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8 moves the Jaguars could make to create cap space in 2024

The Jaguars may need to create cap space if they hope to make moves this offseason.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are projected to enter the 2024 offseason with much more salary cap space than they did when they were over the limit heading into the 2023 offseason.

This time around, the Jaguars have more room to maneuver, but there are also some moves that could eat up that space quickly. For one, the team seems likely to franchise tag Josh Allen, which would guarantee the pass rusher about $22 million for the 2024 season.

If Jacksonville hopes to make that move along with any other additions or extensions in the 2024 offseason, the team simply has to find a way to create more room.

Fortunately for the Jaguars there are ways to make that happen. Some of the decisions will be relatively easy, others will be a much tougher call.

Here are eight ways the Jaguars could cut costs and clear space this offseason:

5 Jaguars players to watch vs the Titans in Week 18

The Jaguars offense is finally starting to get healthy again.

The Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t completely out of the woods, but fans can breathe again. The team ended its four-game losing streak in Week 17, beating the Panthers in a 26-point shutout.

The Jaguars have now guaranteed themselves a winning record, but a win could move the Jaguars to 10-7 and clinch the AFC South title.

Tennessee is in a different place than it was last time the teams met, and a few key Jaguars will need to be at the top of their game to secure another win for Jacksonville.

Here are five Jaguars players to watch against the Titans in Week 18:

5 Jaguars players to watch vs the Buccaneers in Week 16

Can the Jaguars get their offense back on track in Tampa Bay?

The Jacksonville Jaguars are finally, mercifully done playing AFC North teams. After playing the Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Ravens three weeks in a row, the Jaguars fell from 8-3 to 8-6.

This makes Jacksonville’s matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers much more important. The Jaguars have a narrow lead — only due to tiebreakers — over the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans, who also sit at 8-6.

Tampa Bay is also playing for its division, though. The Buccaneers are 7-7, as are the New Orleans Saints, so they will need to keep to their winning ways if they want to earn a playoff spot.

While the Buccaneers have talent on both sides of the football, Jacksonville has the talent to get the job done if it can put things back together.

Here are five Jaguars players to watch when they travel to Tampa Bay to play the Bucs in Week 16:

Jaguars PFF grades: Best and worst performers vs. Ravens

Jamal Agnew and Rayshawn Jenkins stood out in a losing effort against the Ravens.

The Jacksonville Jaguars had too many strong performances in a Week 15 game against the Baltimore Ravens to finish with only seven points.

Five times, the Jaguars drove inside Baltimore’s 40-yard line and none of those drives resulted in points. The only touchdown of the day came on a 65-yard bomb from Trevor Lawrence to Jamal Agnew in the third quarter.

For the most part, the Jacksonville defense showed up. Despite being in some disadvantageous spots, the Jaguars allowed only one touchdown in each half and three field goals.

Yet, the Ravens ran with a 23-7 road win against a Jaguars team that couldn’t stop tripping over its own feet. Who was most to blame for the 16-point loss, and who stood out most? Here’s how Pro Football Focus graded out the Jaguars’ performance:

Studs and duds in Jaguars’ 23-7 loss vs. Ravens

Which Jaguars players stood out most to you Sunday night?

The Jacksonville Jaguars fell to 8-6 on Sunday night when the Baltimore Ravens handed them a third consecutive loss.

It was an all too familiar formula that doomed the Jaguars in the 23-7 loss. Despite finding 333 yards of offense, Jacksonville’s only points came on one 65-yard touchdown.

The Jaguars drove inside the Ravens’ 40-yard line five times and the red zone three times, but somehow finished with zero points to show for it. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence fumbled away one of those possessions, made a crucial error that ran out the clock on another, and turned the ball over on downs late in the fourth quarter. The other two were missed field goals.

Jacksonville had its opportunities and simply didn’t come nearly close enough to capitalizing on them. Here are the players who struggled most Sunday as well as those who stood out in the losing effort:

Jaguars vs. Ravens recap: ‘BS’ dooms Jacksonville once again

Two days after Doug Pederson said the Jaguars needed to “eliminate some of the BS,” they did the opposite in a 23-7 loss.

