The Jacksonville Jaguars are widely expected to use the franchise tag on pass-rusher Josh Allen before next month's deadline -- but what if they didn't?
In the scenario where Allen surprisingly becomes a free agent, where would the star pass-rusher and former top-10 pick fit best?
Pro Football Focus looked at that exact scenario and came up with two spots: The Carolina Panthers to replace Brian Burns, and the New England Patriots.
"Allen backed up a strong 2022 with an extraordinary 2023 season, racking up career highs in quarterback pressures (69) and sacks (13.5) already through Week 14, coupled with a 20.1% pass-rush win rate that ranked among the league’s best," PFF said.
"Carolina hypothetically swaps Allen in for Brian Burns, or New England makes a huge free-agent splash on the edge."
In 17 games this year, Allen recorded 17.5 sacks, a career-high 33 quarterback hits, a career-high 17 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and an interception. Allen also finished No. 5 among all EDGE players in pressures and No. 7 in win-rate.
Allen has said multiple times that he prefers to remain in Jacksonville, but his contract is set to expire on March 13. Until then, the Jaguars will work toward a long-term deal but, most likely, will franchise tag him to ensure he doesn't get the chance to test the open market and leave Jacksonville.
"Really excited to work with him, heard nothing but great things. I talked to Josh and he’s been fantastic. That’ll get worked out, get him back and get him going, hopefully get him to improve," Jaguars defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen said last week. "That’s the ultimate goal, if we can just get that much better next year, what does that look like? That’s pretty exciting. That’s what we want to work towards.”
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