Jacksonville Jaguars still not getting production from K’Lavon Chaisson

The Jacksonville Jaguars are still waiting on K’Lavon Chaisson.

If you look at the Jacksonville Jaguars roster heading into Week 12, you will see there are many areas of need at different position groups. Quarterback may be their biggest need, but it isn’t the only one. In fact, there are many units on the defensive side of the ball that are underperforming, hurt, or both, and their defensive line checks both boxes.

The team recently placed defensive end Josh Allen on the Injured Reserve List and lacks other defenders that can rush the quarterback. Looking back, trading Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue in the offseason wasn’t the best decision.

Defensive end K’Lavon Chaisson was supposed to become the team’s main pass rusher opposite Allen, but that hasn’t happened yet. The ‘Jags’ knew he was going to go have bumps in the road, but it’s unlikely they expected him to be a non-factor after 11 weeks of football.

So far, the LSU standout has played on 50.72 percent of the team’s total snaps on defense this season and has recorded a mere seven solo tackles, four assists, and one sack. Every player has a different physical skillset and mindset but for comparison, 2020’s second overall pick, Chase Young, has registered 3.5 sacks, 20 solo tackles, and two forced fumbles on 65.83 percent of the Washington Football Team’s snaps on defense.

The Jacksonville Jaguars could indeed use K’Lavon Chaisson right now.

This Jacksonville team is dead last in sacks in the NFL with nine. Their front four is having a hard time getting to the quarterback and applying pressure upfront. While not everything falls on Chaisson, the LSU standout isn’t having the impact he should as a first-round pick.

Maybe Chaisson needs more time to get acclimatized to the NFL and he will turn out to be a good player, but if that’s the case, he should be showing signs of growth. Instead, the rookie defensive end has been getting fewer snaps in recent weeks.

Now that Allen is out, Chaisson will probably get more playing time and will be able to capitalize on his opportunity, but so far, the early returns haven’t been encouraging.