Jaguars make Broncos head coach Sean Payton eat his words

Did you know that, with a population of 1.01 million, Jacksonville is the 10th biggest city in the United States? And that, for comparison, Denver is ranked 19th with just under 730,000?

You didn’t? Apparently, neither did Broncos head coach Sean Payton.

In the lead-up to his team’s Week 16 meeting with the Jaguars, Payton referred to his opponent as a team from a “smaller market.” While that comment in itself is rather innocent, especially considering that it was paired with him actually praising Jacksonville as “a real good team,” it was all that Liam Coen needed.

The Jaguars’ head coach turned the remarks into a rallying cry for the game between his club and Payton’s. It worked.

Heading into Mile High as 3-point underdogs, the Jaguars left with a convincing 34-20 victory that confirmed their status as one of the hottest teams in the NFL right now. Their sixth win in a row came in a particularly challenging environment: the Broncos had not lost at home since October 2024, getting unbeaten in their last 12 games in Denver.

And yet, it was the supposed “smaller-market” team that came out on top — something Coen made sure to let the world know after the game.

“Just thankful that a small-market team like us can come into a place like Mile High and get it done,” Coen said during the introductory remarks of his postgame press conference.

The Jaguars are now flying back to Florida at 11-4, just one game behind the Broncos and Patriots, who share identical 12-3 records as the respective first and second seeds in the AFC. On Monday, if the Indianapolis Colts lose to the San Francisco 49ers, Jacksonville could join those two as the only teams in their conference having clinched a playoff spot already.

Regardless of the outcome of that particular game, however, the Jaguars have shown they are a playoff-caliber team. Their six-game win streak is the second-longest in the league right now behind only Houston’s seven, and quarterback Trevor Lawrence is playing arguably the best football of his career. Pair that with an opportunistic defense that added two more takeaways on Sunday and now sits at 28 on the year, second in the AFC, and you get a team ready to make some noise in the playoffs.

Not bad for a small-market team.