How Jaguars Defenders Have Continued to Make Strides

The Jacksonville Jaguars defense has had its ups and down this season. However, their defensive backfield appears to be taking strides.

Houston Texans running back Joe Mixon (28), left, is tackled by Jacksonville Jaguars safety Antonio Johnson (26) and safety Darnell Savage (6), back, during the second quarter of an NFL football matchup Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union] / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Jacksonville Jaguars have struggled on both sides of the ball for most of the season. However, injuries on defense forced the Jaguars to depend on non-starters to get the job done, and it went about as well as expected, which was not well at all.

The Jaguars stumbled out of the gate to a 1-4 start. They have played in many close games in losing efforts, but considering the team's state, they have generally shown improvement across the board, considering the state of the team.

For instance, against the Tennessee Titans, safety Antonio Johnson had the third-most tackles on the team. It was the second consecutive week he had finished third in tackles.

Jaguars' defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen feels Johnson has improved over the weeks.

“I think recently [Johnson has improved]. The last four or five games, I think he’s played a lot better football. I really do. He’s seeing the game slowing down for him a little bit. Look, this is a guy who hasn’t played a lot of football in the National Football League, didn’t play a ton last year, and kind of threw him in early in the season."

Nielsen credited Johnson with working hard over the last few weeks to improve. Nielsen pointed to the extra hours of studying with the Jaguars' coaching staff as part of why Johnson has taken strides over the last four weeks.

"He went through a little bit of growing pains, but give the guy a lot of credit," Nielson said. "He’s worked hard at it. He’s studied a lot with Kris [Defensive Backs Coach Kris Richard] and Cory [Defensive Assistant/Cornerbacks Coach Cory Robinson]. He’s spent the extra time, he was coming in, extra meetings, things like that. Starting to pay off for him. Really the last four, five games. I thought played really well last game, was all over the place. Couple things we still need to clean up, but he’s trending in the right direction.”

Still, even with Johnson's improvement, Nielsen plans to continue rotating players in the defensive backfield and the rest of the defense to keep players fresh. Nielsen believes this helps the defense as a whole.

“It may be," Nielsen said. "We’re going to continue the rotations, just kind of how we’ve always done. The reason is just another guy, opportunity, been playing good football and just keep it fresh. Keep it moving. It’s not good, bad, or indifferent, just what we’re going to do. I think you guys have seen that with just about every position we’ve had. Keeping guys moving in and out and a lot of guys playing. So, we’ll continue that trend.”

Please let us know your thoughts when you like our Facebook page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE

Ensure you follow on X (Twitter) @JaguarsOnSI and @_John_Shipley and never miss another breaking news story again.