Kansas City Chiefs: Can the Jaguars replicate the Broncos defense?

Can Jacksonville Replicate Denver’s Success?

The Jaguars have the personnel up front that allows them to rarely blitz. In 2017, Jacksonville ranked first in pressures only sending four pass rushers pressuring the quarterback 34.4% of the time according to Football Outsiders. That alone is scary to think about. Jacksonville doesn’t need to blitz often to generate pressure, but it will be interesting to see if they try to be more aggressive after seeing what Denver did to slow down Kansas City’s offense this past week.

When it comes to shutting down Travis Kelce, free safety Tashaun Gipson Sr. is the matchup to watch. While the Jaguars have struggled over the years against tight ends, Gipson was placed on Rob Gronkowski in the teams win over the New England Patriots, and it worked well for them. Of course, the Patriots didn’t have the number of weapons Kansas City has in that game which allowed them to target Gronk.

While it could hurt Jacksonville’s defense to place one of their safeties on Kelce fulltime, they have the cornerback duo to do it better than anyone else in the league. While playing against Gronk, Gipson only allowed two of four targets for 15 yards. Whether or not he will be able to repeat that against Kelce will be something to watch for.

Jacksonville tends to play more off man coverage from what I’ve seen of their last few games. Denver played mostly press man coverage against the Chiefs allowing their blitzes to get to Patrick Mahomes. Given the explosiveness of Kansas City’s receivers, Jacksonville might be forced to play more aggressive in coverage as well.

If Jacksonville keeps to their off-man coverage, the Chiefs will be able to work the underneath routes to attack this defense. While it’s not as fun as watching Tyreek Hill catch a 68-yard pass, it works.

Whether or not the Jaguars will be able to replicate what Denver did to slow down the Chiefs for most of the game Monday will remain to be seen. There’s no doubt that Jacksonville has an even better defense. Patrick Mahomes will be tested to the max against this tough defense.