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Column: Jaguars' Defense Needs Taven Bryan To Produce Sooner Rather Than Later

After over two years of talk about potential, it is time for Taven Bryan to start producing for the Jaguars.

When the Jacksonville Jaguars poured a first-round investment into Florida defensive tackle Taven Bryan in 2018, they were essentially planning for the situation they are in now. 

At the time, the Jaguars had a ferocious interior pass rush. But it was one with a limited long-term future due to Malik Jackson's cap hit and Calais Campbell's combination of cap hit and age. 

Now three seasons later, the Jaguars are still waiting for the Bryan pick to pay off as they envisioned. 

The Jaguars may not publically say so, but the results are speaking for themselves. On the other hand, he still has time to turn the corner and become an impact player ... it just has to actually happen, especially for the sake of a defense that has struggled to start the season. 

Bryan got off to a slow start as a rookie after being picked with the No. 29 overall selection, but this was in large part due to the Jaguars miscasting him at their 'big end' position. This is a point the team themselves have made, and it is justified to a large degree. 

"I really felt that we probably didn’t help him early on in his career. We were moving him a little bit. Technically, technique-wise, that probably stopped a little bit of the growth," head coach Doug Marrone said on Aug. 10. 

"When we kept him in one spot and working on the technique in the one position, you really saw some growth and saw him make some plays. 

Bryan had a much more encouraging season in 2019, appearing in all 16 games and recording 33 tackles, two sacks, five tackles for loss, one forced fumble, and 25 quarterback pressures (according to Pro Football Focus). 

While Bryan's stats weren't eye-popping, he was one of the team's most consistently disruptive players. The hope was this would be a sign of things to come in 2020, but so far the Jaguars are still waiting on the production. 

With Jacksonville losing key interior players such as Rodney Gunter and Al Woods before the season, it had never been more pertinent for Bryan to become the kind of disruptive and dynamic talent that Bryan's potential has always suggested he could one day be.

But through the first three weeks, the Jaguars have still yet to see Bryan take that next step. In 12 quarters of action, not a single Jaguars defensive tackle has a sack or a tackle for a loss, including Bryan. Bryan himself has just three quarterback pressures on 76 pass-rush snaps according to Pro Football Focus. 

The prospect who was supposed to be their next disruptive defensive tackle has been unable to help a plummeting defensive line, at least so far this season. Bryan can of course change this over the course of the next 13 games and beyond, but the Jaguars need the switch to be flipped sooner rather than later. The state of their defense and their pass-rush may even depend on it. 

With all of this in mind, it needs to be considered that Bryan's game isn't about stuffing the stat sheet -- at least not in the eyes of his coaches and even teammates. Defensive lineman Dawuane Smoot has said Bryan "wrecks" and frees up other players to make plays, while defensive coordinator Todd Wash gave Bryan a vote of confidence after Week 1 about him meeting expectations. 

"Once again, he just does it in a different way. When you really look at it, he’s a solid, stout player and you might not get a bunch of stats of it, but he’s really helping the guys around him," Wash said on Sept. 17. 

"I think that time off with a little bit of a knee injury hindered him. He was playing extremely well prior to that knee and now he’s just coming back from it. We’re going to see him improve as the season goes on. I think we’ve seen that last year, as the season went on and on, he got better and better each week and I think we’re going to see the same thing once he gets back into the groove of getting a lot of snaps.”

This is a fair point for Bryan and really all defensive tackles. They do a lot of work that goes unnoticed, especially on the stat sheet. 

But right now, the Jaguars need Bryan to provide even more than that. After years of talking up his potential and what he could be, it is time for Bryan to start becoming an impact player in the middle of the defense. 

The Jaguars have never needed Bryan more than they do now. With the defense reeling and the pass rush stagnant (three sacks in three games), Jacksonville needs to see Bryan start to disrupt the quarterback and create plays behind the line of scrimmage. They drafted him to do so, and it has to happen sooner than later if it is going to happen at all.