Why the Jaguars Rotated Josh Jones and Daniel Thomas Against the Texans
The Jacksonville Jaguars defense looked a little bit different against the Houston Texans in Week 9. While the Jaguars still didn't get the results they wanted, losing 27-25 to their AFC South rivals, they still made a few necessary changes.
Among those changes? An increase in snaps for fifth-round rookie safety Daniel Thomas, the No. 157 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Thomas rotated in for starting strong safety Josh Jones throughout the game, the first time the Jaguars had played Thomas over Jones on defense this season. Thomas had previously filled in for Jones in Week 5 for 28 snaps, but that was due to Jones being ejected in the second half.
In Week 9, Thomas played the second-most snaps he has played all season with 22, 34% of Jacksonville's defensive snaps. Jones plated the other 42 snaps/66% of the playing time. It was the first time all season Jones didn't play at least 97% of the defensive snaps, outside of the Week 5 outlier.
So, why did the Jaguars make the sudden change to see more Thomas on defense? Head coach Doug Marrone explained earlier this week that it had less to do with Jones' performance this season and more to do with the potential of Thomas.
“I think I’ll still stay with what I said last week, I still feel that way. Josh [Jones] has made a lot of plays for us, he really has. Daniel [Thomas]’s been a guy that has a potential to make plays," Marrone said on Monday.
"I think it’s unfortunate when you have two players at the same position that have the ability to play well and that’s a unique position so it’s not like we can have both of them on the field at the same time unless we put some different types of packages in."
Thomas ended Week 9 with just one tackle in his 22 snaps, though he did have two good plays in coverage in which he was stuck to the hip of the tight end and ensured an incompletion. He was targeted twice on the day and allowed zero completions for a passer rating of 39.6, according to Pro Football Reference.
"We’ve looked at a couple of things and I believe maybe two weeks ago we did something to that effect, just very minimal. So, Daniel didn’t do anything bad. He had the good man coverage; you saw that in the tight end down the sideline," Marrone said.
Now, the question is whether the Jaguars can continue to expand the role of Thomas in the defense. The rookie played sparingly in the first seven games, but Jacksonville clearly wanted to see more from Thomas in Week 9.
The Jaguars will have to balance Thomas' potential with what they consider a high floor in Jones. Add in Jarrod Wilson, Brandon Watson and Andrew Wingard and the Jaguars have a crowded room at safety that will have to be evaluated as the season marches on.
"My goal was to play both those players, get Daniel in there some to hopefully get better production out of that position and more production out of that position and I think we did help ourselves a little bit. I don’t know, we’ll evaluate that during the week," Marrone said.
