Can Jaguars' Maason Smith Be the Answer at Defensive Tackle?

It has been nearly 10 years since the Jacksonville Jaguars last had an elite, game-changing defensive tackle to disrupt the line of scrimmage.

Calais Campbell is among the greatest Jaguars despite his short time with the team. It has been nearly two decades since John Henderson and Marcus Stroud dominated the scene in the early 2000s.

However, the time of lacking an upper-tier defensive lineman could be coming to a close soon if one player begins to emerge as a top defender. That would be former 2024 second-round draft choice Maason Smith.

Smith is expected to be a key piece of the Jaguars defensive success in 2025. Last season, he played in a defense that didn't give him the freedom to play more freely with the vertical launches he wanted nor allowed him to get off the ball as aggressively. This season will be different under defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile, who called him a competitor last week during mandatory minicamp.

"He's a guy who wants to be a really good player, which is awesome. You want people like that," Campanile said. "We're blessed with that, in my opinion, being here in the short time I've been here.

"There's a lot of guys who love to compete, and he wants to be a really good player," Campanile continued.

Last season, Smith showcased his physical gifts on occasion. The standout games he had were late in the season against the Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans. In these games, Smith's outstanding power, functional athleticism, and size made him a dangerous player to block in solo attempts up front.

iDL Maason Smith has been seeing more time on the field after spending most of the first half of the year on the benched or inactive.#Jaguars 2nd round pick flashed raw power, incredible functional athleticism, and size to be a stout run defender. pic.twitter.com/dxNlLYvI7y
— Jared Feinberg (@JRodNFLDraft) December 24, 2024

The traits and ability are there for Smith to take charge with. Campanile seems like the defensive coordinator that will spring his best players up front loose at the quarterback. It sounds too good to be true after last offseason's promises but this year is different with Campanile's experience and usage of first and second level defenders in the box and at the line of scrimmage.

For Smith, it's about unlocking his potential in certain areas of his game. He must be more consistent as a pass rusher where he has glimpses of thriving, especially before his ACL tear in 2023 that seemed to have hampered his growth and development as a player during his final seasons at LSU.

Pro Football Sports Network draft analyst Ian Cummings wrote in his summary of Smith in the 2024 pre-draft process: "[Smith] is still fleshing out his rush arsenal, and his ambiguous flexibility is the ultimate final piece in distinguishing his ceiling. His hip stiffness limits him in multiple phases and detracts from his leveraging at times, but he has reps at the opposite end of the spectrum, bending under tackles from 5-tech with impressive ankle flexion."

I agree with Cummings here about squeezing out Smith's potential as a rusher. There have been moments where Smith does display tightness in the hips but his overall athleticism and explosiveness allow for these issues to be hidden.

Smith has the ceiling and overall upside to develop into not just a quality defensive tackle but one of the best in the game. He must continue honing in on what he needs to improve at and work from there. If it works out, the Jaguars have hit the jackpot with their 2024 draft class.

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