The Jacksonville Jaguars are poised to make a comeback in the 2025 season, and while most of the attention is - understandably - going towards the offense, the defense deserves recognition, too. Anthony Campanile had the difficult task of turning the worst defense in the league into one of the best, which will undoubtedly be a lot to ask of any first-year defensive coordinator.
Thankfully, there's no doubting that the Jaguars have talent on their roster, like Travon Walker, Devin Lloyd, and Tyson Campbell, and that's not even considering newcomers Jourdan Lewis and Travis Hunter. But there's one star who is predicted to be among the best in the league.
ESPN released a prediction of who their editors believe will be the top 100 players in the league, and one Jaguars defensive stalwart made the list: none other than Josh Hines-Allen. Yet despite being included in the top 100, which is still an honor, they still managed to disrespect the star defensive end.
Josh Hines-Allen is way better than this
Last year, Hines-Allen was ranked at #43, but for some reason, he dropped this year to #97 - ouch. And while he's still on the list and expected to perform well, he's still predicted to have a measly 8.5 sacks.
"Hines-Allen has shed the 20-plus pounds that former defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen had him gain last season, and Hines-Allen believes that will allow him to be as explosive as he was in 2023 -- when he set the franchise record with 17.5 sacks. 'It was a lot. Too much,' Hines-Allen said. '... Something that I tried, and something that I'm like, All right, I probably don't want to do that again.'"
Michael DiRocco
It's interesting that Hines-Allen himself believes he'll get better under Campanile, and that ESPN itself noted he's an impressive group: only he, T.J. Watt, Trey Hendrickson, Myles Garrett, and Micah Parsons have been able to rack up 25 sacks and 50 quarterback hits over the past two seasons. Yet somehow, he's placed at #97 and predicted to have just 8.5 sacks in 2025?
That's basically expecting him to perform no better this season than he did last season. It's a mindset that doesn't make much sense, considering Hines-Allen had to play under Ryan Nielsen, who was - to put it mildly - a terrible defensive coordinator. And being asked to gain weight was something not unique to Hines-Allen; other defensive players had to as well, and likewise saw their performance suffer.
Considering there's a new defensive coordinator, and that Hines-Allen has dropped the extra weight, there's good reason to be optimistic about seeing a rebound from him this season. Yet for some reason, ESPN has him falling even further. And frankly, that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
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