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Jacksonville Jaguars general manager Dave Caldwell met with the media at the 2017 NFL Combine on Thursday morning and made a few interesting comments. One comment in particular revolved around linebacker Myles Jack and furthered what Caldwell said about the young linebacker last week, the team wants him to play more in 2017. Not only do they want him to play more, but Caldwell specifically said they would like Jack to play 85-95 percent of the snaps next season.
Dave Caldwell says Myles Jack will be an 85-95% snap participant for #Jaguars in 2017 pic.twitter.com/1IcwemBbBD
— RosterWatch (@RosterWatch) March 2, 2017
Caldwell also praised veteran linebacker Paul Posluszny and indicated he would be with the team next season and possibly longer. Myles Jack playing more and Poz being a vital part of the defense going forward is only going to work in a few specific capacities. One makes a ton of sense and the other doesn't, really.
One of the scenarios that doesn't make sense is that Jack takes over the weakside linebacker role and you see less snaps for Telvin Smith. While I do think Smith can be a tad overrated by Jaguars fans, he's still a really good player and someone the team should lock up for the future as one of their linebackers, ideally to pair with Jack going forward. I don't really see this as the scenario, with Jack soaking up Smith's snaps and Poz continuing as the middle linebacker.
The more likely scenario in my opinion and the one that makes the most sense is, for Poz to slide over into a two-down strongside (SAM) linebacker role in a more traditional 4-3 defensive front. Many asked about Poz playing the completely fabricated OTTO position that the Jaguars basically never used, but he was not a fit for what the previous coaching staff envisioned that role to be, which was more like a secondary pass rusher/3-4 outside linebacker. In a more traditional SAM role Poz would become more of a two-down/run down player, allowing him to play down hill and fit the skillset he currently has left. Doing this would allow you to keep Smith as a three-down player at WLB, Jack as a three-down player at MLB and the Poz filling that SLB role.
Now, again, this is all guess work based off a few quotes, but unless the team is flat out planning to cut Poz or move on from Smith, this is the only way their comments make much sense.
And no, he's not going to play safety.