The General's guidance: How coach Bob Sutton impacts the Jaguars' defense

It takes many coaches to captain a Goliath of a ship like an NFL franchise. While those at the bow — head coaches, offensive and defensive coordinators — often get worthy praise and all of the accolades, there are those at the stern that may be unseen, but have a considerable part in keeping it afloat.

For the Jacksonville Jaguars, one of the many in the background is senior defensive assistant Bob Sutton, who boasts 23 years of NFL coaching experience in various roles such as linebackers coach, defensive coordinator, assistant and senior assistant.

Sutton has run with the opportunity in Jacksonville, working closely with defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell and linebackers coach Tony Gilbert and the team's linebacker corps as a whole.

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Entering his second season under head coach Doug Pederson — and third year overall in Jacksonville — Sutton's influence can be felt on all levels of the defense, which is exactly what Caldwell, Pederson and the team hoped would happen when Sutton was retained as a holdover from the previous regime.

"I think Bob will be a great resource. He has a bunch of knowledge," Caldwell said last year during his introductory press conference with the team in February.

"We're in there now piecing together how we're doing it, and he'll chime in here or there, and it's a great resource, something I can bang an idea off of or have him bring an idea to me, and we talk about it as a staff, but he's a guy that I'm going to lean on, and he's a great resource."

Now, over a year later, that role continues for Sutton, 72, who said earlier this offseason that his focus remains on the overall defense, now having over 50 years of coaching experience at both the collegiate and pro levels.

"I try to help Mike wherever I can. Anything he wants done and obviously, things that I might see I'd say, 'Hey Mike, here's an idea, here's a thought,' you know?" Sutton said when asked about his role with the team in June.

"As far as individual, I go to Tony's room with the linebackers. That's kind of been my background and when I was a position coach, so I helped Tony a little bit there. But I would say, just the overall view."

This not only allows for growth from the overall defense, giving Caldwell some breathing room, but Sutton was also a likely invaluable resource for Gilbert, who took on the role as the team's inside linebackers coach for the first time last year. Prior to last season, Gilbert had only held the rank of assistant linebackers coach.

Sutton's impact can be most felt within the team's linebacker unit, which is where he has squarely planted his flag, but the entire defense takes on his growing mantra of "think takeaways," now printed on a shirt for the entire defense to enjoy.

'Think takeaways': A Jaguars defense slogan

You may see a couple of shirts rotating among players on the team. Last year, the team donned a variety of slogan-like shirts that said "touchdown city," given to the team's offensive linemen and running backs after a big performance on Sundays.

This offseason, a shirt that has the phrase "It's all about the ball" surrounds a football with "think takeaways" in the center.

The creator of that phrase in Jacksonville? Sutton. He said in June that the shirt and phrase were inspired by the bronze sculpture of "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin. It was created in 1904 and is now exhibited at the Musée Rodin in Pris, France.

In a meeting, Sutton asked the team's defense a question: what is the statue thinking about? That was followed quickly with an answer of "he's thinking takeaways."

"Nobody knows that but he's thinking about takeaways. It was all driven by really this: you move in the direction of your most dominant thought. Most people don't have a dominant thought, they have too many. We're all over the place, so we kind of zeroed in."

The idea of acquiring takeaways was instrumental to the team's defensive success last year. It's what got them into the playoffs in the first place against the Tennessee Titans in Week 18 thanks to safety Rayshawn Jenkins' strip-sack of Tennesee quarterback Joshua Dobbs and outside linebacker Josh Allen's subsequent scoop-and-score.

Overall, the Jaguars finished the year with 27 total turnovers forced, tied for the fifth-most in the league in 2022. That's a trend the team hopes to continue this year.

Sutton's message has created that type of atmosphere and Caldwell has also taken the lead in that area, making sure that the first part of the film the team watches after a practice is a takeaway, if one occurred during that practice. Sutton reinforces the idea prior to practice while walking through the team's warm-up line, reminding them to think of takeaways.

