The Jacksonville Jaguars welcome the New York Jets to EverBank Stadium on Sunday. With each workforce’s seasons formally over, listed here are three matchups to be careful for.
Garrett Wilson vs Tyson Campbell
It’s truthful to ask if both workforce actually desires to win this sport, such is the tradition of ‘tanking’ and the advantages you get from greater draft picks the next April. But when the Jaguars do wish to be aggressive towards the Jets on Sunday, their first order of enterprise is to close down Aaron Rodgers and the passing sport.
On paper, this appears to be like like an appalling matchup for a Jags secondary that has struggled all season. One of many best quarterbacks ever to placed on a set of pads, with two elite outdoors receivers, would have you ever working for the hills. And but, it hasn’t panned out that means for Gang Inexperienced. The midseason addition of Davante Adams appears to have freed Garrett Wilson considerably, with the dynamic receiver having considered one of his finest outings of the yr final week towards the Miami Dolphins. Seven catches for 114 yards tells you the menace he poses when this offense finds it’s groove.
I don’t assume the Jaguars corners will comply with receivers across the area. So Tyson Campbell, Buster Brown and to some extent Jarrian Jones (Adams sees important snaps from the slot) will all take pleasure in testing themselves towards the trio of Adams, Wilson and Alan Lazard. However essentially the most spicy matchup is prone to be when Campbell faces Wilson, who doesn’t take pleasure in sticky protection and tends to lose his cool once in a while. Campbell, who has missed important time this season, will go into this one meaning to disrupt and irritate the Jets’ most harmful weapon.
Travis Etienne vs Jamien Sherwood
Jamien Sherwood continues to be a #Jets silver lining.
Had 18 tackles on Sunday, essentially the most by a Jet since David Harris’ 24 in 2007.
Much more impressively, he did it with 0 missed tackles.
Lining himself up for a pleasant payday. Instinctive, quick, and really evasive vs. blockers. pic.twitter.com/q4Hz2fzRpF
— Michael Nania (@Michael_Nania) December 9, 2024
Three wins in 13 video games tells its personal story of the Jaguars season – not any place on this roster has fared significantly effectively. However a significant supply of disappointment has been Jacksonville’s incapability to determine a run sport. Even in an insipid 10-6 win towards the Tennessee Titans final weekend, Travis Etienne had simply 20 yards on the bottom. True – 4 carries sounds extra like a Press Taylor downside than an Etienne one (extra on that later), but when they wish to management the clock towards the Jets, they might want to run between the tackles successfully.
Etienne has had simply 99 carries all season. That’s a median of 9 touches in every of the 11 video games he’s suited up for in 2024. The ascendance of Tank Bigsby has performed its half, however is it any marvel that Trevor Lawrence has spent a piece of the yr injured? It’s onerous for a protection to respect a run sport when there’s not one there to respect. This Jets protection is not any joke – if the Jags wish to win on Sunday, they can’t be as one-dimensional as they’ve been this season.
Jamien Sherwood has developed into the most effective center linebackers within the NFL. His 18 tackles and eight defensive stops in Week 14 have been each league main – and the run stuffer has a jaw-dropping 125 tackles on the yr. The Jags want a run sport on this one, however it’s undoubtedly not going to be straightforward.
Press Taylor vs Nathaniel Hackett
within the historical past of time, no particular person has wanted to surrender the sticks greater than press taylor
— Gus Logue (@gus_logue) December 1, 2024
Probably the most offensive of all offensive coordinators do battle this weekend in Duval County. I can’t consider many fanbases which have as a lot disdain for his or her OC’s as these two groups do presently, however in Sunday’s ‘race to the underside’, who could be essentially the most offensive of all?
Press Taylor has come underneath fireplace for the previous two seasons in Jacksonville, ever since he assumed playcalling duties from head coach Doug Pederson. The overall consensus is that Taylor is out of his depth with this accountability, struggling to coordinate a gameplan with any fluidity. As talked about earlier, the shortcoming to domesticate a constant run sport sits on the prime of his record of crimes, which has in flip meant the Jaguars have did not see the most effective of Trevor Lawrence. In actual fact, Mac Jones’ struggles underneath middle has led many to imagine that Lawrence wa maybe masking much more holes in Taylor’s coordinating skills than first believed. Backside line; The Jags OC shouldn’t be on anybody’s Christmas Card record this yr.
Nathaniel Hackett’s transgressions could be even worse. Employed by the Jets due to his earlier success with Aaron Rodgers, Hackett has been gifted an unreasonable quantity of expertise within the Jets’ pursuit of a coherent offense. Regardless of such little output from such bountiful assets, Hackett has continued to be backed by a entrance workplace maybe fearful of upsetting their sensitive quarterback – and even added Davante Adams as little as two months in the past to additional bolster the weapons at his disposal. If Taylor’s downside is an absence of functionality, then maybe Hackett’s is gross misconduct – flagrantly losing Woody Johnson’s funding and one way or the other pinning all of the blame on former boss Robert Saleh.
With the season finish in sight, I don’t envision wholesome job safety for both of those offensive coordinators as soon as the teaching carousel begins – whatever the consequence on Sunday.