Jaguars to See a Familiar Defense Against Chargers: Who Has the Edge?

Gus Bradley and his Cover 3 defense still have a lasting mark in Jacksonville, years after his departure from the Jaguars.

When the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-5) clash with the Los Angeles Chargers (1-4) on Sunday, the two young quarterbacks leading each franchise will be going against defenses that aren't exactly foreign to them. 

For both Gardner Minshew II and Justin Herbert, the growing pains of a young quarterbacks first few seasons in the league are usually filled with seeing exotic defenses they never saw in college. This is the case most weeks, at least. But on Sunday, they will be more or less seeing the same defenses they see each day in practice, albeit with minor tweaks. 

The Chargers' defense is of course coordinated by Gus Bradley, who spent nearly four seasons as Jacksonville's head coach from 2013-16. When Bradley came to the Jaguars from Seattle, he brought with him a Cover 3-heavy scheme that is still implemented in Jacksonville today with defensive coordinator Todd Wash, a former Bradley assistant. 

Each team has vastly different personnel and has added their own twists to the scheme but the similarities between Bradley's and Wash's defenses remain, creating a key storyline heading into Sunday.

“I would say we continue to play the 3-deep concepts and how we handle the race routes, and stuff like that, is very similar," Wash said on Thursday.

"But even out in San Francisco with Gus [Bradley], a little bit in Atlanta with Rich [Smith], everybody has kind of put their own twist on it—especially on third down, everybody’s got a little different philosophy. But on first and second down, there’s a lot of it that has the same similarities that we had in Seattle.”

But just how much of a difference does it make for each side, at least in terms of knowing the style of defense they will see? Theoretically, offenses can hone in on what they do best against the defensive schemes they are most familiar with. But this obviously isn't always the case, considering Jacksonville's struggles vs. Los Angeles in last season's blowout loss. 

With that said, offenses every single week are trying to scheme the best possible plays to take advantage of warts in any given defense or coverage scheme. As Wash said Thursday, this is something both sides will have to prepare for.

“I think offense really tries to scheme it. We see that with Jay [Gruden] during training camp and I’m sure Gus [Bradley] sees it at his place. So, they’re going to try to scheme us and do some things that are a little bit unorthodox,: Wash said. 

"We’ve seen that last year when we’ve played them, there [were] a couple things down in the red zone where we go, ‘That’s not even a concept we normally see, obviously there’s been some communication going on.’ So, we try to change some things up. I think tendencies are big when you go into this game, when they have an idea of when you’re playing what and how you’re playing it. And we’ve got to break those tendencies, both Gus and myself.”

Wash is referring to the 45-10 thrashing the Chargers gave the Jaguars in 2019, a game in which the Chargers gained 525 yards and 27 first downs on Wash's defense. Meanwhile, Bradley's defense was able to terrorize Minshew, limiting the Jaguars to 4.0 yards per play. 

Minshew struggled in the loss to the Chargers last season but is hoping to do what many other quarterbacks do against these schemes. In many ways, these defenses are "bend but don't break" schemes, which can make things easier on a quarterback if they are not able to dominate in the secondary. 

Unfortunately for Minshew, the bending defense he is set to face features Joey Bosa and one of the NFL's best secondaries. Still, Minshew knows that while there is a looming challenge, it is at least one he knows is coming.

“Yeah, it’s very similar, kind of the same system, coming from the same tree, so we have a lot of reps at it," Minshew said this week.

"But one of the things that’s always tough about these defenses is everybody tries to beat them the same way each week, they’re used to seeing all the looks, so you have to be very good and consistent and execute, and they’re going to be a tough challenge."