Jaguars Encouraged to Make Puzzling Move

The Jacksonville Jaguars' pass-rush depth behind Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker has been poor for years, but the Jaguars seemed to finally make a point to address it this offseason.

Despite that, however, the Jaguars have still been urged to make an odd move: pursuing Jadeveon Clowney.

"The Jaguars have a strong pair of starting edge rushers with Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker. But there are questions about the depth behind them. Emmanuel Ogbah is 32 years old and had just five sacks as a full-time starter in Miami last season," ESPN's Aaron Schatz said.

"Myles Cole had no sacks on 11.3% of defensive snaps as a seventh-round rookie. The Jaguars could use a third strong edge rusher who can rotate with Hines-Allen and Walker, and there are a number still on the market. I'm picking Clowney over Matthew Judon, Preston Smith or Za'Darius Smith because his strength setting the edge on run plays makes him a good sub for Walker specifically."

The issue with this take is that it ignores a few things.

One is that Ogbah has produced as a solid depth player in previous years when not asked to be a full-time starter. He was in a bad spot with the Dolphins last year, but he is still a solid EDGE3.

Then there is the fact the Jaguars added even more depth behind him in Dawuane Smoot and Dennis Gardeck. Each player should factor into the Jaguars' pass-rush rotation, enough so to the point that Myles Cole is actually closer to being EDGE6 than he is to EDGE4 like he is talked about here.

“A little bit. You obviously want, like we talked about the other day, waves of maybe some different types of rushers at times. Guys when you're playing in the trenches, specifically, when you come in and maybe you're a UDFA or a rookie in general, man that size, that strength, that speed, especially in the trenches is different for anybody," Jaguars head coach Liam Coen said after the additions of Gardeck and Dawuane Smoot.

"And so there's always a curve. There's always going to be a learning curve and a physical growth curve that is going to need to occur. But getting some of those guys that have established themselves in this league and played meaningful snaps, I think will just help us, maybe in times of crisis and just to maybe be a little bit more consistent in some ways, knowing that we're pretty young as a team in general.”