Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Arizona Cardinals Preview & Prediction | PFF

PFF is running one of their biggest sales ever. 40% off a PFF plus subscription right now using the promo code black Friday. That means that you get everything fully unlocked. You get the grades, you get the stats, you get all the fantasy advice, the betting advice, which our new player prop tool is available on web as well to make you a smarter better. You’ve got all the draft analysis, the free agency analysis, all of that great stuff. Subscribe.pff.com to get 40% off a year-long PFF Plus subscription. get it now. Jags coming off a big win this past weekend, traveling to Arizona to take on a Cardinals team that um you know started the season fighting for position in the division, position for a playoff spot. Now feels like a lot of people are fighting for jobs, right? Whether it’s the head coach, the offensive defensive coordinators, you know, the players who are on the team. I think there’s a potential where we could have some big changes in Arizona this upcoming off season. And so that team still has a reason to put a lot of good effort out there because you’ve gone from fighting for a playoff spot to now maybe fighting for your jobs. You want to start talking about the Jags here? You want to talk about uh talk about the Cardinals? I’m going to go with the Jags offense. And look, they did run for 192 yards last week against the Chargers, but it was across 47 carries. So, they were really just kind of using the battering ram to kill time and control time of possession. And Liam Cohen should be given credit for that as a play caller especially. But ever since week five when Breton Strange got hurt against the Chiefs, his Jaguars rushing attack just hasn’t been quite as efficient, right? It’s still tough and ETN and Bashel Tuton are running well and we’ll see if Toutin plays this week. But 14th in run blocking grade since week five. 29th in yards per carry. 23rd in yards before contact per carry. Right. So they’re just not blocking quite as well up front. And I’ve said this a few times now and I think we just have a big enough sample to know the impact of it. Brenton Strange, that was the week that he came out with injury against Kansas City. And they just really, they’ve had to change the personnel. Since that time, they lead the league in 11 personnel usage. Three wide receivers, uh, one tight end on the field and one back. As opposed to before that, they were 11th or 12th and 11 personnel. They used a lot more two tight end sense. I just think Strange’s um, versatility as a blocker and as a receiver and the dynamic it changed for this offense cuz when they were an 11 personnel before, it was him. Lately, it’s been guys like Hunter Long, who hasn’t been great this year. Johnny Muntz, who’s a good blocker, but doesn’t bring the receiving threat. When you have guys like that instead of a two-way threat like Strange, it really changes things in the run game and how defenses have to respond. I believe they’ve opened his practice window to return from IR. I don’t know that he’s going to be back this week or maybe next week, but I think eventually when they do get him back, it’s going to help this run game out a lot. If they have to survive one more week, again, expect a lot of 11 personnel. They haven’t been going to multiple tight ends a lot lately, but it could play into their advantage anyway, their ability to run the football because of all the two high coverages that Arizona uses. For me on Arizona’s side of things, well, first of all, speaking of guys who might be activated from IR, Trey Benson had his practice or window open, his three-week practice window open up uh this week, and so there’s a chance that he could play in this game. Although, a lot of times when you see guys practice window get opened up, I think that a lot of fans just go like, “Oh, that means they’re playing this week.” And a lot of times it’s not normally the first week. They’re just trying to ramp them up. Truly, that’s the point of it. It’s the practice window is open up. Sometimes it takes all three weeks. And especially with Benson who’s coming off of having knee surgery. I just I I don’t know if I would count on him in this game specifically. Maybe I feel a lot more confident about him playing the next week. Maybe they’ll get him this week, but I I wouldn’t be planning on it. specifically what I’m looking for in this week and and I kind of talked about it with Arizona. To me, the number one question that you have to answer, well, I should say outside of whether or not you want Kyler Murray to be your starting quarterback next season, how many starting offensive linemen for 2026 are on the roster right now? Because I would tell you that Paris Johnson Jr. is one and I that’s that’s it. Like Isaiah Adams had looked good last week coming back from injury, but overall on the season he has struggled. Yald Frolo at center is decent, but do you feel as though you can upgrade from him? Evan Brown has not been good for them. Um Jonah Williams has not been good for them. So that to me is the big question that you kind of have to answer down the stretch here of this season. It really has to be how aggressive are we going to get for offensive linemen in the trade market, in free agency, in the draft. Like, how many starting 2026 offensive linemen are on the roster right now? Can we determine that and feel good about that answer going into next season? That’s going to be huge for me. But with this contest, you Brassette’s coming off of a week where he broke the NFL record for most completions in a single game with 47. Now, only nine of them were over 10 yards. So most of his completions were behind the line of scrimmage or um before 10 yards. And you’d figure that that would be the case with him attempting and completing so many. But even those throws beyond 10 yards, they’re pretty good. Decent completion percentage above 50% completion percentage for both categories of 11 to 19 yards down the field and then also 20 or more yards down the field. So he was great, but you can’t be that one-dimensional, right? I mean, like they were onedimensional. they had the the the record in in passing completions and they scored 22 points, lost 41 to2. Uh it’s just not complimentary football. It’s not team football and um that’s just where I think the Cardinals are right now. So, they’ve got to play a lot better together and until that running game gets better. Until Trey Benson comes back, it’s hard for me to have a lot of faith in this Cardinals team right now. I’m picking the Jags to win. I think it’ll be decently close. 21-7 is the final score that I’m going with here with the Jags winning. I I’ve got Jacksonville on the road as well. 23 to 20. I think the two things that that you have here, one, I think the Jags ball control offense against this defense works to their advantage once again. And two, you do get a really fun matchup of Trey McBride working the middle of the field against this secondary that for most of the season has been good defending the middle of the field. So, I do think that’s obviously the biggest threat. Brassette working the ball downfield to Trey McBride. But I I like the Jags. I like the momentum they picked back up last week against the Chargers and I think they get it done here. Brian in the chat saying there’s one guy the Jags are game planning for. It’s Kas Campbell, obviously a former Jagu himself, but Campbell’s playing very well. But hey, so is Walter Nolan. Walter Nolan, I think, is playing really well. A lot of guys on that defense have the have the capability of playing well. I’m just so worried about the inconsistencies um on that offense and whether or not it’s going to be enough for the Jags. I think this will be a decently close game, but we’re both taking the Jags

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Jacksonville Jaguars and The Arizona Cardinals.

Get 40% off your PFF Subscription with our Black Friday sale!:
Code: BLACKFRIDAY
Link: https://subscribe.pff.com

Dominate your fantasy league: http://fantasy.pff.com/
Download the PFF App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pff-fan…
Join our newsletter: https://forms.gle/maqTaBKcmdPR5Vma6
NFL/NCAA Player Grades: https://www.pff.com/grades

Thank you to our sponsors. If you’re interested in supporting our shows, please reach out to sales@pff.com

3 comments
Leave a Reply