What is the status of the Jaguars linebacker unit after the Panthers loss?

When the Jacksonville Jaguars (2-3) defense failed completely in its attempt to contain Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey on Sunday during Jacksonville's 34-27 loss, the team's linebacker group saw the blunt of the criticism. 

Jaguars linebacker Myles Jack held himself accountable after the loss and while it is obviously nowhere near only Jack's fault, the duo of Jack and rookie Quincy Williams saw a small shakeup during the final quarter. 

Reserve linebacker Najee Goode took Williams place in at weakside linebacker for the final 17 snaps of Sunday's game, and head coach Doug Marrone addressed this as well.

"We just wanted to get some better fits in there, better run fits. There are a lot of things that happen but we wanted to put Najee (Goode) in there because we thought we would get better run fits out of him and some other things that we wanted to get accomplished that we weren’t getting done. But we still believe in him and love him and all that."

It is unlikely that Goode starts for the Jaguars this Sunday because Williams has been given a large workload really every single time he has been healthy since being drafted in the third-round by the Jaguars. 

It is more likely, however, that Williams was simply having a bad day and with the game still within their grasps, the Jaguars wanted to give a veteran a crack at stopping McCaffrey. It ended up not making much of a difference anyways, considering Panthers reserve running back Reggie Bonnafon ran for a 59-yard touchdown with a little over 2:00 left in the game. 

While Goode is unlikely to find himself in the lineup on a full-time basis unless Williams continues to struggle as much as he did on Sunday, the question has been brought up by many of what will happen if injured linebacker Jake Ryan returns to the team. 

Ryan missed all of 2018 with an ACL injury and Marrone announced at the end of July that Ryan had a setback over the summer that would sideline him even longer. 

Ryan has been on the reserve/NFI list all of this season and while he would be eligible to return to the active roster after the week 6 game vs. the New Orleans Saints, Marrone said Monday there was not much of a change in Ryan's status.

"I don’t know that answer," Marrone said Monday when asked about when Ryan will return to the field. 

“I haven’t asked for an update, so I don’t want to make it [look] like there’s no communication or anything. If anything, that’s my fault, but I’ll ask and then next time I’ll have a better answer for you. I just haven’t asked, but that’s down the road, so I’m not really on top of it.”

Marrone said one way or another that Ryan's return was "not eminent", so it is unlikely that Ryan will be playing a role in the Jaguars defense anytime soon. 

Reserve linebackers D.J. Alexander (one career start) and Austin Calitro (five career starts) have not seen any roles on the Jaguars defense aside from playing special teams, so unless the Jaguars decide to make a radical change along their defense as it progresses, it appears that Jack, Williams and, sometimes, Goode will be the primary players playing middle and weakside.