**JACKSONVILLE** – Each week during the 2025 season, Jaguars "experts" – Frank Frangie, Jeff Lageman, Brent Martineau, John Oehser, Brian Sexton, J.P. Shadrick and Kainani Stevens – will analyze the following day's Jaguars matchup.
**Brian Sexton, jaguars.com senior correspondent**
* **The Jaguars will win if:** They can run and open up the playbook. [Jaguars Head Coach Liam Coen](https://www.jaguars.com/team/coaches-roster/liam-coen) is supposed to be an excellent offensive play caller, but if the offense can't stay on the field – and it hasn't for the last two seasons – then all that talent is wasted. Coen proved he can revive a running game last season in Tampa, and Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield posted the best season of his career. Run the ball and win on Sunday.
* **The Panthers will win if:** They can attack a rebuilt Jaguars defensive backfield. Time and again last season, we saw an opposing quarterback make big plays against the secondary; they seemed powerless to stop what they knew was coming. If Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young can do what Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud, Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love and Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff were able to last season, it's going to be a long day – and a long season – in Jacksonville.
* **As Sexton sees it:** The Jaguars have a better roster than the Panthers. They'll get a Week 1 victory on the strength of a rebuilt running game and a talented defensive line, which will control the lines of scrimmage.