The Jacksonville Jaguars shocked the world with their week one victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Coming into the game, the Colts were considered a playoff contender, while the consensus in the sports world for the Jaguars was that they were tanking for a chance at drafting Trevor Lawrence in next year’s NFL Draft. Since the start of last season, they had traded away or released almost all of their best players from their 2017 AFC championship game run, including stars such as Jalen Ramsey, Calais Campbell, and Yannick Ngakoue. Maybe the most convincing sign of intentional tanking came two weeks ago, when they released Leonard Fournette, the fourth overall pick of the 2017 draft. Fournette was still on his rookie contract and there was certainly no need to create cap space. Fournette though, like most of the other players Jacksonville shipped away, had become a malcontent and wanted OUT. After signing with Tampa Bay, he said “For the first time in my life, I really have a quarterback.” Ngakoue, who was publicly demanding a large contract extension, happily took a nearly 6 million dollar pay cut after being sent to Minnesota. These moves were not driven by a plan to lose as many football games as possible, their hand was forced by diva players who quit on the team after things went south. The Fournette move was also made easier for them after seeing undrafted rookie James Robinson’s strong performance in training camp. In Robinson’s final year at Illinois State, he ran for nearly 2000 yards and had 18 touchdowns, but his 4.64 40 yard dash time wasn’t quite enough to impress NFL teams. Jacksonville scooped him up, and gave him the start this week, making him the first undrafted rookie running back to start in the last 30 years. He impressed early on, and had an amazing highlight catch and run, hurdling over 2 defenders for a long gain. Gardner Minshew made some history as well, as he completed 19 of his 20 pass attempts for 173 yards and 3 touchdowns, giving him more touchdowns than incompletions for the game. He is the first Jaguar to ever accomplish the feat, and it was just the 54th “Dawson” in NFL history. The stellar performance did not come completely out of nowhere either, Minshew had a solid rookie season last year that was somewhat overlooked. He completed over 60 percent of his passes and had 21 touchdowns to 6 interceptions in his 12 starts. He also showed surprising mobility, escaping pressure frequently and racking up 344 rushing yards. The Jaguars’ talented young playmakers DJ Chark and Laviska Shenault Jr. also impressed in the win, with both catching touchdowns. The defensive side of the ball also has some young, talented players, such as edge rushers Josh Allen and K’Lavon Chaisson, rookie cornerback CJ Henderson, and linebacker Myles Jack. They also made the big signing of pro-bowl linebacker Joe Schobert this year, which was not exactly a “tanking” move to make. These young Jaguars give plenty of reason for optimism, and they may have already found their franchise QB in Gardner Minshew. Do they still have a ways to go to be considered a contender? Yes, but they hardly look like the tanking, worst team in the league they were proclaimed to be.