JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There was one thing that Ryan Nielsen left at home as the Jaguars new defensive coordinator — a depth chart.
He doesn’t need one right now. Nielsen came to Jacksonville with an open mind and an open competition. He’s looking for the best players at every position. And if the competition at camp pushes an incumbent to a backup role, then that’s fine, too. Players like Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker and Tyson Campbell are locked in as starters, but Nielsen wants the best cluster of players on the field at the same time.
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If that creates a bit of uncertainty right now that’s just fine for Nielsen. He’s in no hurry to come up with a depth chart. Those decisions will work themselves out long before the season opener at Miami on Sept. 8.
“It’s going to start like that, yes. So, you’ll see a bunch of combinations. Even yesterday, we had guys that maybe didn’t play together in OTAs that were out there. We always [want] the best combination of players,” Nielsen said.
Nielsen is looking for the best players to emerge during camp and have that competition lead to a definitive depth chart. That means Nielsen won’t be afraid to move players around and even move them out of their natural position if that means they’re a better fit somewhere else. Bottom of the depth chart players have their chances to play as well.
“Here’s the other thing too: it’s a long season. Injuries happen. It’s just a part of the game,” Nielsen said. “If the second or third-team guy never gets in, then how do you know how he’s going to perform when he’s actually in a game,” Nielsen said.
Defensive players have adjusted well to Nielsen and his style, which is a big shift from former coordinator Mike Caldwell. Nielsen will run a more traditional defense, a 4-3, which has four down linemen and three linebackers. That means natural edge rushers like Hines-Allen and Walker will likely be hand-in-the dirt rushers instead of linebackers who are asked to drop into coverage more.
Nielsen said the big task in organized team activities was to see players on the field and analyze their skillsets and how to best use them. Now that the team is in camp and two weeks away from the preseason opener, Nielsen said the staff is drilling in the basics and seeing the development.
“Right now, it’s fundamentals, technique, scheme, playing hard, being tough, those types of things,” Nielsen said. “That’s what camp is about.”
Hines-Allen is the is coming off a season where he had a franchise-record 17.5 sacks and signed the richest contact for a defensive player in team history. Walker, the No. 1 pick in 2022, had his best season with 10 sacks. That duo is poised for even bigger seasons in Nielsen’s defense.
“I think it’s the buying in. We want to do something that’s never been done, so we have to do things that we’ve never done before,” said edge Josh Hines-Allen. “He’s taking that approach every single day we do indy’s [individual drills] all the way up the team to focus on the details from the hand placement to the feet making sure that everything is in line because every coach has their ways of playing, but for us he’s teaching us to play fast and play physical.”