The defense the Jacksonville Jaguar built in 2017 will always be remembered as arguably the best in team history. When looking at NFL history, they’ve also received favorable rankings as the unit nearly propelled them to the Super Bowl.
Pro Football Focus recently added to that praise by declaring the Jags’ 2017 defense the third-best (by Wins Above Replacement metrics) when looking at the 2010s. In a nutshell, the WAR metric uses PFF ratings to dictate the value of a group (or sometimes a player) in comparison to replacement-level victories.
The only teams that ranked higher were the 2015 Denver Broncos and 2018 Chicago Bears, who were ranked first and second, respectively. The 2013 Seattle Seahawks’ defense also made the list, coming in at the No. 4 spot.
(Note: For a full explanation of PFF’s war metric, click here.)
Best defenses of the decade, per PFF WAR:
1. 2015 Broncos
2. 2018 Bears
3. 2017 Jaguars
4. 2013 Seahawks pic.twitter.com/OpbZTimO1h— PFF (@PFF) June 27, 2020
The Jags’ 2017 defense had it all and each level of the field consisted of stars from the defensive line (Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue), to the linebacking corps (Myles Jack and Paul Posluszny), to the secondary (A.J. Bouye and Jalen Ramsey).
The unit led the league in several key categories, as their passing defense allowed the fewest yards through the air (2,718) and the lowest passing yard average (169.9). They were also second in sacks that year and propelled the Jags to a +10 turnover margin.
Unfortunately, things fell apart after that season and the group had to be dismantled to reallocate money. However, for the time that the group was together it was an awesome thing to watch as offenses had an extremely difficult time scoring.