Jaguars Hope Important Change Will Improve Defense

The Jacksonville Jaguars' defense struggled in seemingly every facet last season, making the unit a top priority for new head coach Liam Coen and his coaching staff.

From having a consistent pass-rush to coverage mistakes to being reliable against the run and as a tackling unit each week, the issues with the Jaguars' defense were rampant.

Perhaps one of those issues seems self-inflicted in hindsight, and it is one the Jaguars are seemingly changing under Coen and defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile -- the size of the unit.

The Jaguars' defense got noticeably bigger last season under defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen, with players such as Josh Hines-Allen, Travon Walker, Andre Cisco, and Devin Lloyd all seemingly playing at their highest weights in their NFL careers.

Jacksonville's best players on defense saw their production take a dip across the board, and even Walker noted the downsides of the strategy this week at OTAs when he noted he has lost three pounds.

“I am not going to use that as an excuse, but I felt like it took a little bit of a toll on me closer the end of the season. It has its pros and its cons," Walker said.

With Coen and Campanile now in the driver's seat for the defense, it appears the unit is getting back to playing at their more natural weights from pre-2024.

“Just kind of getting some of those guys back to their natural playing weight. Just kind of where they’ve maybe been in years past of having success and kind of getting back to that is really what it came down to," Coen said this week.

The Jaguars are asking different things out of their defense this year than they did last year, and changes are all over the field and facility. But the biggest change yet might actually be the act of getting smaller.

“I know that they’d put some weight on in order to play some of the schemes, structures that they were playing. That’s just anybody’s prerogative. That’s the way they wanted to do it," Coen said.

"Ultimately, just kind of evaluating it and talking to some of the players and trying to get them back down a little bit to maybe where they’d been when they’d had better years or been a little bit more productive. Definitely better for those guys to feel fresh.”