Jaguars owner Shad Khan reiterates his belief in the team and coaching staff despite a 1-4 start to the 2024 season

But in a conversation Saturday with the Florida Times-Union, Jaguars owner Shad Khan wasn't quite ready to throw in the towel just yet. Khan was vocal during the offseason that “winning now is the expectation” and that he believed this was the “best team the Jacksonville Jaguars have ever assembled.”

Asked if the early disappointments had changed his mind on this claim, Khan stood his ground and replied: “No. Not at all.”

“I still believe in her. I believe in the players, I believe in the coaching staff. I believe in (general manager) Trent (Baalke),” Khan said. “Of course the results are disappointing for all of them, just as they are for me or any other Jaguar fan, but the most important thing to understand is that we have developed and have really reached a level. I think we have that. “We have the players, we have the coaching, we have the facilities.

Part of Khan's justification for his optimism is the way the Jaguars lost their first four games. In Week 3, the Bills finished 47-10, but Jacksonville's other three games they lost were much closer.

In each of those three games, the Jaguars either had a lead or had a chance to take the lead late in the contest, but couldn't quite finish the job, losing each time by less than a touchdown and a total of 12 points.

“For me, every game you go to, you want to do everything you can to win it, and this is the NFL, that’s hard. Every game is highly competitive. A defeat is a defeat, but (it's about) how you lose,” Khan said. “For me the three games we lost at the start of the season are disappointing, but we could have won them.”

In Week 5 against the Colts, they avoided this fate and won by a field goal, although Indy was only able to overcome a 14-point deficit and score the equalizer late in the game. The Jags hope this can provide the impetus to turn over a new leaf in the second quarter of the season.

Khan also pointed to the franchise's recent history as reason for hope for the 2024 season, reiterating that even terrible starts can be saved by a strong finish. Jacksonville did just that in 2022, starting the year 3-7 before winning six of its final seven games to finish 9-8 and win the AFC South just one year after going 3-14.

A victory is a spark of hope. To turn that spark into a flame, the Jaguars must maintain their winning ways, starting with Sunday's London game against the Bears at 9:30 a.m. ET.