JAGUARS OFFENSE COULD FEATURE A MORE PASS HEAVY ATTACK IN 2019

Mark Alberti/Icon Sportswire

A passing game in Duval?! Don't tease me, Doug.

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“It all depends on what you have out there. You look at the teams that are left, the four teams. You look how they’re built, they’re doing things and they’re doing them well. Two years ago you look at what we did and you say it looked pretty good. So I think a lot of it depends on the talent. Seeing where the players come back in, seeing where they’re at, getting everybody healthy. Acquiring some talent obviously, which ever way we do it. Get those players there and put it all together. Make sure that we’re able to identify it and use those players properly.”

That was Doug Marrone’s response when asked if he would move more from run to pass in terms of offensive philosophy. His answer may not seem like much, but it's a far cry from Marrone’s claim earlier in his tenure in Jacksonville that he would run the ball on every play if he could. 

With Doug Marrone at head coach and Tom Coughlin playing the role of the Executive Vice President the Jaguars have remained steadfast — both publicly and internally — in their belief that playing strong defense and running ball will lead to success . . . that is until Doug Marrone’s press conference yesterday. This was the first time that Doug Marrone has ever indicated that the Jaguars offensive scheme will be based on what they have in terms of talent. That means, in theory, that the Jaguars could feature a more pass heavy attack in 2019.

There’s plenty of obvious reasons to point to for the change in philosophy. For one, running the ball didn’t work for the Jaguars last season. With Leonard Fournette in the fold the team obviously will not completely abandon the run, but establishing a down field passing game will make this Jaguars offense more suited to compete with the four teams that Doug Marrone referred to in his aforementioned answer regarding offensive philosophy. 

John DeFilippo, the Jaguars newly appointed offensive coordinator, is some what of an expert when it comes to passing the ball and doing it well. Everywhere he’s been, he’s gotten the most out of his QBs, receivers, RBs and TEs in terms of the aerial attack.
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In Minnesota last season he guided Kirk Cousins to 30 TD passes and a 70% completion rate.  

In 2016-2017 DeFilippo helped Carson Wentz become one of the best young QBs the league has ever seen, and got more out of Nick Foles than anyone ever expected. 

The year before that, when he was the OC in Cleveland, DeFilippo wasn’t given much talent to work with, but he still impressed. Josh McCown was his starting QB and before sustaining a season ending injury McCown was putting up career best numbers, thanks in large part, to the direction of John DeFilippo. 

He spent time in Oakland from 2012-2014 and his final year there he got to work with Derek Carr. DeFillppo was able to squeeze 21 TD passes out of a non big five rookie at QB.

Not too shabby. 

Of course, for the Jaguars to feature a more pass heavy attack they’ll need the talent to do so. Doug Marrone made that much clear during his press conference. The Jaguars will likely acquire a veteran at QB and draft one. They’ll also need to add at least one more talented receiver to the mix. They’d even be wise to draft one of the many talented pass catchers at TE in April’s draft. 

The Jaguars won’t completely flip the script next season in terms of offensive philosophy, but with Doug Marrone’s comments, DeFilippo’s long history of success with the passing game and the talent the Jaguars are expected to add on offense, this won’t likely be the same old boring Jaguars offense that we’ve come to know and loathe.