Jacksonville Jaguars promote Todd Wash to defensive coordinator

After a handful of interviews and little excitement in terms of names, the Jacksonville Jaguars have found their new defensive coordinator and he was right under our noses this entire time. Defensive line coach Todd Wash has been promoted to the vacant defensive coordinator position.

After finishing 31st in points allowed, the Jaguars decided to let defensive coordinator Bob Babich go in an effort to try and revamp the defense for head coach Gus Bradley’s last stand. Arriving in Jacksonville with the pedigree of a great defensive mind, Bradley’s defenses haven’t improved through his first 3 years and it’s clear changes needed to be made. Whether or not simply promoting from within will be enough is should be interesting to follow this upcoming season.

In addition to defensive line duties, Wash held the title of ‘run-game coordinator,’ perhaps the only halfway decent aspect of the Jacksonville defense (5th lowest yards per rush attempt average in the NFL).

While the Jaguars had arguably one of the most simplistic and predictable defenses in the NFL, they also were bereft of playmaking talent on all 3 levels. General manager David Caldwell has stated the front office will focus on bringing in players on defense via free agency and high draft picks which should help Bradley and Wash get more production on that side of the ball.

The next question that needs to be answered is what, if any, changes are left on the defensive coaching staff. There has been some chatter of the team perhaps looking for a new defensive backs coach considering the lack of development from that position group under current coach DeWayne Walker. Rumors aside, it’s hard to see the Jaguars shaking things up too much if the new defensive coordinator was promoted from within the organization.

Wash might end up being a great defensive coordinator, but the timing of this announcement is rather curious. The perception, at least for me, is that Bradley wanted to give Wash the job from the beginning of the process, but he didn’t want to miss out on a high-profile guy (see, Jim Schwartz). Dragging it out this long makes it seem like Bradley couldn’t find anyone else and he had to settle on Wash.

Regardless of how we got here, Bradley better hope Wash has some ideas to fix this defense. Otherwise Bradley will be out of a job in 2016.