PFF Ranks Jaguars' Guard Duo of Brandon Scherff and Ezra Cleveland In Top-25

The Jacksonville Jaguars are looking for a rebound year from their offensive line, and a lot of those hopes will fall on their veteran guard duo of Ezra Cleveland and Brandon Scherff.

There is some outside optimism for the two to lead the line to a more productive and consistent season, however. According to a ranking by Pro Football Focus of the top-32 guards in the NFL, Scherff comes in at No. 17 and Cleveland follows him at No. 24.

"Scherff rolled back the years in 2023 after allowing six sacks in 2022. The former Commander struggled to stay healthy in his seven years with Washington but was consistently one of the best guards in the NFL when on the field.

His 67.3 PFF overall grade this past year was relatively modest, but it still ranked 20th among guards. Scherff's pass-blocking grade was an excellent 78.7, top five at the position, and he allowed the fourth-lowest pressure rate in the NFL (2.5%)."Thomas Valentine, PFF

Scherff has started all 34 regular season games since signing with the Jaguars two offseasons ago, along with starting two playoff games. He has also been voted an offensive captain in back-to-back seasons.

"Cleveland was traded to the Jaguars midway through the 2023 season to solve the team’s interior offensive line issues, but he struggled. His 46.0 PFF overall grade in seven games with Jacksonville was poor, but Cleveland showed more of his stuff with the Vikings in the first six games of the season, earning a 73.8 grade.

The Jaguars gave Cleveland a three-year, $24 million in the offseason, so they’re betting on him to find his footing in Year 2 with the team."Thomas Valentine, PFF

The Jaguars traded a sixth-round pick to the Minnesota Vikings at last year's trade deadline to acquire C leveland, reuniting him with offensive line coach Phil Rauscher.

Cleveland went on to appear in nine games for the Jaguars, starting four games at left guard and one game at left tackle. Cleveland did deal with injuries during the 2023 season, which meant the Jaguars didn't get a chance to see their ideal starting offensive line play together until the final game of the season.

"Right now, it's kind of just we're trying to create an identity of who we envision ourselves being within the scheme. It's tougher to have position battles when things aren't very physical, because that's obviously an element we would like to value even more moving forward as a offensive unit," Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor said last week when asked about the offensive line.

"So that's something that's taken out of the off-season program a little bit. Right now, you're looking for understanding, the details, looking for some urgency. But that physical piece is the element that misses throughout the off-season that we're trying to take our time with as we move forward. You'll get a little bit more preview of that through training camp, obviously pre-season games as these things continue on."