Jaguars Mid-Season Report Card: Defensive Line

by Alfie Crow on Nov 4, 2011 10:58 AM EDT in Jacksonville Jaguars News

We're at the mid-way point through the season and the Jacksonville Jaguars bye week falls right in the middle of the season. That's a good spot for the bye in my opinion because I think you've got a really good gauge as to where the team is at and projected where they'll go in the final eight games. We'll look at some of the units and grade how they've done through the first eight games and we'll use ProFootballFocus for a frame of reference. Next, we'll look at the Jaguars defensive line.

Player	Snaps	Sacks	Pressures	QB Hits
Jeremy Mincey	481	2	16	6
Aaron Kampman	70	0	3	0
Matt Roth	319	3	8	1
John Chick	114	2	12	1
Austen Lane	129	1	1	1
Terrance Knighton	356	0	5	0
Tyson Alualu	451	1	5	1
C.J. Mosely	65	1	1	0
Leger Douzable	69	0	0	1
Nate Collins	31	0	0	1

The Jaguars pass rush has improved the last two seasons, but last year's improvement was more do to just being better than terrible. This seen the team does have some semblance of a pass rush thanks to guys like Mincey and Chick. Chick as been a great find and I'm still trying to figure out why the Colts expected him to be safe on their practice squad. According to PFF, Chick has rushed the passer just 96 times this season and he's second on the team in pressures. Chick will be someone to keep an eye on in the second half of the season.

Another player to keep an eye on is defensive lineman Tyson Alualu. According to PFF, he's the Jaguars worst defensive lineman by far. In my opinion, Alualu has played fine, but it's clear he's playing injured. He has a knee issues that he'll likely need to get cleaned up in the offseason, but I wouldn't categorize his play as bad.

Jeremy Mincey, who's in a contract year, has been graded out by PFF as the Jaguars best defensive lineman overall. It will be interesting to see if Mincey is re-signed mid-season and how much the Jaguars extend to him.

Poll

How would you rate the Jaguars defensive line so far?

Better than expected

292 votes

As expected

101 votes

Worse than expected

7 votes

400 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

More impressive

is the fact that Chick hasn’t even been active for 8 games; I know he at least missed this last week. More effective in a shorter amount of time

by grues0809 on Nov 4, 2011 11:47 AM EDT reply actions

That was supposed to be snaps. Fixed.

Follow @AlfieBCC

by Alfie Crow on Nov 4, 2011 11:56 AM EDT up reply actions

Chick and Mincy should be starters

These two guys have played great

Take stock in your lives, but leave your livestock alone

by MadKow on Nov 4, 2011 11:50 AM EDT reply actions

Been saying it

for weeks.

by Ewdtrey on Nov 4, 2011 5:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Our defense is one of the best in the league

I wouldn’t rather have another D-line….And i dont care who starts because whatever four are down there…will give their all.

by Nate Digs on Nov 4, 2011 12:02 PM EDT reply actions

You wouldn’t rather have another d-line?

Alright.

Follow @AlfieBCC

by Alfie Crow on Nov 4, 2011 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions

What is Bart's dad's name?

by CheapSeat on Nov 4, 2011 12:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Sticking to just 43 DL's

who has a better DL? Not saying there isn’t better out there, I think there is, but none significantly better off the top of my head.

The Giants have a better pass rush for sure, but they are 24th against the run.

by Ewdtrey on Nov 4, 2011 10:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Love the enthusiasm

And the d line has definitely shown a lot of progress but you’re crazy if you wouldn’t rather have the Giants front 4.

Once Tyson is healthy the line should (hopefully) start to look as dominant as they did in the preseason….because when that guy was healthy, he looked like he was going to be an absolute wrecking ball through the middle of o lines

by grues0809 on Nov 4, 2011 2:14 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

Alualu's Knee

Why didn’t he just get it cleaned up before the season? Seems like it’s the same deal as last year all over again. Not to sound like Garrard, but I do have some questions about the team’s medical staff

by reems28 on Nov 4, 2011 12:16 PM EDT reply actions

…because there was a lockout and it wouldn’t have been done by the team, therefore if something went wrong it wouldn’t be covered?

Follow @AlfieBCC

by Alfie Crow on Nov 4, 2011 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions

also I’m not sure it was an issue till he came to camp

by Vicbow on Nov 4, 2011 10:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Let's put these numbers into an "everything was equal" comparison:

Pressure/QB Hit/Sack per rush percentage:

Jeremy Mincey- 4.9% (Not to shabby especially seeing the amount of downs played and being both passing and rushing downs)

Aaron Kampman- 4.2% (while this number LOOKS good let’s remember that almost all of these snaps are passing downs like Chick’s. Pretty low percentage in comparison-especially with that contract)

Matt Roth- 3.7% (he’s in on rush & passing downs this isn’t dreadful but could be better)

John Chick- 13.2% (one word: BEAST)

Austen Lane- 2.3% (not all that he was hyped up to be preseason)

Terrance Knighton- 1.4% (maily a run stopper and getting double teamed)

Tyson Alualu- 1.6% (been a very ineffective pass rusher even with one on one blocking)

C.J. Mosely-3.1% (in a very limited amount of snaps aka small sample size)

Leger Douzable- 1.4%

Nate Collins- 3.2% (same as C.J. Mosely- small sample size)

Travis D. Holmes

by T.Holmes on Nov 4, 2011 3:27 PM EDT reply actions