When the Jacksonville Jaguars take the field in 2020, their defense will look significantly different. That could especially be the case on the edge as Calais Campbell is now a Baltimore Raven and Yannick Ngakoue is trying his best to play elsewhere. Simply put, it appears the Jags will need a different player to step up on the edge and it’s possible he may be on the roster already.
Dawuane Smoot will be entering his fourth and the final season on his contract and with the defensive end position seemingly wide-open aside from Josh Allen, the 25-year-old could make himself a lot of money if he plays well. In 2019, Smoot produced his most productive season in terms of sacks, registering six, however, with the possibility of increased snaps coming he might can hit double-digit figures.
Smoot, a third-round selection from the 2017 draft struggled early in his career due to being buried under a talented defensive line depth chart, but since, the Jags have had to cut ties with a majority of the group. At one point, with a $60-plus million dollar price tag, the Jags had the most expensive defensive line in the NFL but it wasn’t sustainable and cuts had to be made. That could now turn the Jags to Smoot who saw 404 snaps in 2019, by far his highest total.
The good thing about his struggles toes the field in the past is that he got to learn from a future Hall-of-Famer in Campbell and watched the techniques of the player who is No. 2 on the Jags’ sack list in Ngakoue. However, in 2020, both could be gone, and if that’s the case,