5 Areas the Jaguars Need to Improve in Under a New Offensive Coordinator

Where will the Jaguars' offense need to take a step forward with John DeFilippo no longer the coordinator?

For the third season in a row, the Jacksonville Jaguars will be installing a new offensive scheme led by a new play-caller, a result of the team and 2019 offensive coordinator John DeFilippo mutually parting ways on Monday.

Considering the failures of Jacksonville's offense in 2019, it isn't too much of a surprise to see the team and DeFilippo's relationship only last one season. The Jaguars found themselves near the bottom in most statistical offense rankings, leading to a lot of room for improvement in 2020.

The Jaguars will turn to a new play-caller in 2020 with the hopes of fielding a better offense in most nearly every area, but there are five specific areas the Jaguars' offense will especially need to make a jump in under the next offensive coordinator if they hope to have to a winning season.

Which areas? We intensified and explained:

1) Turn more red-zone trips into touchdowns

It seemed almost comical how often the Jaguars marched to the opposing team's end of the field but weren't able to put the ball into the end zone in 2019. Far too often Jacksonville would get themselves in scoring position but have to settle for letting Josh Lambo put up three points. Considering how often the Jaguars fell behind in games and needed touchdowns to keep the scores close, this was a major issue. 

Under DeFilippo, Jacksonville was 23rd in the NFL in red-zone scoring attempts per game with 2.9. How many of these red-zone trips did Jacksonville convert into six points? Only 40.43% of them, which was 31st in the NFL. Only the Pittsburgh Steelers had a worse touchdown percentage in red-zone trips. Whoever the next offensive coordinator is in Jacksonville will need to quickly figure out a way to reverse this trend. 

2) Utilize more of the team's running back depth

Leonard Fournette was one of Jacksonville's two best offensive players in 2019 (along with D.J. Chark). There is no disputing the effectiveness of DeFilipposa's strategy to center the offense around Fournette, considering the third-year running back had the best year of his career as both a runner and receiver, sans his lack of touchdowns. 

But DeFilippo strangely didn't let Jacksonville's young and explosive backups get game reps. Fournette touched the ball 341 times, while backups Ryquell Armstead and Devine Ozigbo combined for only 61 touches. Armstead and Ozigbo impressed in a big way in Week 17 when Fournette missed the game with illness, indicating it was a mistake to leave either on the bench as much as the Jaguars did in 2019. Moving forward, utilizing the running back depth could help the entire offense, as well as Fournette.

3) Let Gardner Minshew II run play-action more frequently

Despite Fournette's presence and the attention defenses paid to him, the Jaguars didn't utilize much play-action in 2019, having one of the lowest usage rates in the entire NFL. Strangely enough, the one thing DeFilippo seemingly refused to turn to was what rookie quarterback Gardner Minshew II was maybe best at.

When running play-action in 2019, Minshew was 46/58 for 658 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. Minshew turned 25 of these throws into first downs and had a quarterback rating of 142.7. For context, Minshew was 239/412 for 2,613 yards and 16 touchdowns with six interceptions on plays without play-action. On these plays, Minshew had a quarterback rating of 83.7. It would do Minshew and the entire offense wonders to utilize play-action on a more frequent basis in 2020.

4) Put up more points in the first-half

Under John DeFilippo in 2019, the Jaguars scored only 7.4 first-half points per game, ranked 31st in the NFL. That is less than offenses such as Washington, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Buffalo, and the Jets. Only Chicago scored fewer points per first halves.

For context, the dreadful 2018 Jaguars' offense scored 7.7 first-half points per game. Despite Blake Bortles and Cody Kessler no longer starting at quarterback, and with Leonard Fournette having a career year, the Jaguars' first-half offense was worse in 2019. Starting fast and entering halftime with more than three or 10 points has to be a priority for the next coordinator. 

5) Find more success on third-downs

Another fatal flaw of the Jaguars' offense in 2019 was its inability to stay on the field and string together lengthy drives. Too often, Jacksonville would need to make a big play on offense to keep themselves in the game, only to fail to stay on the field on third-down. 

Jacksonville's third-down conversion rate in 2019 was 34.55%, ranked 26th in the NFL. For context, the 2018 Jacksonville offense converted 40.43% of its third-downs, good for 12th in the NFL. Despite more talent on offense in 2019, Jacksonville couldn't string conversions together. The next offensive coordinator will need to find better money plays that are sure things, something the 2019 offense never had.