New York Giants Week 7: First Look at Jacksonville Jaguars’ Defense

Brandon Olsen breaks down the Jaguars' defensive schemes and personnel.

Author:
Brandon Olsen
Publish date:
Oct 20, 2022 10:00 AM EDT

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New York Giants

Jacksonville Jaguars

The New York Giants are 5-1 and playing like it as of late, winning close games against solid teams and coming up when it counts. This Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars is when the Giants face arguably the most aggressive defense they’ve faced so far this season.

Personnel

The Jaguars’ strength is their defensive front, headlined by Josh Allen. Allen has been on an absolute tear in 2022, registering 23 pressures (14th in the NFL), three sacks, and eight quarterback hits (4th in the NFL).

While pass-rushing has been his bread-and-butter, Allen has been more consistent as a run defender than he’s ever been so far early in his career. A major difference for Josh Allen in 2022, as opposed to any other season, is his usage in coverage, seeing anywhere between 4-10 snaps in coverage every game - something that he did an average of 3.5 times per game in 2021.

On the opposite side of Allen is Travon Walker, who the Jaguars made the first overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft this past April. Walker hasn’t been nearly as dominant as Allen in any facet of the game but has been great as a complementary edge defender.

Perhaps Walker’s biggest trait so far has been his positional versatility, allowing him to line up all over the front seven. Walker’s versatility lets the Jaguars rotate in situational players like Arden Key, Adam Gotsis, and Dawuane Smoot.

On the interior, the Jaguars have two linemen that could only be described as large. Davon Hamilton and Folorunso Fatukasi are a combined 638 pounds and often line up inside the shoulders of the offensive tackles.

Fatukasi has been dealing with a quad injury since week four, but Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson has said that the hope is to have him back for this game.

At linebacker, there are two Jaguars that have been taking the majority of the snaps. Foyesade Oluokun has played all 409 snaps for the Jaguars defense this season, while rookie Devin Lloyd has played 398 of the snaps.

The duo has been incredibly productive through the first third of the season, combining for 13 pressures and 117 tackles. The issue? Players that have gone against them have also been very productive, partially due to 18 missed tackles between the two but also because Devin Lloyd has allowed the most receptions in the NFL this season.

Lloyd has allowed 38 catches for 354 yards and a touchdown, while Oluokun has allowed 18 catches for 216 yards.

The secondary for the Jaguars is incredibly young and has struggled to get any sort of consistency built up. The three cornerbacks that play mostly are Tyson Campbell, Shaquill Griffin, and Darious Williams, with Rayshawn Jenkins and Andre Cisco working as the safeties overtop.

While the corner trio is still trying to figure out how to work as a unit and learn this defensive system, they’ve struggled early on. Campbell, Griffin, and Williams have allowed a combined 689 yards and six touchdowns on 61 completions while only having one interception.

While trying to find some consistency as a duo, Jenkins and Cisco have played fairly well, considering the expectations for them as a unit in 2022. Cisco has been relied upon as more of a deep safety than anything else this year, where he thrived at Syracuse. Jenkins is a jack-of-all-trades safety that has moved around the formation, picking up major responsibility in this defense.

Not a defense that rotates often; only 21 players have played defensive snaps. Of those 21, two of them have played a combined three snaps, so it’s just 19 players that see the field for the Jaguars. Even then, some of those 19 have only played in games where injuries forced them into the game.

Scheme

Usually, when a position coach moves and gets promoted to a coordinator role, you see them bring over a scheme similar to the coaching tree they come from but with their own twist. In the first weeks of Mike Caldwell being an NFL defensive coordinator, he’s had the Jaguars defense looking very similar to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers - at least schematically.

The Jaguars typically operate out of a 3-4 front, meaning they have three down linemen and four linebackers - although almost always, two of those linebackers are stand-up edge rushers. There are multiple fronts the Jaguars will show, however, with a 4-2 being one of their pressure packages, as well as a mug look that crowds the line of scrimmage and can create confusion for an offensive line.

Perhaps the way in which the Jaguars scheme looks most similar to the Buccaneers is that they will often send their interior linebacker(s) on a blitz. The Buccaneers like to use Devin White as their off-ball pass rusher, capitalizing on his speed, length, and overall athleticism and allowing him to wreak havoc on opposing offenses.

One variation Caldwell has brought to the Jaguars is that instead of using just one of the interior linebackers, he will interchangeably use either Foyesade Oluokun or Devin Lloyd as the rusher. This creates even more confusion and requires an offense to communicate more to prepare for what they might see.

On the back end, the Jaguars play a lot of zone coverage with two-high safeties - adopting a more modern NFL defensive look. Similar to the Ravens' defense last week, the Jaguars will use a combination of coverages like Cover 4, Cover 2, and Cover 6 - although the Jaguars will throw in Cover 2 - man more frequently than the Ravens do.

The Jaguars rarely run Cover 2-man, but it’s something to keep an eye on. In Cover 2-man, the Jaguars will have their two deep safeties as help over the top with four rushers and five underneath defenders, all with man assignments.

This allows the Jaguars to call a fairly tame defense, but if a running back or tight end is kept in pass protection, the Jaguars get to add another pass-rusher or underneath defender into the mix.

What This Means for the Giants

This may sound like a broken record, but the Giants should again look to attack the middle of the field against the Jaguars. NFL quarterbacks have targeted Devin Lloyd, which should be no different this Sunday.

Daniel Jones has been on fire when working the short middle and intermediate middle of the field, combining for 49 completions on 62 attempts, 512 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.

The Jaguars haven’t played many scrambling quarterbacks outside Jalen Hurts, allowing them to dial up blitzes and tee off on immobile quarterbacks. With the amount of blitzing that the Giants are expecting, quick passes and scramble opportunities should be a major focal point of the offense.

Running the ball might be difficult, but keeping runs toward the outside might be the way to go, hoping to get Saquon Barkley outside the tackle box before defenders can get in position to make the stop. Even when Jags defenders are in a position to make a play, they struggle to finish tackles consistently.

Final Thoughts

The Giants have been winning ugly football games, but that’s what this game is expected to be. It’s all about taking plays that the Jaguars defense gives you while trying to create explosive plays after the catch.