Jaguars DE Josh Hines-Allen reveals haters fueled him to have a banner season

Players routinely use haters and critics to fuel themselves. Josh Hines-Allen is no different. Entering a contract year in 2023, he wanted to prove he was the franchise cornerstone the Jacksonville Jaguars wanted him to be. He delivered and then some. During a recent exchange with Pete Prisco of CBS Sports, the player formerly known as the superior Josh Allen revealed one of the many things that motivated him to prove his doubters wrong.

Last year, Prisco said that he didn't think the Jaguars head a game wreaker in Josh Hines-Allen. The former Kentucky Wildcat caught wind of the comments and went on to use them as a screensaver on his phone to motivate himself.

"Yeah, I definitely did," Hines-Allen told Prisco during a recent sitdown they had in training camp "I forgot, it was early in the season, I was happy to be on good ol' X."

Hines-Allen went on to have a career season and later signed a monster contract that reflected his status as one of the best pass rushers in the league. Prisco jokingly asked him if he was the reason for his banner year and Hines-Allen responded that he was his life coach and owes his success. Here's the exchange.

A first-round pick in 2019, Hines-Allen had success from the get-go, registering 10.5 sacks and making the Pro Bowl as a rookie. Unfortunately, injuries and turnover in the coaching staff prevented him from building off of the promising start to his career. Even though the Virginia native was dominant at times, he wasn't nearly as consistent as Jacksonville would've wanted. His total sack tally was a sign of it.

In spite of being healthy, Hines-Allen logged a combined 14.5 sacks in 2021-2022. That's not the kind of production you expected from a franchise player. Sure, sacks aren't the only metric to measure success but they're most definitely important when it comes to evaluating a pass rusher.

But then, Hines-Allen put it all together in 2023. His 17.5 sacks were a team record and the second most in the NFL. His 90 total pressures also ranked sixth among pass rushers. Having proved his worth, the Jaguars gave him a top-market contract in the offseason.

Having checked a couple boxes on his to-do list, Hines-Allen has now set his sights on becoming Defensive Player of the Year and helping the Jacksonville Jaguars win their first Super Bowl.

Criticism surrounding Jaguars DE Josh Hines-Allen was warranted

Make no mistake, Josh Hines-Allen has wreaked havoc throughout his career. His game against the Buffalo Bills in 2021 is proof of it. That said, he also disappeared at times, which is why the Jags were hesitant to give him an extension heading into 2023.

By his own admission during the 2023 offseason, Hines-Allen wasn't as good as he could be and vowed to become the player he thought he was. In retrospect, he deserves credit for putting his head down and putting in the required work. It's paid off.

Rightly, Hines-Allen is now widely recognized as one of the top pass rushers in the league heading into the 2024 season. Along the way, he proved that he's no different from the rest of us, using the pettiest reasons as fuel to motivate himself, which isn't a bad thing at all. If it works, why not?

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