{"id":162619,"date":"2026-02-20T14:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/162619\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:23:08","slug":"not-a-good-year-for-jacksonville-jaguars-to-need-defensive-tackle-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/162619\/","title":{"rendered":"Not a good year for Jacksonville Jaguars to need defensive tackle help"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 20, 2026, 7:59 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

ESPN analyst Ben Solak<\/a> has some kind of good news and then some mostly bad news as it pertains to the defensive tackle position this offseason. This, of course, applies to the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>, who have a big need at this position.<\/p>\n

The overarching theme is that it’s not a great year to need impactful defensive tackle help.<\/p>\n

“Weird, weird, weird year when there are simply no interior defensive linemen to go around,” wrote Solak. “This is a position that has been better and better appreciated by league analysts and fans alike in recent years — not to mention by owners’ wallets.”<\/p>\n

So what is Solak’s good news as it pertains to this position? Well, it’s a good year to need Denver’s John Franklin-Myers, the highest-ranked defensive tackle in this year’s free agent class.<\/p>\n

Franklin-Myers was the only defensive tackle in Matt Bowen’s<\/a> top 50 free agent rankings. At a position that many teams will be looking to address and with limited options, that is likely to drive up Franklin-Myers’ price tag, and the Jaguars<\/a> do not have a lot of spending power at the moment, given their salary cap situation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

Other options include Calais Campbell, David Onyemata, and Sheldon Rankins — all “aging veterans,” as Solak put it.<\/p>\n

While there may not be many high-end options in free agency, what about the NFL draft?<\/p>\n

“Can the draft class save the defensive tackle-needy teams?” wrote Solak. “Not really! There is no sure thing along the defensive interior in the 2026 draft class.”<\/p>\n

Whether it be through the draft, free agency, or both, just about whoever the Jaguars bring in at the defensive tackle position, Anthony Campanile’s scheme could have a key role in elevating the play of this unit.<\/p>\n

Down the stretch last season, the Jaguars struggled to generate consistent pressure on the quarterback from the defensive tackle position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 20, 2026, 7:59 a.m. ET ESPN analyst Ben Solak has some kind of good news and then…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[31,116,118,117,1254,9548,298,12326,51002,336,420,49386,342,332,442,307,27071,300,34],"class_list":["post-162619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-accessfree","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-sstssportsnfljaguars","tag-sstsnjaguars","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcalais-campbell","tag-tagdavid-onyemata","tag-tagespn-inc","tag-tagjacksonville-jaguars","tag-tagjohn-franklin-myers","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagsheldon-rankins","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}