The Jacksonville Jaguars are coming off their most successful season in nearly two decades after snapping a playoff drought while reaching the AFC Championship game.

This has lifted the expectation levels around the franchise to a tremendous level of replicating that type of success this upcoming season. According to Phillip Heilman of Jacksonville.com, quarterback Blake Bortles has voiced that he's up for the challenges that will present themselves in 2018.

“I think from what we did last year, I think the expectations have kind of changed a little bit,” Bortles said Monday before the start of his third annual charity golf tournament at the King & Bear Golf Course in St. Augustine. “Within the locker room, they were definitely different last year, and I think they are only going to continue to change and grow and get higher.

“I’m looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a good challenge and it will be a good year.”

It will be a much more difficult path to this playoffs this time around that will begin with the AFC South division race. There will be the return of Pro Bowl quarterback Andrew Luck after missing all of last year that will immediately put the Indianapolis Colts back in the hunt while the Houston Texans are poised for the playoffs with rising star quarterback Deshaun Watson under center after a promising rookie year was cut short by a torn ACL.

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Meanwhile, the Tennessee Titans are coming off their first playoff berth in nearly a decade that should see them be a worthy foe in their efforts to reach the postseason two years in a row. The Jaguars now have the targets on their backs in the division that will only ramp things up another notch.

Jacksonville looks to be prepared for those challenges behind their talented roster that is anchored by arguably the best defense in the league. It could also set the table for Bortles to prove he was worth the three-year, $54 million extension that he inked earlier this offseason. Time will only tell if the Jaguars are up for the challenges that lie ahead in the 2018 campaign.