After Dominant Debut, Jaguars' Doug Costin to Miss Week 10 With Concussion
One of the many changes the Jacksonville Jaguars made in the first week out of their bye was to give undrafted rookie defensive tackle Doug Costin a chance at a starting role.
All Costin did was put forth one of the best performances the Jaguars have seen from one of their defensive linemen this season, recording two tackles and four pressures while starting at three-technique. Costin's performance was so impressive that he was labeled as the second-best rookie defender in Week 9 by Pro Football Focus.
But unfortunately for the Jaguars, they won't have their rookie defensive tackle in a tough road matchup against the Green Bay Packers in Week 10. Costin left Sunday's game against the Texans to be evaluated for a concussion, and he will miss Week 10 due to the concussion protocol, head coach Doug Marrone announced on Wednesday.
“I don’t know about more reps, but I definitely love what I saw from him. I saw a player that was able to make plays, play square to the football, had good control over the line of scrimmage," Marrone said.
"For a guy starting his first game, I thought he played well. He’s been productive, we’ve seen that. I think with the amount of snaps, we still had the same production, which is good. He’s good but I can tell you guys this, he’s not going to be able to make two full starts in a row though because he’ll be out this week [with a concussion].”
Costin has been on Jacksonville's active roster throughout the season and has frequently rotated with former first-round pick Taven Bryan at the three-technique position. He had played at least 30% of the team's defensive snaps in every game since Week 4, his NFL debut, but Week 9 was the first time he has started and the highest percentage of snaps he has played (45%).
The move to play Costin over Bryan in Week 9 was likely a long-time coming considering Costin has outproduced Bryan on a reduced snap count for the last month or so of the season.
As a result, the Jaguars wanted to see if his production would remain high with a higher snap count. And as it turns out, it did.
"Yeah, I thought we put Doug out there because his production has been high and had a little bit amount of snaps, going in. but the production was high, so we wanted to see if we could increase the snaps where his production level is," Marrone said following Sunday's 27-25 loss to the Houston Texans.
"Doug’s productivity was high, and we didn’t have a lot of snaps, so we wanted to increase his snaps. And I thought he did a nice job. I mean, I’m going to have to go and really watch it because it’s an interior play. So, I’m looking at the total concept of it. But he was a guy that we felt pretty good about. "
