Jacksonville Jaguars: Sticking to the same defensive philosophy

It looks as though the Jacksonville Jaguars will start the 2020 NFL season with the same defensive philosophy as in years past – possibly with a twist.

Maybe we have all jumped the gun a bit, thinking the Jacksonville Jaguars will become a base 304 defense this coming season.

On Friday, as both head coach Doug Marrone and defensive coordinator Todd Wash talked to the local media via Zoom, it became more apparent that this is still a system with four defensive linemen in its base and has the potential to change when needed.

The moves the Jaguars made this offseason by releasing veterans, adding depth at outside linebacker and defensive end looked as though there would be major changes to the team’s philosophy. The past two seasons, the defense has fallen off the ledge with last season one of the worst for the franchise in terms of stopping the run.

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While Marrone talked about what the coaching staff is looking to do and was further discussed by Wash, this is still a team looking to use the same principles of a defense that was second overall in the NFL in 2017, but now has different players filling new roles on the roster.

"“Systematically we’re based out of a four down linemen scheme, but we wanted to be able to increase our multiplicity and our front mechanics, meaning that there’s a lot of different things that you can do on the back end,” Marrone said via Big Cat Country.“Coverage wise with a lot of disguise, there’s a lot of things that we can do just to maybe create that moment of indecision of you know, whether we’re pressing and bound or they’re pressing and going to cover two there’s a lot of things you can do and it’s so much easier to be multiple in your in your coverage aspect.”"

Something has to be done to help. Change must do this defense good. The AFC South has four solid quarterbacks and the passing game will be prevalent with the team’s three rivals over the course of six games this coming season.

If anything, by bringing in faster players like Aaron Lynch and Cassius Marsh – two outside linebackers who can move around, and Al Woods and Rodney Gunter to stop the run, Jacksonville has added numbers to a porous line rotation.

The Jacksonville Jaguars then added K’Lavon Chaisson with the 20th pick in the NFL Draft. He might be used in hybrid situations as well, with the ability to play outside linebacker and line up opposite Josh Allen or Yannick Ngakoue in obvious passing downs. The Jacksonville Jaguars want to create “anxiety” for their opponents this season.

Wash put the hammer down when asked about the defensive scheme for this coming season.

"“We’re not built to be a two gap team, if you if you’re looking at the 2 [gap], 34 stuff that you see in our league,” said Wash.“That’s not the way we’re built. So, we’re still going to be, you know, gap accountability, one gap, single high. It’s just going to be leveraged and alignments are going to be a little bit different within our scheme, but we’re not a true 34 2-gap team. That’s not how we’re built upfront, or the size of our unit to do that.”"