Five Jacksonville Jaguars to Watch Over the Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills host the Jacksonville Jaguars for Monday night footballand through two weeks of the 2024 NFL season, these teams have traveled opposite paths. While Buffalo started slowly, trailing the Arizona Cardinals 17-3 at the end of the first half of their first game, the Bills have won both games this season. Jacksonville, on the other hand, jumped out to a 17-3 series lead over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1 before losing that game and their second game to the Cleveland Browns.

Just because the Jags are 0-2 and the Bills are 2-0, I’m sure there are people who are expecting an easy win for the Bills. They shouldn’t be. Jacksonville has plenty of talent and they’re just a few breaks away from being 2-0, just like the Bills. If Buffalo wants to pull out a win on Monday night, they’ll need to continue their excellent defensive streak against another talented offense.

Here are the five Jacksonville players to watch this week.

QB Trevor Lawrence

Lawrence is an enigma, as his college career and draft pedigree suggest a level of success he has yet to achieve. At the same time, his last two seasons have been pretty good, as he averaged 4,065 passing yards, 23 passing touchdowns and a 66% completion rate in his last 33 games.

Football is a team sport, so it’s hard to blame the Jags’ lackluster record over that span solely on Lawrence, but I think some people are being unfair about that. He has the ability to make every throw an NFL quarterback needs to make, and he tore the Bills defense apart last season when the two teams met in London. Lawrence was 25 of 37 for 315 yards and a touchdown in that game. Buffalo was missing a couple of key starters in that game, as they were this week.

Forcing Lawrence into a turnover (he hasn’t been intercepted in 51 attempts this season) would be a huge boost for the Bills’ defense, which has been fantastic over the last six quarters.

RB Travis Etienne, Jr.

Etienne is really good, both as a runner and as a receiver out of the backfield. Last year, the Bills lost linebacker Matt Milano midway through the game, and in the fourth quarter, Etienne ran wild through a jet-lagged MASH unit.

This year, the jet lag won’t be there, but the injuries will remain. The Jaguars will likely look to move the ball on the ground before opening up the passing game, especially if they think they can once again overpower the Bills at the point of attack.

With neither Milano nor Terrel Bernard — who injured a pectoral muscle last week against Miami — playing this week, linebackers Dorian Williams and Baylon Spector will be tasked with bottling up the Jacksonville rushing attack at the second level. Neither player is particularly good in coverage, so the Jaguars will likely look to isolate Etienne in space against them to find some chunk plays in the screen game.

WR Gabe Davis

The first of Buffalo’s two matchups against its top 2023 targets comes this week. “Big Game Gabe” would love to give his former employer a hard time, but a Bills secondary that has held wide receivers Marvin Harrison, Jr., Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle in check over the past two weeks will be a tough nut to crack for the fifth-year wideout.

Davis is Jacksonville’s current leader in targets (10) and receptions (6), and he’s second in receiving yards with 105, trailing only popular Bills Mafia 2024 draft crush Brian Thomas, Jr. Whether it’s Rasul Douglas or Christian Benford over Davis, the Bills certainly have the talent in the secondary to handle him. It will be interesting to see how he performs in his first game at Highmark Stadium as a visitor.

THE Josh Hines-Allen

The artist formerly known as the other Josh Allen is a tough target for anyone, but Buffalo’s offensive line has been elite in pass protection so far this year. Hines-Allen has one sack, two pass knockdowns and six tackles this season, but he’s been a nuisance for the Bills every time he’s played them.

In the ugly 9-6 debacle that was 2021, Hines-Allen had eight tackles, one sack, one interception and one fumble recovery to help his team pull out the win. Last year, Hines-Allen had just one tackle, but he was a constant presence who commanded attention in the blocking scheme. Hines-Allen is a game-wrecker, and the Bills will have to hope Spencer Brown and Dion Dawkins can keep him from doing that in primetime.

CB Ronald Darby

Not exactly the former Bill you expected us to discuss, right? Darby signed with Jacksonville this offseason after spending the 2023 season with the Baltimore Ravens.

Darby has allowed six catches on 10 targets for 101 yards and a score. He has two pass breakups this year. It’s easy to forget how good he was early in his career with the Bills — he had two interceptions and an absurd 21 pass breakups as a rookie, finishing second to Marcus Peters in the AP‘s Defensive Rookie of the Year award in 2015.

Darby has always been a stingy, grabby defender who can cause trouble if a referee’s team allows some contact. Expect the Bills to double-team him at some point, likely with Marquez Valdes-Scantling, to either draw a big penalty or score a big gainer.