Gene Frenette: Jaguars' takeaway defense a breath of fresh air, but can it be sustained?

Jacksonville Jaguars senior defensive assistant Bob Sutton planted the seed before the 2022 season, back when the team was still getting adjusted to the culture and system of doing things instituted by newly hired coach Doug Pederson.

Sutton didn’t want to clutter the players’ minds with too many ideas, as he mistakenly saw other teams do in his 40 years of coaching in the NFL and college.

Instead, he wanted them to focus on one thought: takeaways.

Sutton saw to it that a mantra for the Jaguars’ defense would be best served by that one word.

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So much so, the Jaguars’ oldest staff member at 72 continues to hammer home that message to players on almost a daily basis. Whether it’s a morning text message or a verbal reminder before practice about the importance of getting interceptions, forcing fumbles and recovering loose balls, the Jaguars' defense cannot escape Sutton’s constant presence.

Outside linebacker Josh Allen, the Jaguars’ leading pass-rusher with seven sacks, puts it this way: “Coach Bob Sutton will probably be in my brain for the rest of my life.”

That’s not Allen suggesting Sutton is a nuisance. It’s rather an appreciation for a coach whose messaging has been an impactful factor in the Jaguars’ defense collecting takeaways in bunches.

It’s a trend that has continued unabated since the team began its massive turnaround nearly a year ago. Since the start of a five-game winning streak to end the 2022 regular season, the Jaguars have forced 27 turnovers (excluding playoffs) over a 12-game span.

The Jaguars’ thievery is a complete switch from the defense that only managed nine takeaways in 2021. That defense was so non-opportunistic, it had to force three turnovers in the final game against the Indianapolis Colts to avoid the embarrassing distinction of generating the fewest in NFL history.

But it’s all good now. Going into a Sunday road matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Jaguars (5-2) have an NFL-best 16 takeaways, easily one of the biggest reasons they occupy first place in the AFC South and might be a tough out again if they get to the playoffs.

“I think if you just look at the numbers, it tells the tale,” said Pederson. “It’s significant. When the numbers favor us, if you go back to the Colts game [at home on Oct. 15], 17 points that come off of takeaways, that’s huge.”

Always thinking takeaways

There’s no denying the impact of how much the defense getting turnovers has elevated the Jaguars into a contender.

While the ascension of quarterback Trevor Lawrence and his array of weapons — Travis Etienne, Christian Kirk, Evan Engram and Calvin Ridley — often gets the most props, the defense becoming this takeaway monster deserves equal billing.

What began as Sutton messaging during OTAs in 2022 has taken hold in practices, defensive meetings and on Sundays. It’s become priority No. 1 every time Mike Caldwell’s defense takes the field or watches game tape.

After observing Sutton speak it into existence day after day, plus text message after text message, getting takeaways has become a part of the defense’s DNA.

“I’m a believer that all actions start with a thought,” said Sutton, one of five coaches from the Urban Meyer staff retained by Pederson. “Before you do something, you have to think about it. You achieve what you emphasize. The thing I’ve found over the years is you move in the direction of your most dominant thought.

“In my experience, a lot of teams have too many thoughts. You don’t want things to be a collection of words. You want them to have real meaning.”

Toward that end, after the Jaguars rallied to win the AFC South title last season via the biggest takeaway in franchise history — a Rayshawn Jenkins strip-sack against the Tennessee Titans that Allen returned for a 37-yard, game-winning touchdown — Sutton took his messaging a step further.

When the Jaguars returned for the start of OTAs this year, he had T-shirts laid out at their locker with the slogan “Think Takeaways.” The picture between those two words was the iconic bronze statue of The Thinker, designed by French sculptor Auguste Rodin in the late 19th century. It depicts a nude man with his right elbow placed on his left thigh, chin on the back of his right hand, as if in deep thought.

The Jaguars’ defense received the message from Sutton’s T-shirt loud and clear. He wasn’t satisfied just to have that season-altering turnover against the Titans or Jenkins’ overtime interception to beat the Dallas Cowboys.

No, the Jaguars’ sage assistant wanted those game-changing turnovers by the defense to have a carryover effect into 2023.

“You have to constantly validate or it can float into space and disappear,” said Sutton. “We try to do something every day with them. You’re going to hear something about takeaways twice a day.

“Whether it helps, I don’t know. Deep down inside, I believe it does. I think it’s as important as the techniques you try to teach.”

