I think it goes without saying but I'll say it anyway. The Jags' pass rush might be anemic this year. The Fowler injury was a big blow obviously. Add to that the fact that the remainder of the pass rushers on this team are average at best. Throw in the Andre Branch injury and it's even worse. Sen'Derrick Marks was taken off PUP but I'm not expecting big things from him this year. Geno Atkins was ineffective last year after coming back from a similar injury and I expect the ACL to have a similar effect on Marks this year.
Sorry, I hate to be a Debbie Downer but the lack of pass rush is going to really hurt this team this year. I think the defense will struggle as a whole because of it. I just hope the rush defense is strong so that down & distance will allow to get our best pass rushers on the field in predictable 3rd and long situations.
On the plus side, I think the offense will grow by leaps and bounds this year. The O line is much improved. The receivers are good and the arrow is definitely pointing up with that unit. The TEs are good if not great when Julius returns from his injury. The RB group is deep and talented.
For the first time in a long time, I expect the offense to be better than the defense. Let's hope they can manufacture a pass rush and make this team a winner.
hendershot, I think this is a great assessment of the Jaguars.
If the Jaguars left side of the Offensive Line makes positive strides during the season and Julius Thomas is back in the foreseeable future, I think the Jags have a good chance at taking a major jump forward on Offense.
The injury situation up front on Defense is very unfortunate. If the Jags had all of the pieces you mentioned at a relatively healthy level, this team could have realistically contended for a playoff spot in the AFC. While playoff contention probably won't happen this season, I definitely believe that the current team brass has the team headed towards much better days ahead for the Jaguars fan base.
Next year at this time, barring something unforeseen, I believe most Jags fans and others like myself who follow the NFL closely will believe the Jags will be at least right in the playoff mix. Especially, considering the team's salary cap situation.
Add to that the linebackers and hoping for the best.
Secondary is an issue.
Colvin hasn't prove anything.
House is average.
McCray is good, not great.
Quote:Secondary is an issue.
Colvin hasn't prove anything.z
House is average.
McCray is good, not great.
Oh come one. Colvin and McCray are easily two of the best young CBs in the league, and Hood is solid. Gratz just might be the best dime corner in the league. CB is one position I'm not at all worried about.
As for a pass rush, I'm clueless. I'd like to see more of Skuta at LEO as I'm reminded of when OLB Greg Favors was asked to rush the passer and did one heck of a job providing pressure when nothing else was working.
Was our pass rush that much better on paper to start last season? I'm not expecting to repeat last year's success from a total sacks standpoint, but we were able to manufacture a pretty good pass rush last year despite not having a premier guy on the line which we do not have again this year. I get the concern and I wouldn't say I'm overly confident of a top 15 pass rush this season, but if we end up somewhere in the middle of the pack I won't be surprised and I think that would be acceptable given that we don't have our premier guy playing this year.
As long as we can score points then we'll survive. A scoring offense will help the defense out substantially.
Quote:Was our pass rush that much better on paper to start last season? I'm not expecting to repeat last year's success from a total sacks standpoint, but we were able to manufacture a pretty good pass rush last year despite not having a premier guy on the line which we do not have again this year. I get the concern and I wouldn't say I'm overly confident of a top 15 pass rush this season, but if we end up somewhere in the middle of the pack I won't be surprised and I think that would be acceptable given that we don't have our premier guy playing this year.
I agree that on paper, we didn't look much better in terms of pass rush last year and still managed a great deal of sacks. However, Marks led the team with 8.5 sacks if I'm not mistaken and he's coming off an ACL tear in week 17. Chances are his explosiveness off the ball won't be there like it was last year and besides that, you don't want your interior d linemen leading your team in sacks anyway. The pass rush on this team looks to be non-existent on paper and in the preseason. It's a huge concern.
Quote:Next year at this time, barring something unforeseen, I believe most Jags fans and others like myself who follow the NFL closely will believe the Jags will be at least right in the playoff mix. Especially, considering the team's salary cap situation.
That's what people were saying last year about 2015. We're the fusion generator of the NFL, alway just a year away from a breakthrough.
Quote:That's what people were saying last year about 2015. We're the fusion generator of the NFL, alway just a year away from a breakthrough.
