The Jacksonville Jaguars’ interior defensive line has slowly been coming to life and their Week 9 game against the Houston Texans was one of their better showings. One of the players leading the way in that game was rookie defensive tackle Doug Costin, who was starting in his first game but garnered a Pro Football Focus score of 87.9 that week.
Unfortunately, his momentum was cut short that game because he exited with a concussion and was unable to play this past Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. The Jags had to then turn back to former first-round pick Taven Bryan, who had been starting up until Week 9.
However, Costin got some good news today as he was cleared from the Jags concussion protocol. As a result Doug Marrone revealed that he returned to the practice field Wednesday as a full participant.
“Doug has cleared concussion protocol so he’s back at practice, so he’s full [participation],” said Marrone Wednesday.
With Bryan struggling, the Jags turned to Costin because he flashed at training camp. He pranced on the opportunity, garnering two tackles and four pressures against the Texans.
“Doug [Costin] had a really good camp,” said Marrone Wednesday when asked about the rookie. “He played really well when we gave him a couple snaps and his productivity looked good, so we wanted to give him more snaps and the productivity went up.”
With Ben Roethlisberger and company coming into town, it will be key for the Jags to move him off his mark as he tries to hit Chase Claypool and JuJu Smith-Schuster down the field. Costin could play a huge role in disrupting those connections and has a grand opportunity to further establish himself come Sunday.
