Jaguars fans aren’t rooting for losses, we’re rooting for a chance at a franchise quarterback

Losing is the new winning for our Jacksonville Jaguars.

For the last two weeks, the Jaguars have done exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for future success. They’ve lost games (which is the most important thing) but they’ve done it in a way where they’re still competitive throughout all four quarters — they’re avoiding blowouts because their young players are good enough to hang with better rosters.

Justin Herbert is a good quarterback with a bright future. A Jaguars secondary featuring more rookies and castoffs than veterans traded leads with him.

Deshaun Watson is a star. A Jaguars defensive line that saw its two most talented players traded away before the season was able to keep him from running away with it.

James Robinson is continuing to break NFL records for undrafted players. D.J. Chark showed big play ability. Myles Jack flashed some of that 2017 ability. Your backup quarterbacks are playing at a level where they’re not dragging the rest of the team down.

These players are part of your young core and you can continue to develop them around what you know to be a future rookie quarterback. It’s only going to help your team for the future as well as allow whomever you draft to hit the ground running.

There is a thought among the local Jaguars beat that we shouldn’t be rooting for losses — we should always root for the team to win because being a fan requires nothing less. It’s a minority opinion, but it kind of came to a head last night with Garry Smits arguing that rooting for losses is bad for a lot of reasons.

A few things...

First, I don’t think any Jaguars fan thinks the players or coaches are trying to lose games. That’s not what’s happening.

Second, I don’t think teaching kids our shared history of mediocre win-loss records leading to mediocre quarterbacks is a bad thing.

There are fans rooting for a 1-15 record because it gives us the best chance at upgrading the most important position in professional sports. Right now, there are two quarterbacks who the consensus of media and analysts believe can be top-tier game changers in the NFL — Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields. We aren’t rooting for a lost season for the sake of a lost season. We’re rooting for a lost season for the sake of finally becoming free of national punchlines.

Jaguars fans have suffered 98 losses since Shad Khan bought the team in 2012. When we (likely) lose to the Green Bay Packers this week, we’ll have a chance to hit the century mark against the Cleveland Browns — an irony that speaks a thousand words after we told ourselves during years of losing that “at least we aren’t the Browns”.

Well, we were right. We aren’t the Browns. We’re worse. We will likely finish the season with more losses over the last decade than any other team in the NFL. We want to be excited about something again and we want our team to finally rise from doldrums of the NFL cellar.

That requires a franchise quarterback.

A franchise quarterback requires an embarrassing win-loss record.

That’s what we’re rooting for.

The kids will thank us, Garry.

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