One NFL Trend Makes Jaguars' DL Need Even More Obvious

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jacksonville Jaguars turned in a spectacular season in 2025, but now comes to hard part: repeated and then surpassing their 2025 success.

To do so, the Jaguars are going to need to make tweaks and adjustments to the roster this offseason to give Liam Coen and his coaching staff everything they need. With free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft as venues to find more talent, it is clear where the Jaguars need to lean in the 2026 offseason.

Defensive Line Trend

The best teams in the NFL -- at least the only four that are still playing right now -- have top-tier defensive lines. And while the Jaguars certainly saw their defensive front have success in 2025, it is still arguably the team's top need in the 2026 offseason.

NFL's NextGenStats recently released one interesting trend. Perhaps it is coincidence, perhaps it is the matter of how games are won, but all four teams left are the top four teams in the NFL in terms of pressures recorded by defensive tackle duos.

The top four defensive tackle duos by pressures this season will all play in Conference Championship games:

🔹Allen & Franklin-Myers, 98 QBP #BroncosCountry
🔹Murphy & Williams, 91 QBP #Seahawks
🔹Turner & Fiske, 88 QBP #RamsHouse
🔹Barmore & Williams, 87 QBP #NEPats pic.twitter.com/p32MtbsIYx
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) January 22, 2026

For context, the Jaguars' top defensive tackle duo had 47 pressures between Arik Armstead's 34 and DaVon Hamilton's 13, giving them 51 fewer pressures than the Broncos. The Jaguars got improved pass-rush marks by the second half of the season as Dennis Gardeck, Danny Striggow, and BJ Green played more, but there is clearly another level of them to hit in 2026.

The Jaguars finished No. 23 in pressure rate and No. 29 in sack rate in 2025. Meanwhile, the four teams remaining (Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, New England) ranked No. 2, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 10 in pressure rate and No. 1, No. 9, No. 12, and No. 20 in sack rate. The best teams in football are fueled, in part, by disruptive defensive lines. The Jaguars got good performances across the front in 2025, but they can be even better next season.

"That's a cool question because sacks in particular are never a true indicator. Pressures are probably a better indicator of whether or not you're impacting the QB. The way in which our scheme will evolve will have a role in how we address it from a personnel standpoint. Clearly, I think we saw by season's end that there was an uptick," Jaguars general manager James Gladstone said last week.

"What may have not necessarily been a superpower of our defense on the front end of the season became more impactful by season's end and I think we saw evolution of usage and I do expect that our scheme itself will evolve and not necessarily be the exact same. There's going to be some preliminary discussions that take place over the course of the latter weeks in January. Our coaching staff won't return until mid-February at which point we'll dive into that stuff in greater detail."

james gladston — Jacksonville Jaguars general manager James Gladstone speaks during a press conference at the Miller Electric Center, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Jacksonville, Fla. | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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