Two days before the Jacksonville Jaguars hosted the Baltimore Ravens, head coach Doug Pederson told reporters that the team would be fine if it “eliminates some of the BS.” Unfortunately for the Jaguars, there was no shortage of self-inflicted BS in a 23-7 home loss.

Both sides of the ball had its strong moments Sunday night for Jacksonville.

The Jaguars offense finished with 333 yards, a pretty strong day on paper that yielded only one touchdown. Jacksonville’s defense forced a turnover and allowed only two touchdowns, despite the comedy of offensive errors.

Those mistakes included two missed field goals, two Trevor Lawrence fumbles, and horrendous clock management in the final seconds of the first half. Those miscues doomed the Jaguars to a third straight loss.

Here’s how Jacksonville’s costly Week 15 loss went down:

Why the Jaguars’ defense, and the ‘other’ Josh Allen, deserve your attention

The 8-3 Jacksonville Jaguars are getting it done with a defense that may have escaped your attention. It’s time to take a closer look.

Quite under the radar, the Jacksonville Jaguars have assembled a 8-3 record, and they’re currently the AFC’s three-seed, behind the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs. The prime mover for this improvement for a team that finished 9-8 last season, snuck into the playoffs, and lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round, is a defense that currently ranks fifth in the NFL in DVOA — eighth against the pass, and first against the run.

And the prime mover in that defense is clearly EDGE Josh Allen — the Josh Allen who’s having the better season of the NFL’s two Josh Allen’s. The 2019 seventh-overall pick out of Kentucky has the league’s fifth-most pressures among edge-rushers, and his 13 sacks ranks third.

Against the Houston Texans last Sunday in a 24-21 win, that defense and Allen in particular made rookie phenom C.J. Stroud as uncomfortable in and out of the pocket as he’s been in his professional career. Per Pro Football Focus, Stroud was pressured on 28 of his 46 dropbacks, and that’s exactly what it looked like on tape.

“They really didn’t do too much,” Stroud said after the game of Jacksonville’s pressure looks. “They sent some pressure, but not as much as they did early on [in Week 3, when the Texans beat the Jaguars, 37-17]. They got us a couple of times in some weird fronts with some pressure looks. I’ve got to be better with throwing the ball high and things like that, but they really didn’t do much different. They’re a sound team. They’re up front. Josh Allen and [fellow EDGE Travon] Walker set the tone.”

Allen’s two sacks in this game showed how defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell and defensive line coach Brentson Buckner are dialing things up in subtle ways to affect and upset opposing quarterbacks.

The first sack came with 3:14 left in the first quarter. Linebackers Foyesade Oluokun and Devin Lloyd mugged left guard Juice Scruggs. This made it a six-man pressure look with Olokun dropping and Lloyd occupying left tackle Laremy Tunsil, while Allen came off the left edge unblocked — not a great idea. At the same time, safety Tre Herndon blitzed from the other side on a delay from slot depth.

Allen’s second sack came with 2:24 left in the fourth quarter. Here, Allen was to Tunsil’s outside shoulder, and defensive tackle Angelo Blackson was to Scruggs’ outside shoulder. Blackson occupied Scruggs, and then Allen just made a great play, slipping through Tunsil and Scruggs and chasing Stroud down. This is a defense that can get after your quarterback in multiple ways.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys go deep on this Jacksonville defense, the secret stars that make it work, and how this can set the Jaguars up for success as the season continues.

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You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os,” featuring all of Week 13’s biggest NFL matchups, right here:

You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Week 13’s biggest NFL matchups

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys go deep on Week 13’s biggest NFL matchup with tape and metrics.

It’s time for Week 13 of the 2023 NFL season, including three Thanksgiving games, and the league’s first Black Friday contest ever. Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, are here to get you ready for the most important matchups:

Seattle Seahawks at Dallas Cowboys: Can Seattle fix its passing game, and deal with a version of Dak Prescott that might be the best we’ve seen?

