Jaguars Defensive Coordinator Search: Pros and Cons of Shane Bowen

What would Shane Bowen bring to the Jaguars' defense?

The Jacksonville Jaguars are looking for a new direction on defense.

After two years of Mike Caldwell leading the Jaguars' defense, head coach Doug Pederson fired Caldwell and seven other defensive assistants a little over 24 hours after the Jaguars' season had ended.

So with the search for a new coordinator on and a wide net already cast by the Jaguars, we are going down the road of weighing what each coordinator would potentially bring to the table.

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Next up: Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Shane Bowen.

But what would a Bowen pairing with the Jaguars look like? We break it down below.

Shane Bowen called plays for the Titans' defense from 2020-2023. In that span they ranked:

No. 26 in EPA/Play
No. 20 in success rate
No. 27 in Pass EPA/Play
No. 26 in Pass success rate
No. 6 in Rushing EPA/Play
No. 6 in Rushing success rate pic.twitter.com/8hWcDEdLnQ

— John Shipley (@_John_Shipley) January 18, 2024

Pros

There are a lot of believers at EverBank Stadium that the biggest reason the defense's performance fell off a cliff over the second-half of the year was their steep decline in run defense. The Jaguars were virtually impossible to run against over the first half of the season, but for whatever reason they lost all momentum over the second half of the year, finishing No. 24 and No. 25 in rushing EPA/Play and rushing success rate following the bye. 

This is one area that Bowen's resume shows he can help in. The Titans had the No. 6 rush defense in both EPA/Play and success rate in the four years that Bowen called plays, with the Titans frequently serving as a roadblock to the Jaguars and the rest of the AFC South in that span.

Bowen is also someone who has experience running multiple fronts. The issues of 4-3 vs. 3-4 would likely be moot with him considering he throws a healthy blend of fronts at offenses and would likely adjust his scheme to whatever talent the Jaguars have in the front seven.

The Jaguars having familiarity with Bowen is also a plus. Doug Pederson has coached against Bowen's defense four times over the last two seasons alone, so he should know first-hand what his defenses are about. 

Cons

The biggest thing the Jaguars need to do on defense in 2024 is improve against the pass. A lot of this can be tied directly to their improvement against the run, but ultimately the Jaguars have to get better at improving against explosive plays and cutting out communication issues that plagued them this past season.

The issue is that Tennessee was never a great pass defense under Bowen. They ranked in the bottom-10 against the pass in EPA/Play and success rate during his tenure, even while the Titans poured heavy resources into the secondary through the draft. Injuries played a big role, but Bowen's defenses simply struggled against the pass.

Then the Jaguars have to factor in the Mike Vrabel impact. Each coach is their own coach and their own man, obviously, but Bowen has been tied to Vrabel's hip since Vrabel led the Houston Texans' defense. He has been on his staffs in both college and the NFL and there is no doubt that Vrabel had his fingerprints all over the defense during the Bowen era. That raises the question of what Bowen's defense would look like without Vrabel helping guide the vision of the defense.