunter is
one that we just I mean, even the Panthers' coaching
(03:36):
staff when they're asked about him, they've got to just
plead ignorance. They don't know exactly how he's gonna be used,
and they just got to kind of wait and see
it adjust on the fly. What's your I mean, I
know they're being you know, they're they're not being fully
transparent with the plan. What is your kind of educated
guests based on what's being talked about there? For like
(03:56):
how many what percentage of snaps he plays offense? Say
as you play on defense.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I think they're going to go heavy. Oh. First, they're
going to try and make him become a play producer
on offense. See if he can ignite this offense, score
some points, make people account for him, and Brian Thomas
Junior give Trevor that one more weapon. Brian Thomas Junior
had a huge year last year, fellows over twelve hundred yards,
ten touchdowns with zero zero playmaking on the other side
(04:26):
of that offensive unit. And so now you take some
attention away from him, Travis Hunter can do his thing.
That should be a much more a complete offensive package
of weapons. So they're going to go on that side first.
Then you can visualize the situation where they maybe put
him in and down in distant situations on the defensive
(04:47):
side where you pretty much can say they're going to
throw the football. He's not the biggest cat. He's less
than one hundred and ninety pounds. He already landed on
the injury report with an upper body injury. They held
him out the last two preseason games, So you guys
know it. Durability is going to be the major question.
It's already tough enough for anybody to play this game
on one side of the ball. Now you've got to
(05:08):
take on Shubba Hubbard. Think about him, Rico, if you
if you're at the corner and you've got to handle
that guy on power play, that's going to be the
biggest concern.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Joe, where do you think the Jags have an advantage
in this game? And what's an area from the Jacksonville
perspective that worries you?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Well, you guys gave up a ton of points last year.
Carolina did worse than the NFL history, I think, so.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Thank you for reminding us if we were trying to
turn a page.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Baby. Yeah, that was one of my killers stats down
here in dow Ball.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Oh yeah, I would say if I was still down
there in Jacksonville being the being a homer for y'all,
I would I would.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I would have said that a thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, it's true. So how healthy is Derek Brown? Can
you run the football at him? They are going to
make sure that they established the run. So that is
one hundred percent top of mind for Liam Cohen. Establish
the run. See if your line is any good, you
can get that going, you get the word play action
in and then all of a sudden, you got you
got an offense which has not been worthy of bragging
(06:07):
on in the last couple of season. They couldn't run
the football, they couldn't knock anybody off the ball. I
would always joke fellas, they couldn't get a third and one,
they couldn't stop a third and one. And so those
are the two things they got to do. Prove that
they can defensively man up with Carolina and stop Hubbard
and Rico, and then make sure that they obviously get
to a point where they can run and control the clock.
(06:30):
That is a number one for them right now.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I want let's go to the defensive side of things,
because Joe, as you can imagine, as you are telling
the Jaguars fans, hey, they gave a diverse most points
in NFL history. I am down here saying our defense
was horrendous, but their defense was pretty bad too, all right,
So I'm saying that. But you guys have addressed it,
not only Travis Hunter, Jordan Lewis and the secondary. I
think you've got a new starting safety in the secondary.
(06:54):
What do you think this defense is going to be
improved this year? How vulnerable are they still? What do
you think?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, it's got to be better. Like you just said,
historic bad performance is this one, dude. Ronald Darby last
year gave everybody basically a perfect passer rating. Don't watch
the uniform on where the exact same one. Next week
he gave up more big play. So the back end
is it really is high stakes poker right now to
(07:21):
see whether or not they can avoid the big play.
They would set up a nice little third and eighth,
but then they give up twenty one on that third down,
and so that has to happen. So Eric Murray, Jordan Lewis,
those are the two veterans that they brought in. Tyson
Campbell needs to have a better year. They now have
Travis Hunter, Jari and Jones a couple of guys that
they can work in on that secondary. But the other
(07:41):
part of this spellas is that you've got to make
sure that the pass rush is there if you're Jacksonville.
They did not get to the quarterback enough and now
Takuanu being out on helping his fellows, but that should
be something that Jacksonville can take advantage of. And Josh Signs,
Allen Trayvon Walker need to be dudes. Aren't enough Last
year they did not have the season that people were
(08:04):
hoping for. They don't create enough pass pressure, so Eric
Armstead needs to play his natural position inside and get
something done. In terms of getting to the quarterback.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
We spend a lot of time here Joe talking about, Hey,
what would make this a successful season realistically for the Panthers.
From the Jacks perspective, what do you think would make
this a good season for you guys down there?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, I think if you take the combined win total
of Carolina and Jacksonville last year, either would be happy
if they got there. Yeah. Really, we're talking about butt
bad towards the end of the season and and butt
bad at the end of game they were three and ten.
Jacksonville was in one score game, so when the fourth
(08:47):
quarter win the one score game, that type of thing.
So it may be pie in the sky if they
get to nine and eight, but that's what's won the
division the last three years run it. AFC South is
nine and eight, Jacksonville nine and eight, Houston twice. So
I believe it's doable. If they can get through the
first half of the season, go to London, come out
of there, maybe three and four, four and three would
(09:08):
be unbelievable. A lot of big targets to pick off early.
But if you can get to nine and eight and
stay in the playoff race, well then that's the hell
of an improvement.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Joe, Can you get on the air today and tell
your listeners when they go to the game, the ones
that sit in front of the visitors owner's suite, can
you tell them to take it easy on David Tapper place?
All right, we don't we don't need a drinks flying,
all right, tell them to be nice.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Because this time it's gonna be the fans fault. All right,
you know what's happening up there.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, they're gonna beat him. This is this is gonna
be a basis. Listen, this is no magic lookey coming
out of the suite or anything you guys are talking about.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Before we suggested the fans that sit right there need
to like some umbrellas or something.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Oh y'all could go with that one too. Y'all can
tell your listeners way I should I'm.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Not giving I'm am.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I giving you all that smart ass idea All right, Jackson,
go back and back all right, man, Hey, good to
catch up with you. I'm looking forward to doing the
same thing on your show later on today. Man, I'll
talk to you then, but good to catch up with you.
Appreciate you all right.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Always good mag attack boning you guys do well?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
All right man, be good. That is Joe Coward
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