Jaguars' Arik Armstead Makes Revelation About 2024 Role

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive tackle Arik Armstead can at last label himself as exactly that: a defensive tackle.

After signing with the Jaguars last offseason, Armstead and the Jaguars went through the curious exercise of playing the career interior defensive lineman at defensive end.

Speaking on the O-Zone Podcast, Armstead explained how the move to defensive end originated and revealed a major piece of information about his thoughts on the move.

"I was being pursued by multiple teams in free agency, and the number one question for me was, how will I be utilized? When I'm speaking to all these teams. And I played defensive tackle for like, the past three or four years of my career, and you know, was playing at a Pro Bowl, elite level," Armstead said.

"And so it was by surprise to me when I asked, you know, how they wanted me to be utilized, that they wanted me to play defensive end, and they wanted me to rush inside on third down, but primarily play defensive end. And it was a little bit of a surprise to me, knowing that, you know, I played the tackle, you know, for the past few years, and have been pretty successful. But they wanted a big body at defensive end, a guy who could rotate with Travon and Josh. And, you know, when they presented the plan to me, I was like, Okay, let's, let's do it if that's, you know, the best plan that you guys see fit, right?"

Armstead said that around the time the Jaguars were in London -- in Weeks 6 and 7 -- he went to the Jaguars' staff about nixing the move to defensive end. This piece of information was never revealed during the final season of the Doug Pederson and Trent Baalke era, and it makes sense for this to have been just another act in a nightmare season.

It didn't happen, however, and Armstead presented a fairly good explanation for why it might not have.

"And then shortly into the season, when we're in London, I went to them and I said, you know, I don't think this is necessarily working out. You know, I feel like I can have a bigger impact on the team if I'm playing more inside, where I'm, you know, a better pass rusher, and I'm on the field, you know, with Josh and Travon and the rest of the guys," Armstead said.

"And at that time, looking at the roster, it didn't happen, even though I expressed that that's something that I wanted to do, and I thought that would be better for the team. It didn't happen. But when you look at the roster, I don't -- you know, that kind of could have went into that."

As Armstead would explain, the Jaguars were heavy on defensive tackles last year and thin on defensive ends. Counting Armstead, the only defensive ends on the roster were him, Hines-Allen, Walker, and seventh-round pick Myles Cole.

In short, the Jaguars built their roster around the idea of Armstead being a defensive end and not a defensive tackle.

"Because when you look at the roster, at point ... we had four defensive ends and we had seven defensive tackles, right? So if you move me to D-tackle, who spells and who gives Josh and Travon a break, you know? So it could have been one of those situations, but I did express it," Armstead said.