Turnovers have been a point of emphasis during Jaguars offseason

One of the areas that have killed the Jacksonville Jaguars the past few seasons have been turnovers. Be it turning the ball over themselves or failing to create turnovers for themselves. The turnover battle is one of the biggest indicators of success in the NFL and it’s something the Jaguars have struggled with.

As it should be, it’s been an emphasis this offseason.

“Yeah. It’s been, from the top-down, from him to talking to Coach [Doug] Marrone to talking with Nathaniel [Hackett],” Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles said on Tuesday when asked if turnovers have been a focus this offseason. “It’s all the same. If you don’t turn the ball over, you’ll win football games. That’s our focus. Turnovers are going to happen. We get that. You have to make sure to minimize them as much as possible and stay away from the stupid ones.”

The Jaguars have lost the turnover battle, by a wide margin, the past three seasons and it’s gotten worse as it went on. The team had a -6 turnover differential in 2014, -10 in 2015 and -13 in 2016. All three years they’ve been in the bottom 10 in the NFL, being in the bottom three the last two seasons. It’s no surprise they’ve struggled to win, as they’re on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of turning the ball over and forcing turnovers.

As Bortles mentioned, to win in the NFL you absolutely cannot turn the ball over with any kind of consistency or in critical moments. Both of those have been issues for the Jaguars, but going forward it’s going to have to change if they want to win games.