In a little over two months, the Jacksonville Jaguars will kick off the 2024 season in hopes of shedding away the nightmare that was 2023.
In the Jaguars’ pursuit of an AFC South title and a spot in the playoffs, the Jaguars will need the core of their roster to help propel them past the Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Tennessee Titans, and the rest of the opponents on their schedule.
But who are those players? Which players will be the ones who decide whether the Jaguars find their way back to playoffs?
We will attempt to answer that question in two series. One series will begin in July, while the other will start today and continue until Week 1.
So … who are the top 25 players on the Jaguars roster ahead of 2024? We break it down below.
This time, we start off with No. 25 …
No. 25: Logan Cooke
One of the longest-tenured players on the roster, there is a fair argument to make for Cooke to be even higher on this list. With that said, some positional value is baked into the rankings, leaving Cooke to start off our list.
Drafted in the seventh round of the 2018 NFL Draft, Cooke has become one of the Jaguars’ top Day 3 picks in recent memory, if not in franchise history altogether. Including playoff games, Cooke has played in 97 games for the Jaguars since his rookie season. In that time, he has developed into not just one of the most consistent players on the roster, but one of the most consistent punters in the entire NFL.
“Logan Cooke is as talented as there is in this league. He has Pro Bowl
talent,” Jaguars special teams coordinator Heath Farwell said in June 2022 in his first year as coordinator.
“He’s a guy that is super talented, great directionally with
the big leg, he’s competitive, he’s been a great leader.”
Last year, Cooke ranked just No. 21 in total punts with 61 but managed to rank No. 11 in punts downed inside the 20-yard line with 29. Cooke’s 47.5% rate of punts inside the 20 ranked No. 3 in the entire NFL, while ranking No. 19 in touchback rates with 6.6% (four touchbacks). in short, Cooke mastered the art of pinning teams in their own territory without giving them free yards via touchbacks.
For a Jaguars’ defense in 2023 that relied on turnovers and field positioning to produce results, Cooke was quietly one of the unit’s top influencers. Cooke has been able to limit the impact of punt returns from opposing teams and has frequently proven the ability to set the defense up to succeed, which shouldn’t change in 2024 and moving forward.
At the rate Cooke is currently going, he could end up being the best punter in franchise history.