On Wednesday, the good people over at Pro Football Focus revealed their top pass-rushing units list, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Jacksonville Jaguars were near the top. In fact, only one team was ranked ahead of them and that was the Philadelphia Eagles’ unit, who as most know are pretty good, too.
2. JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS
Yet another defensive line that wasn’t comfortable to rest on their laurels this offseason. The Jags added PFF’s highest-graded college edge rusher last season to a group that finished with the sixth-highest team pass-rushing grade in the NFL last year.
It still hasn’t quite sunk in that the league allowed the Southeastern Conference’s top pass rusher, Josh Allen, to fall in the laps of the Jags who selected him with the No. 7 overall pick. It’s easy to see why he graded highly via PFF after taking on some of the elite offensive linemen in the SEC and still managing to accumulate 88 total tackles, 17 sacks (good for second in the nation) and 21.5 tackles for loss.
Needless to say, the supporting cast around Allen will be very strong as Calais Campbell finished 2018 with a PFF grade of 94.0 and Marcell Dareus finished with an 80.9. Hopefully, Yannick Ngakoue will also be a part of the unit in 2019 despite his contract situation as he has been a big part of the Jags’ pass rush, accumulating 29.5 sacks in just three seasons.
With a complete unit, PFF is right to believe the Jags’ pass rush can be amongst the best. If they perform to their potential and expectations, it should cause a trickle effect and make the back seven better and provide more opportunities for the offensive side, too.
