The 2025 season is a clear bid to go all-in for the Jacksonville Jaguars. A new general manager and head coach are going hand-in-hand towards building a stable contender in Duval, and their aggression has been apparent throughout the offseason.
After a blockbuster trade to land Travis Hunter, a lot of potential questions have been answered by the two-way athletic freak. However, the rest of the roster could also do with some tweaking. As a result, one analyst has a specific player in mind for the Jaguars to improve their dreadful defense.
Jacksonville Jaguars Need More for Potential Playoff Push
This offseason, no team felt as aggressive as the Jaguars. After firing Doug Pederson, they replaced him with Liam Coen, while bringing in James Gladstone to be the new general manager. And it didn’t take long for the two to deliver, at least on paper.
Adding arguably the best player in the entire 2025 draft class, Hunter was an instant jolt of momentum. To improve their defense, which ranked as the second-worst unit in PFSN’s Defense+ metric, their focus was on the secondary.
Alongside Hunter, they also brought in Jourdan Lewis and Eric Murray in free agency, while drafting Caleb Ransaw and Rayuan Lane III as well. However, their defensive line was left relatively untouched, and it might be an area of concern.
Aaron Schatz of ESPN, in his list of final offseason moves for every NFL team, urged Jacksonville to target some help at the edge rusher spot, with Jadeveon Clowney his preferred option. The first overall pick in the 2014 draft, Clowney has three Pro Bowl selections to his name.
While never elite, he has consistently been one of the most solid members on the defensive line, tallying 58 sacks in his career with and reaching a career-high 9.5 sacks on two occasions, including in 2023. For Schatz, he could be the depth piece the Jaguars have been looking for.
Every Ravens fan was happy for Jadeveon Clowney when he hit his sack incentive for $750k pic.twitter.com/21YwUcFxKL
— The Ravens Realm (@RealmRavens) May 15, 2024
“The Jaguars have a strong pair of starting edge rushers with Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker. But there are questions about the depth behind them. Emmanuel Ogbah is 32 years old and had just five sacks as a full-time starter in Miami last season. Myles Cole had no sacks on 11.3% of defensive snaps as a seventh-round rookie.”
As a result, he believes Clowney could be that third edge rusher behind Hines-Allen and Walker. The reason? “Because his strength setting the edge on run plays makes him a good sub for Walker specifically.”
For a team that has had back-to-back disappointing campaigns since making the playoffs and winning a postseason game in 2022, the Jaguars have an unidirectional focus this season. So far, their offseason has been a major positive.
And Clowney could be the final piece of that puzzle.