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Christian Kirk injury is punctuation mark to Jacksonville Jaguars season gone all wrong
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- Christian Kirk injury is punctuation mark to Jacksonville Jaguars season gone all wrong
A proud, impassioned Evan Engram stood in a media scrum inside the Jacksonville Jaguars ' locker room Sunday and defiantly declared: "Hell no, the season's not over."
Not officially, but the 30-year-old tight end had to know after seeing receiver Christian Kirk writhing in pain , followed by a gut-wrenching 30-27 loss to the Green Bay Packers , the Jaguars' 2024 season had hit an expiration date.
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There might be nine games remaining, but all hope for a promising year has been realistically extinguished.
When the news came down Monday morning that Kirk had to undergo season-ending surgery to repair a broken collarbone, it felt like a fait accompli.
Nasty reputation: Jacksonville Jaguars do have unwanted identity, inability to win in game-deciding moments
Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Christian Kirk (13) lies on the turf after an apparent injury during the fourth quarter of an NFL football matchup Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. The Packers edged the Jaguars 30-27 on a last-second field goal. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]
The Jaguars were already enduring the most disappointing season in franchise history, so losing a player of Kirk's magnitude for a second straight year is now just piling on.
In a season where everything has gone wrong, the idea that the Jaguars must carry on without one of Trevor Lawrence 's top weapons and a dependable team leader just adds to the bummer of a 2-6 record.
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We all saw how the Jaguars' season fizzled in 2023 after Kirk went down with an abdominal injury on the first play from scrimmage in a Week 13 Monday Night Football loss to the Cincinnati Bengals , going 1-5 while he mended. But at least that team was 8-3 at the time and still playing for a No. 1 AFC playoff seed until the collapse began.
This is a much different circumstance. The Jaguars' season was already cratering when Kirk, after leaping up and almost grabbing Lawrence's 45-yard pass against Green Bay , gingerly walked off the field for the last time in 2024.
All this does is make the last nine weeks, for a beleaguered fan base, feel like a six-month ordeal. It seems the only suspense left is determining which top-5 draft pick will fall in the Jaguars' lap.
Diminishing entertainment value
Not that losing one player, especially a non-quarterback, should be a season-killer. It's just that the Jaguars, already tied for the NFL's third-worst record, have again evolved into an offense-reliant team because their defense has too many deficiencies.
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So being without Kirk, and not knowing the significance of how a chest injury will impact the playing status of rookie star receiver Brian Thomas Jr. , how can the Jaguars not feel the season slipping away from them?
After Sunday's game, cornerback Tyson Campbell was resolved the Jaguars could dig themselves out of a 2-6 hole, but that was before he knew they'd have to move on without Kirk.
"It's tough," Campbell said. "We've been going through adversity all year. This team has got grit, man. We're just going to keep fighting, find what we need to fix and need to work on. Eventually, I think we're going to get over this hump."
The reality is, if the Jaguars gain any momentum, it's more likely going to be in 2025 when presumably the organization will be under new leadership.
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Whether that means a total housecleaning of both the front office and coaching staff — a solution that Shad Khan is reluctant to choose than most NFL owners — there must be impactful change of some sort coming.
At 2-6, with their next four games being the toughest obstacles, the Jaguars are staring at the possibility of being officially eliminated from playoff contention by the end of November for the third time in five seasons.
Not even the biggest Jaguars pessimists, of which many national media are card-carrying members, envisioned this season spinning that far out of control so quickly.
But with the offense and defense taking turns not doing their job properly, the Jaguars — one of four NFL teams to lose four games by less than a touchdown — keep failing in pressurized, game-closing moments.
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Over the next month, without Kirk, it figures only to get harder for the Jaguars to be in position at the end of games to have a shot at winning.
If Kirk's done with Jaguars, what a terrible ending
Beyond the sting of missing a career-high nine games, a bigger question looming over Kirk is whether he will ever suit up again for the Jaguars.
He has one year left on the four-year, $72 million contract signed in 2022, which many NFL observers considered too pricey for a receiver of his past production. But Kirk delivered a personal best 1,108 yards in his first Jaguars season and was on track to match it last year when he got hurt.
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Depending on the progress of Kirk's recovery, and no matter if current GM Trent Baalke is still in that position next offseason or not, Kirk could be viewed as expendable since he has the team's highest cap hit at $24.4 million in 2025.
When Engram spoke glowingly after the Packers game of Kirk's impact in the locker room, it surely didn't escape him that the business of the NFL might make Kirk an ex-teammate in 2025.
"He's one of the best teammates I've ever had, ever been around, one of the smartest players I've been around," said Engram. "One of the best leaders I've been around. You saw him cut up today too, he was rolling, he was getting going.
"Just a very unfortunate event. God doesn't make mistakes, there's a plan. His will is better than any of us could imagine, so he'll be just fine."
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You could feel the depth of sadness in Engram's voice. Kirk may not have an official captain's title, but the level of respect he commands within the organization is undeniable.
The Jaguars and Lawrence will have to carry on again the rest of 2024 without one of their most valuable pieces.
With No. 13 sidelined, and this season already gone south, the Jaguars have a lot stacked against them.
They didn't just lose Christian Kirk . The Jaguars also lost a good part of their heart and soul.
Gfrenette@jacksonville.com ; (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @genefrenette
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars lost season gets worse with Christian Kirk injury
