Dez Bryant: Jaguars Will Be Top Team in 2023 That 'Will Put the NFL on Notice'
Count Dez Bryant in the Jacksonville Jaguars' bandwagon entering 2023.
The Jaguars did a lot to dispel their losing ways and bad reputation around the league in 2022, going 9-8 during an AFC South title run and defeating the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card Round in Doug Pederson's first year as head coach.
As a result, the Jaguars are gaining love from all corners of the football world this offseason, a stark contrast from, well, any offseason in recent memory.
This includes from Bryant, the former Dallas Cowboys star receiver who ranked the Jaguars as the top team due to put the NFL on notice next year.
“The good thing about that, first of all, it’s a lot easier to be the hunter than the hunted, right? As you get better and you become the hunted, the challenge gets harder," Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said at the conclusion of the season.
"You’re going to get every team's best when they show up in Jacksonville. In the past, maybe they thought this was going to be an easy out, that’s no longer going to be the case. I think the last part of this season really prepared this young group to understand that there’s a real sense of urgency that goes into being a championship caliber team. It just doesn’t happen."
Baalke is right; the time of the Jaguars being a laughingstock and an easy win each week for the opposing team look to be over. With the Jaguars shifting gears out of neutral and into drive in 2022, the rest of the NFL is on notice, with Bryant being one of the early ones to recognize their trajectory.
"The players saw that, you really see it in the playoffs, but because we were playing playoff football for the last month of the season, it was evident to them just how much urgency there is starting on Monday," Baalke said.
"You don’t wait until Sunday to get excited about playing or get prepared to play. It starts on Monday and as they got to understand that better, we played better. That should carry over to next season for us.”
