'This is Sort of that Rookie Wall': Devin Lloyd's Rut Leads to More Opportunities For Chad Muma

The Jaguars' first-round linebacker was seemingly pulled for stretches of Sunday's game vs. the Chiefs after some early struggles.

When the Jacksonville Jaguars drafted two linebackers with their first four picks in April's NFL Draft, it was widely expected the Jaguars would have to be creative to find ways for both to get on the field.

What wasn't expected, though, is for the first of those two picks to be the one struggling the most through the first half of the season.

That is where the Jaguars find themselves with first-rounder Devin Lloyd (No. 27 overall) and third-rounder Chad Muma (No. 70 overall). After a hot start to the season, Lloyd has fell into a rut in recent weeks. As a result, Muma played a career-high in snaps against the Chiefs in Week 10's 27-17 loss.

Muma played just 35 snaps in the first nine games -- fewer than 4 snaps per game. His season high was 11 snaps. But on Sunday, he played a career-high 25 snaps while Devin Lloyd played fewer than 90% of the snaps for the first time this season, playing just 60% of the snaps. Now, the Jaguars will have to use their bye week to evaluate where they want to move forward with their rookie linebackers.

"Again, this is that time of year with young players that we’re coming out of Week 10 into a bye in Week 11. This is sort of that rookie wall you talk about a little bit with some of these guys, and again, it’s a good time for a break," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Monday.

Lloyd has been productive in terms of being in the right spot at the right time this season, recording two interceptions, two fumble recoveries and seven pass breakups. But at the same time, Lloyd has had issues in both the run and pass game, frequently being the culprit for big plays by opposing tight ends and failing to find consistency against the run. 

Muma, meanwhile, has sparingly played as a rookie outside of being a core special teams member. But after several blown plays by Lloyd on Sunday, the Jaguars' staff opted to give Lloyd a different perspective.

“Consistency, but I think, too, it helps, sometimes, in Devin’s case, too, just coming out of the game and seeing it from the sidelines, seeing a little different perspective," Pederson said. 

"Allowing Chad to get valuable reps, it’s a lot like Buster playing and getting valuable reps at corner and seeing where Chad is with everything. Right now, as you guys know, he’s been kind of limited to special teams. He is a good linebacker, and we want to get him on the field. It helps Devin from the standpoint of I think just seeing things a bit differently, maybe with calmer eyes, from the sideline.”

When asked if the plan is to play Muma this often moving forward, Pederson said, "We’ll see. Maybe not to that degree, but we’ll see. We’ll see how it goes here as we get ready for our next game.”

This isn't to say the Jaguars are pulling the plug on Lloyd as a starter, especially not after just 10 games into his career. They traded up for him in April for a reason, after all, and he has had flashes of the kind of talent that made him such a sought-after pick. 

But there have also been issues, such as a hamstring injury that kept Lloyd out for most of camp and the preseason, and the recent rut he has recently found himself in.

It’s a young player, missed all of training camp. He missed all the live reps in training camp, and that’s hard because those are all valuable reps, reps that Chad (LB Chad Muma) got and Shaq Quarterman got and those guys," Pederson said. 

"But we’ve played a lot of football now, too. He should be understanding what the scheme is, understanding his technique and how to play within the defense a little bit."

If this sounds like a head coach getting frustrated with his first-round rookie, that is because it is -- Muma's increased playing time only confirms that.