Which was a dumb thing to say considering we had a rookie qb that had some serious mechanical issues and our o line was poor. Idk, I don't remember anyone saying that personally unless you were a homer. We actually have some serious pieces to protect blake, and pending on if blake keeps up his mechanics and footwork in the regular season there's no reason next year shouldn't be good if we have blake healthy all year. A good qb can take us places. Another off season of picks+ton of cap room will only help the rostereo more, as we see we still have holes to fill.
I feel that the offense has grown despite Lee and Thomas injury which aren't that big of a deal. I also think the defense is a downgrade from last year. Even with the addition of Skuta and House, we lost Fowler, FS is still a throw up position, and Marks might not be the 8 sacks Marks. I hope Cyprien, Colvin, and Smith step up and we shouldn't be too bad.
I may be alone in this thought, but I'm not seeing the rush as an issue. This defense has not been about that one strong pass rusher since Gus got here. It has always been scheme based and more dependent on group effort. This is why you saw such a heavy emphasis given to the secondary this off season. They needed coverage guys to buy more time for the D-line to fit their scheme. I'm sure the Jags would like one or two guys that can get to the QB consistently, hence the Fowler pickup, but not there yet. We should see much of what we saw from last years line, albeit perhaps a bit weaker with Marks injury.
The preseason was nothing more than seeing if an effort guy could step up. You'd be fooling yourself if you thought they actually schemed up blitz packages to show off for preseason games!
The one thing that should be getting attention was the inability of the front seven to get off blocks to stop the run. THAT looks like a legitimate concern.
Quote:Was our pass rush that much better on paper to start last season? I'm not expecting to repeat last year's success from a total sacks standpoint, but we were able to manufacture a pretty good pass rush last year despite not having a premier guy on the line which we do not have again this year. I get the concern and I wouldn't say I'm overly confident of a top 15 pass rush this season, but if we end up somewhere in the middle of the pack I won't be surprised and I think that would be acceptable given that we don't have our premier guy playing this year.
My thoughts exactly. There was nobody who was striking fear in the minds of opponents with our pass rush, yet we managed to have a decent amount of production from that group. It stands to reason that we should hope to see at least the same level of output this year.
I believe we should see an improved O and hope that helps enough this season. I still believe Next year is our big leap year.
The run defense has me more concerned
Quote:Next year is our big leap year.
I think I have heard this before
I'm of the opinion that we should be more concerned about the rush defenses as stated in your second paragraph. As mentioned in this thread, last year we didn't not have one dominant rusher but was able to put of top 6 sacks numbers last year with a committee approach from multiple solid to good contributors. The major point we need to focus on as a defense is stopping the run. That comes from Odrick being the big end presence we hope he should be. Tackling needs to be much better as well. If Odrick and and Skuta can set the edge well; then Poz, Cyprien and House should should be putting up ridiculous tackling numbers. The rush defense will fall on those three guys to make the tackles either in the open field or the gap.
The pass rush will be solid. I think the d-line overall is too solid to have us back in the 20 sack range lol. I think this team has the ability to at least put up another 40 sacks campaign which is still top 15. The biggest key will be if Sergio has the ability to play the deep middle to a average to above average level. That has been the biggest issue for this team for the past 3 years. If that spot improves to above average play they you are looking at a top 15 defense.
Food for though, Seattle only put up 37 sacks which is 20th in the league. Their back end is their strengthen. If our secondary has improved which i think it has, we will add that extra second to generate the sacks and pressure.
We don't blitz very often do we? Gus seems content on rushing 4 most of the time.
Quote:I may be alone in this thought, but I'm not seeing the rush as an issue. This defense has not been about that one strong pass rusher since Gus got here. It has always been scheme based and more dependent on group effort. This is why you saw such a heavy emphasis given to the secondary this off season. They needed coverage guys to buy more time for the D-line to fit their scheme. I'm sure the Jags would like one or two guys that can get to the QB consistently, hence the Fowler pickup, but not there yet. We should see much of what we saw from last years line, albeit perhaps a bit weaker with Marks injury.
The preseason was nothing more than seeing if an effort guy could step up. You'd be fooling yourself if you thought they actually schemed up blitz packages to show off for preseason games!
The one thing that should be getting attention was the inability of the front seven to get off blocks to stop the run. THAT looks like a legitimate concern.
Winner, winner chicken dinner.
Chris Smith should start leo and Davis can put pressure from the interior on passing downs. But it is our weakness on defense