Denver Broncos at Houston Texans: The underrated players who are at the heart of Denver’s drastic defensive improvement over the last five games.

San Francisco 49ers at Philadelphia Eagles: How both of these teams set up future plays with current plays, and a throw from Brock Purdy you have to see to believe. Also, Jason Kelce might be playing the best football of his Hall of Fame career.

Kansas City Chiefs at Green Bay Packers: This Super Bowl I “rematch” comes at a time when Packers quarterback Jordan Love is coming into his own as a franchise quarterback.

Cincinnati Bengals at Jacksonville Jaguars: We have not talked enough about the 9-3 Jaguars on both sides of the ball. We would like to apologize, and go deep on Jacksonville’s pressure packages, and how they get their receivers open with scheme.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Jaguars defense gives ‘advice’ to Steelers WR George Pickens after win

“You don’t fire up a bunch of hungry dogs.”

Jacksonville Jaguars players didn’t have much to say Friday when asked about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ George Pickens calling them a “hope defense.” Safety Andre Cisco only called it “an interesting choice of words.”

The Jaguars saved their talking about it until Sunday in the locker room after a 20-10 win in which Pickens had one reception for 22 yards that was the Steelers’ only touchdown of the day.

“We heard some chatter before the game that we didn’t like,” Jaguars safety Rayshawn Jenkins. “It really pissed us off, they shouldn’t have put that out there for us to hear that. They said we got ‘hope defense’ or something like that. We were hoping they would’ve came in here and put up a better fight.”

Safety Andrew Wingard, who started in place of Cisco, also jumped in with some thoughts on the Pickens comment that clearly didn’t sit well with Jaguars players.

“He needs some advice going forward, you never put pressure on yourself,” Wingard said. “You never put expectation on yourself. He did that. If hoping is getting a dub, we’ll take the dub. … You don’t fire up a bunch of hungry dogs. It’s not smart. George, do better.”

“He’s a young player, but you can’t chat before the game,” Jenkins added. “We didn’t say nothing the whole week. We just put it in the chamber and when it was time to come out, we started firing on all cylinders.

The 261 yards of total offense allowed was a season-best mark for the Jaguars defense, despite the team being without Cisco and cornerback Tyson Campbell.

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Jaguars defense unfazed by Derek Carr: ‘He’s gonna check down, check down, check down’

The Jaguars defense was unfazed by Derek Carr, with safety Rayshawn Jenkins saying after the game, ‘He’s gonna check down, check down, check down’

This is a tough quote on Derek Carr, but it lines up with what we saw on Thursday night. The Jacksonville Jaguars defense was not fazed by the threat of big plays from the New Orleans Saints quarterback in their 31-24 win. Afterward, Jaguars safety Rayshawn Jenkins let everyone know just how little he and his teammates thought of Carr’s ability to attack them over the top.

All they had to do, Jenkins said, was just keep everything in front of them: “We know that’s Derek Carr’s game. He’s gonna check down, check down, check down. We just have to win the game down the field and that was the mindset of the DBs. We’ll let him have the checkdowns; we’ll come up, rally, tackle that and get rid of the shot plays.”

Carr’s longest completion of the night was a 21-yard pickup early in the second quarter by Alvin Kamara, who made a nice play in space to gain most of that after the catch. Kamara led the team with 12 receptions for 91 yards; Carr was unable to put the ball where his wide receivers could have a chance to catch it on deep shots to Michael Thomas, Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed in other opportunities.

And this was a big criticism of Carr during his nine-year Raiders career. He was dinged for being too eager to throw a pass short of the first-down marker and force his running backs or tight ends to move the chains. The Saints forced him to throw downfield often early this season, but that’s obviously not a style of offense Carr is comfortable running. It’s worth asking whether he’s even capable of it. With opposing defenses keying in on his vulnerabilities so successfully, he’s got to show the Saints he can win in different ways.

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