"I think that one of the things that does is that validates players," said Sutton. "No matter whether we're installing for camp or getting ready for our opponent or whatever, the very first thing the players see is this and then we chart them all the time and say 'Hey, this is where we're at for the week, this is how many we had.' The players, they have fun with it, I think, to a degree.

"I try to do something with them every single day about takeaways. I walk through the stretch line every day. I talk to every defensive player, I send them something every morning just because before your feet hit the floor, the first thing you're gonna think about if you have your phone, is think takeaways."

The next time you go to a Jaguars game, give a defensive player a "thinker" pose, and they'll know, Sutton said with a smile.

It may seem silly on the surface, but Sutton's methodologies stick and have stuck since he joined the team. Without him, the Jaguars may not have signed one of their top defenders last year: linebacker Foye Oluokun.

'Trusted word': Oluokun reflects on Sutton's importance

One of the team's prized free agents last year came on the defensive since of the ball when Oluokun made his way from the Atlanta Falcons to join an up-start defense led by Caldwell and company.

Prior to that, though, Sutton coached Oluokun as a senior defensive assistant with the Falcons and previously met with the veteran linebacker during his pre-draft process as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, the team's defensive coordinator from 2013-18.

Sutton picked Oluokun's brain and bounced ideas off of the veteran coach. After being drafted by the Falcons, Oluokun forgot about the exchange, but when he saw Sutton in 2020 — Oluokun's third year in the league — he quickly remembered him and realized what kind of impact he can have on the team.

"Immediately, it's a guy who I know has a lot of experience, all the things that he saw on defenses and wanted to implement into our Atlanta defense everybody trusted and the blitzes that he was running in Kansas City that got them a lot of sacks, he was trying to implement in Atlanta," Oluokun said when asked about Sutton in June.

"We trusted it with the fullest extent, but, for me, it was also a guy who believed in me before a lot of other people in NFL believed in me. The fact that I had a chance to be something, even if it was in sub packages over there in Kansas City, back in the day, [Sutton] was the guy who saw my talent and knew how to use it."

Oluokun feels that Sutton is "definitely" a guy who would vouch for him coming to Jacksonville. In 2021, the Jaguars played host to the Falcons, a game in which Atlanta won 21-14. Oluokun saw Sutton there for the first time since he left Atlanta. Come free agency, Jacksonville showed major interest in Oluokun early on, which is in large part due to Sutton vouching for the NFL's 2022 tackle leader.

Oluokun went on to record 184 total tackles, including 128 solos (both the league's best), 12 tackles for loss, nine quarterback hits, two sacks and two forced fumbles through 17 games in Jacksonville last year.

"He's a guy that comes in and he knows so much about the game and anytime he can relate it to a story that happened back in the day and his big emphasis on thinking turnovers, it's like, alright, yeah get turnovers, but then when you have the facts to prove it," Oluokun noted.

"When you have X [number] of turnovers, when you lead the league in turnovers, when you do this you provide extra possessions for your offense, a lot of times things will happen in the game as long as you lead this random statistic, you're gonna give yourself the chance. So, we just kind of embodied that."

Sutton continues to make an impact on Oluokun as he enters his sixth year in the league. Sutton's experience and expertise, from his perspective, seem invaluable. As he notes, it's a "trusted word" anytime Sutton speaks.

"He's 'The General,' we call him. He's just seen so much, he's gonna lead us. He's not the 'rah rah' guy, but all these tidbits just like, whatever he says, it's coming from a good place and it's coming from a place of experience. So, just him in a room, in our linebacker room, does a lot for us, him in a facility does a lot for us. Just a trusted word, anytime he speaks."

When Sutton speaks, the Jaguars defense listens and if last year was any indication of his impact, they ought to keep listening.

Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on Twitter at @Demetrius82.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Bob Sutton: The influential coach shaping the Jaguars' defense