Jacksonville Jaguars guaranteed to have league’s best defense in 2018?
By Billy Long
As scary as it seems, the Jacksonville Jaguars defense is geared up to be even better in 2018.
The catalyst of success for the Jacksonville Jaguars is no secret or complex formula. The team has accumulated a talent-loaded defense that can go toe-to-toe with any an all others that the league has to offer.
As if the Jaguars weren’t intimidating enough on that side of the ball in 2017, with four All-Pros and several players getting pro bowl nods all returning for next season, along with a handful of rising young stars, the defense in Jacksonville is primed to still take another step forward.
With the unit as talented as any group of eleven in the NFL, will the Jaguars stake claim to the best defense in 2018? For NFL.com columnist Adam Schein, it’s a sure thing. Schein compiled a list of nine predictions that he guarantees will happen next season, and Jacksonville’s defense topping the rankings checks in at number nine:
"9) The Jacksonville Jaguars boast the league’s best defense.Yes, following last year’s appearance in the AFC title game, Marrone’s team faces the great challenge of living up to expectations. The coach knows this. But his veteran leadership, spearheaded by Calais Campbell, is strong. And this defense is absolutely nasty — a league-best unit."
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To say the best defense resides in Duval is not exactly going out on a limb obviously, with bountiful reasons to assume as much. The Jaguars were the number one pass defense in 2017, with Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye locking down each side of the field, and Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue terrorizing quarterbacks. And even the perceived weak link, stopping the run, immediately improved half way through last season with the addition of Marcell Dareus, and has been strengthened even further with the addition of draftee Taven Bryan to a defensive line group that also includes Malik Jackson, Abry Jones, and Dante Fowler Jr.
The Jacksonville Jaguars should be in the mix once again come playoff time, and the reason is a defensive unit that takes a backseat to no other in the NFL.