Jaguars Prepared To Be First Team To Face Chase Young and Nick Bosa Duo

Chase Young is set to make his 49ers debut on Sunday.

Sunday won't be the first time Chase Young and Nick Bosa ever line up together, but it will be an NFL first. And the first team to attempt to block the duo at this level will be none other than the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“Well, we have experience and we have film on Chase in Washington. We coached against him and he’s an excellent football player. Of course, with Bosa, we know the type of player he is and the respect that he gets and deserves," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Wednesday. 

Bosa and Young were teammates at Ohio State, but Sunday's bout between the Jaguars and the San Francisco 49ers at EverBank Stadium will be the first time the two have paired together since the 49ers traded for Young at last week's deadline.

Between the two are two No. 2 overall picks, two Defensive Rookie of the Year winners, one Defensive Player of the Year, and a whole lot of sacks and damage done to offensive lines. That is the kind of test the Jaguars know they have to prepare to face.

“Yeah, I think the difficult part of it is that they’re both just great players," Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence said on Wednesday. 

"That’s what makes it hard. Of course, there’s going to be things that you might have to adjust to in the game, you’re kind of guessing on where they’re going to play, what they’re going to do, which side they’re going to play on. You don’t really know that stuff, but that’s something you adjust early."

Luckily for the Jaguars, Sunday won't be the first time this year they have played a pair of talented pass-rushers. They faced Chris Jones and George Karlaftis on plenty of snaps in Week 2, while also facing Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt in Week 8.

"I think from a planning perspective, you kind of go into it, we’ve played some good edge guys this year, Pittsburgh being an example of that," Lawrence said. 

"We’re used to having plans for that but now it’s a new guy with Nick and obviously Nick is a great player and Chase is too. At the end of the day, you’ve got to win your matchups, you got to be able to block and we’ve got to help our tackles. We’ve got to get the ball out, we’ve got to run the ball great, all those things. That’s what helps, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to go block them and when it’s two ends, you kind of know what they’re going to do. They’ve got to pick a side and they’re going to rush."

"They’re going to play with instincts and those guys are good players. I would say not having the tape maybe isn’t as big of a deal when it’s an edge guy, but we’ve got to make some adjustments I’m sure as the game goes on.”

As Pederson noted, the Jaguars had some success vs. highly-touted duos before. They Jaguars shut-down Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa on two different occasions in 2022, including in the Wild Card Round win over the Los Angeles Chargers. 

"It’s a challenge to have two edge rushers like this, but we’ve done this before. We had Bosa and Mack with the Chargers. There’s enough film out there, these are two great players and a lot of respect for both of them. Love watching them play and how hard they play, our guys will be up for the challenge and it’ll be a great opportunity for them.”