Jaguars roster analysis: Defensive line is deep

Getting back to looking at the Jacksonville Jaguars roster, we’re going to move to the defensive line. I debated on doing interior line separate from the edge players, but the team has so many moving parts on the line and players will play inside and out, I decided to just combine the defensive line as a whole.

What do the Jaguars have?

The Jaguars most talented position on the roster is easily their defensive line, as they do have legitimately good depth on the line. You have guys brought in as high priced free agents such as Calais Campbell and Malik Jackson, and then players brought in as draft picks or undrafted free agents such as Yannick Ngakoue, Dante Fowler Jr., Abry Jones, Sheldon Day, Dawuane Smoot, Michael Bennett, etc.

It’s finally a good mix of experienced players and young players with upside that have shown some flashes. It should be enough of a mix to provide what the Jaguars need from the defensive line, though there will still be some questions about the pass rush even with the addition of someone like Campbell, who’s not really the type of edge rusher the team still has questions about.

How much are the Jaguars spending?

(via Spotrac)

The Jaguars are fifth overall in the NFL in cap spending on the defensive line, which shouldn’t really be a shocker to anyone. The team paid Abry Jones this offseason, as well as paying Malik Jackson last offseason and Calais Campbell this offseason. The team has some cheap rookie deals with Day, Fowler and Ngakoue as well.

How will the Jaguars line up?

The Jaguars have a lot of combinations on the defensive line they can roll through, but the base defense will likely be the following to start out (from left to right):

Campbell - Jackson - Jones - Ngakoue

On obvious passing downs, my guess would be the line looks like this (from left to right):

Fowler - Campbell - Jackson - Ngakoue

The team has also talked about situations that could see Jackson and Campbell flop inside/out positions on some downs to give different looks, which would make sense and be similar to what both did with the Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals, respectively. You’ll also obviously have guys like Smoot and Day in the rotation in different situations.