The Jacksonville Jaguars defense has netted just 14 sacks so far on the season, ranking them dead last in the NFL. It's another year of the Jaguars pass rush being among the worst in the league, which has been a problem for the past few years. So what's the problem?
"It’s one of those things where in terms of coordinating a pass rush that’s not always as coordinated as it needs to be," Jaguars defensive coordinator Mel Tucker explained to reporters on Monday. "Sometimes the coverage is not good enough to ask the quarterback to hold the ball, make the quarterback hold the ball. And really it comes down to trying to get pressure on the quarterback by four-man rush or five-man rush, and it’s tough when you have to pick."
Why isn't the rush coordinated? Isn't that what Tucker's job is? How long should it take to coordinate the rush? Isn't that something you should have figured out before Week 14 of the NFL season?
"It depends on what we can get done from their protection standpoint, who we have up ready to go in the game, and it’s not like it’s not as good as we want it to be, but I think you can see what a guy like (Jason) Babin can do for you," Tucker continued. "He can give you some rush off the edge, you get some pocket presence, and speed up the quarterback quite a bit. I don’t think it’s just one thing that you can point to, but we’re just not good enough in that category overall."
Outside of the quarterback position, the area the Jaguars need to improve the most in the 2013 offseason is the pass rush. If it takes free agent signings, multiple draft picks or whatever, just do something for it. The team has rested on their laurels too much and done too little to fix the pass rush, often pinning the hopes on one player and then being lost when that player either doesn't perform as hoped or is hurt and unavailable.