From the moment Indianapolis Colts running back Deon Jackson caught a short pass in the season opener and had the ball jarred loose by safety Andre Cisco (recovered by Angelo Blackson), the takeaway train for the Jaguars’ defense has run almost non-stop.

Safety Andrew Wingard, who shares Sutton’s affinity for always thinking about the mental part of football, says there was no one singular moment that takeaways became a thing. It just happened, the launching point being Sutton’s repeated messaging that Wingard happily says was “almost annoying.”

2017 defense is gold standard

Only two members of the Jaguars’ current roster, guard Tyler Shatley and defensive end Duwuane Smoot, were part of the team in 2017, the year the most fearsome defense in Jaguars history inflicted so much pain on opponents.

That defense, which took Jacksonville to within a Myles Jack-wasn't-down fumble recovery from capturing the AFC Championship against the New England Patriots, remains the franchise’s gold standard.

It set a team record by generating 33 turnovers that were converted into an astounding 146 points. That Todd Wash unit had seven touchdowns, plus a 50-yard Telvin Smith fumble return TD against the Steelers in the AFC Division round.

The collection of talent on that ‘17 defense was like nothing Jacksonville had ever seen. It featured a record six Pro Bowlers in pass-rushers Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue, cornerbacks Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye, defensive tackle Malik Jackson and linebacker Smith. Former Pro Bowl linebacker Paul Posluszny and nose tackle Marcel Dareus, acquired in a midseason trade, were also part of a devastating unit.

“They’re all just great players,” said Shatley. “The back end played great. We had a bunch of players that could rush the passer. It was a buzzsaw of a defense.”

As good as this year’s defense has been in the takeaway department, it doesn’t possess the collective bullying power of the 2017 group. It accumulated 55 sacks (second to Pittsburgh’s 56) and intercepted future Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger five times in a 30-9 regular season rout of the Steelers.

The Jaguars finished second in total defense (286.1 yards), second in interceptions (21) and second in takeaways (33), one behind the Baltimore Ravens.

Smoot, then a rookie, says both the ‘17 defense and this year’s version have some similar traits, but each went about their business a different way.

“The thing about the 2017 defense is we just kept it simple,” said Smoot. “We came out every day with the same intensity, the same vibe every day. We played free and fast. We didn’t even really worry about who the hell we were playing. We just went out there and did it. 2017 just felt fluid, felt natural.

“The similarities [with 2023] is in the brotherhood, how close we are. We’re purposely thinking every single week that we need to get takeaways. Every day when we first wake up, we think about takeaways. It’s just a different mentality.”

Statistically, the current Jaguars’ defense is nothing special in some key areas. It only has 13 sacks (T25th), allows 354.4 yards per game (26th) and 273.9 yards passing (31st).

But those numbers are substantially offset by having the league’s most takeaways, which the Jaguars have converted into 48 points, tied for the NFL lead with the Buffalo Bills for points off turnovers.

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'It’s become our identity'

At their current pace, the Jaguars would finish the season with a franchise-record 39 takeaways. The challenge is whether it can maintain that success rate.

The Jaguars know they need a stronger pass rush, though nine interceptions in seven games indicates they’re affecting the quarterback with pressure. As long as the turnovers keep happening, they think more sacks will follow.

“We didn’t start believing really until we started to see [takeaways],” Allen said. “Once we started to see it, now we got that taste and we’re just out there for blood. Stop the run, pressure the quarterback, takeaways are going to come. That’s our recipe for success.”

Cisco, who is tied with Williams for the team lead with three interceptions, believes the Jaguars’ formula is a product of having a takeaway mindset.

“The guys we have, have that history in their background of being ball-hawks in college,” said Cisco. “I’ll also say takeaways take confidence in what you’re doing by attacking balls during a game. When you see what you’re doing in practice manifest itself in games, it just makes you think about it more because [takeaways] are so valuable for your defense.

“From there, you got Bob Sutton reminding you every day. It’s become our identity.”

The mystery moving forward is whether the Jaguars can keep up this takeaway ratio of one every 28.9 plays, an impressive pace considering the Dallas Cowboys led the NFL last year with one every 33.3 plays.

“That’s a hard question,” Sutton said about maintaining the takeaway rate. “Like I tell the guys all the time, all you can do is keep. … you can’t assume they’re just coming.

“It goes back to the first thing that all actions start with a thought, so you got to have a picture of what you want.”

What the Jaguars want is to be in the Super Bowl chase. For that to happen, the defense can never stop thinking about takeaways.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540; You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @genefrenette 

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars counting on defense continuing to be takeaway machine rest of season