Former Jaguars DE Dante Fowler Sounds Off on Twitter About Time Spent in Jacksonville
Former Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Dante Fowler took to Twitter on Monday to air out some grievances about the team that selected him third overall in the 2015 NFL Draft.
In a series of tweets, with many sent as replies to fans, Fowler, now with the Rams, said the organization did not let him play enough snaps despite his production in 2017 which saw him get 10 sacks in 19 games.
Fowler had a rocky and disapointing tenure with the Jaguars after they selected him so highly out of the University of Florida. He tore his ACL in his first-ever practice in Jacksonville in rookie minicamp, and missed all of 2015. In his first full season in 2016, he started only one game after being benched following Week 1 for rookie defensive end Yannick Ngakoue. In 570 snaps in 2016, he totaled only four sacks.
Still in a backup role in 2017, Fowler would have his best season as a Jaguar thanks to the presence of Ngakoue, Calais Campbell, and Malik Jackson. In 19 games (playoffs included) Fowler had 10 sacks, third-most on the team, while only playing 45% of defensive snaps.
Fowler has complained about his role in the Jaguars' 2017 defense before and did so again during his twitter rant Monday.
"Bro I had 8 sacks coming off the bench didn’t even play 45% of the snaps!! then another 2 in the playoffs probably the most important game in jags history so that equals 10," Fowler tweeted. "First-year starting I get double digits I don’t wanna hear all that hooblah y’all talking bout #Facts"
Fowler had some off-field issues during his time in Jacksonville, including an arrest for simple battery in July 2017 after breaking a man's glasses and throwing his groceries into a lake at a St. Petersburg apartment complex.
Fowler tweeted Monday that off-field issues are why Jacksonville's relationship with him strained, though he was never arrested while Gus Bradley was the Jaguars head coach. One public off-field incident Fowler did have while Bradley was in Jacksonville was in February 2016 when a video surfaced of Fowler appearing to facilitate a fight between two women near an elevator. Fowler would go on to delete the tweet.
"Gus Bradley benched me for off the field reasons don’t ever forget that," Fowler tweeted. "Wash and Marrone just ran with it. Tried to bury me. I’m resurrected."
Wash and Marrone are of course Jaguars defensive coordinator Todd Wash and head coach Doug Marrone.
Fowler would go on to delete this tweet.
Fowler's relationship with the Jaguars officially ended at the 2018 trade deadline when Jacksonville traded him to the Los Angeles Rams for a 2019 third-round pick and a 2020 fifth-round pick. Fowler only had two sacks with the Rams in 2018 but recorded a career-best 11.5 sacks thus far in 2019.
Fowler also sounded off about the Jaguars a week ago when the NFL Players Association released a statement scolding Jacksonville for circumventing league labor rules when fining players. Fowler was among the players fined, costing him $700,000 for 25 incidents in the 2018 offseason. According to Fowler, that money now belongs to him.
