As anticipated, the Jacksonville Jaguars are expected to decline the last year of Marcell Dareus’ contract this week. Once they officially do they will save $20 million towards their salary cap in 2020 and get themselves trending in the right direction with free agency coming up.
As we pointed out last week, the Jags had until Tuesday February 25 to make a decision on if they would accept or decline his option. He still could end up re-signing with the Jags afterward, however, nothing has been reported about both sides working on a new deal, so it appears the Jags may look to get younger and cheaper in his place.
Dareus was traded to the Jags (from the Buffalo Bills) in 2017 for a fifth-round pick. He helped improve their run defense significantly from that point on and managed to accumulate 45 tackles and 2.5 sacks as a Jaguar over the span of three years.
In 2019, Dareus had issues staying healthy, however, and missed 10 games. He suffered a severe core injury Week 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals which resulted in surgery and put him on season-ending injured reserve.
Luckily, the 2020 draft class is strong at defensive tackle so the team could go that route to replace the veteran come April. They also could get a younger proven player out of free agency, which is something we looked into Sunday.
