{"id":660867,"date":"2026-01-07T10:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T10:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/660867\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T10:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T10:31:12","slug":"five-under-the-radar-jaguars-who-can-make-an-impact-in-nfl-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/660867\/","title":{"rendered":"Five under-the-radar Jaguars who can make an impact in NFL playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Safety Antonio Johnson, running back LeQuint Allen Jr., among players who could carve out a piece of playoff history<\/p>\n

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Seven facts about the Jacksonville Jaguars’ postseason history<\/p>\n

The Jaguars are about to embark on their ninth postseason in franchise history. Here are some facts about their previous eight postseasons.<\/p>\n

The Jacksonville Jaguars will need contributions from more than just their star players to make a deep playoff run.Several players with previous playoff experience, like Quintin Morris and Matt Dickerson, could become unexpected heroes.Players like linebacker Dennis Gardeck and running back LeQuint Allen Jr. have made significant impacts in multiple phases of the game.<\/p>\n

The Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> expect and need good performances from stars such as quarterback Trevor Lawrence<\/a>, running back Travis Etienne<\/a>, edge rusher Josh Hines-Allen<\/a>, linebacker Devin\u00a0Lloyd<\/a>\u00a0and kicker Cam Little<\/a> to advance deep into the NFL playoffs, starting on Jan. 11 at home against the Buffalo Bills<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But like this historic season, in which the Jags turned a 4-13 record in 2024 to its mirror image of 13-4 under first-year coach Liam Coen<\/a>,\u00a0it’s\u00a0going to take a team effort to beat the Bills (12-5) and anyone else\u00a0who’s\u00a0next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NFL playoffs are not only where stars cement their\u00a0legacies,\u00a0but they can also be a time for unexpected\u00a0heroes\u00a0to step forward.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Consider\u00a0Jaguars<\/a> history: backup tight end Ben Koyack<\/a> caught the game-winning TD pass in a 10-3 victory over the Bills in 2017; T.J. Yeldon<\/a>, the second running back behind Leonard Fournette<\/a>, scored a rushing touchdown and was the Jaguars’ leading receiver the following week in beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 45-42;\u00a0and\u00a0Bobby McCray<\/a> sacked Ben\u00a0Roethlisberger to force a fumble that sealed a 31-29 victory over the Steelers in 2007.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And who foresaw Natrone Means<\/a> rushing for\u00a0315 yards\u00a0to lead playoff victories at Buffalo and Denver in 1996, more than 60 percent of his entire regular-season total when he backed up James Stewart<\/a>?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are some candidates to make playoff impacts for the Jaguars:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Safety Antonio Johnson\u00a0<\/p>\n

It might be hard to make the case that third-year safety Antonio Johnson<\/a> is flying under the radar. But he’s played better as the season has progressed and gone are the days when he got lost in coverage.<\/p>\n

Rejuvenated by defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile<\/a> and secondary coaches Anthony Perkins, Ron Milus and Drew\u00a0Lescari, Johnson has relished his role of playing in multiple positions, including both safety spots and as a “big nickel” against teams with strong running games (expect more of that against the Bills, the top rushing team in the NFL). Johnson was a huge factor in holding the Colts’ Jonathan Taylor to 74 and 70 yards in both meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in pass defense, Johnson has improved drastically. He leads\u00a0Jaguars\u00a0defensive backs and is tied with linebacker Devin Lloyd with five picks, and he took his fifth\u00a0one\u00a0back for a 58-yard touchdown against the Titans<\/a>. In his last four games, Johnson has three picks, five passes defensed, and 11 tackles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tight end Quintin Morris\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quinton Morris<\/a>, signed by the Jaguars on May 19, 2025, caught his first touchdown pass as a Jaguar against the Titans last week and in his last four games has caught four passes for 30 yards.\u00a0He’s\u00a0been used\u00a0mainly as\u00a0a blocker and has been valuable because of injuries to the other\u00a0Jaguars\u00a0tight ends, who have missed a combined 15 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Morris has been a trusty special\u00a0teams\u00a0player, averaging 19 snaps over his last nine games, and the Jags are using him more on offense even with Brenton Strange<\/a> and Johnny Mundt<\/a> healthy. Morris had 26 offensive snaps against the Titans, his high second-highest workload this season after 50 against the Los Angeles Chargers, when Strange and Long were both out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Morris\u00a0is\u00a0also familiar\u00a0with two things: the NFL playoffs and the Buffalo Bills.\u00a0He\u00a0appeared\u00a0in\u00a0seven postseason games with the Bills from 2022-24, with 73 offensive snaps and 149 special-teams snaps, for a total of 222.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Linebacker Dennis\u00a0Gardeck\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dennis Gardeck<\/a>, who was signed by Arizona as an undrafted free agent from Sioux Falls University, has been one of the team’s most important offseason\u00a0acquisitions\u00a0and has made a ton of plays both big and small that have helped the cause.\u00a0Gardeck\u00a0has played in all 17 games, starting two, with 37 tackles, six for losses, 2.5 sacks, two interceptions, nine quarterback hits and one forced fumble.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For good measure, his 11 special teams\u00a0tackles\u00a0is\u00a0tied for second with Ventrell Miller.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gardeck\u00a0had a taste of playoff football with Arizona in 2021 with 26\u00a0special-teams\u00a0snaps and six defensive plays in a loss to the Rams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Defensive tackle Matt Dickerson\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jaguars signed Matt Dickerson (6 feet 5, 300 pounds), a six-year veteran who had been with five teams, in late August. He spent nine games on the practice squad and was activated in week 11, seeing his first NFL game action since 2023.<\/p>\n

A sure sign of trust earned from the coaches is an increase in playing time and after averaging just over 10 defensive snaps per game in his first three weeks, Dickerson’s ability to help stuff the run has results in an average of 32.8 snaps on defense in his last five games. He has eight tackles, two quarterback hits and knocked down a pass over that span to become a big part of the Jags’ league-leading run defense down the stretch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dickerson has been in six playoff games with Tennessee and Kansas City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Running back\u00a0LeQuint\u00a0Allen Jr.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LeQuint Allen<\/a>, a seventh-round draft pick,\u00a0has been\u00a0the ultimate team player. He runs,\u00a0pass-blocks and plays special teams with the same zeal and taste for contact and has an edge to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Allen has a 4.1 per-carry average on 23 attempts (94 yards) and has caught 10 passes for 54 yards. But\u00a0he’s\u00a0most important for the way he picks up blitzes and chips against pass rushers when\u00a0he’s\u00a0in the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Safety Antonio Johnson, running back LeQuint Allen Jr., among players who could carve out a piece of playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[15659,3689,247,265,9805,8513,215,214,53,1976,16840,1638,5031,12351,2605,5412,31925,3690,3442,7,95618,12376,3688,24603,20842,212,125,213,1283,1979,1753,856,1829,1070,2941,2667,13959,1637,1642,12214,8903,3787,27088,248,267,88,6,35196,84,245,537,530,9,266,678,3691,2355,526,394,527,2015,18837,2940,314],"class_list":["post-660867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-playoffs","tag-adult","tag-ai","tag-american","tag-american-football","tag-antonio","tag-antonio-johnson","tag-bills","tag-buffalo","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-cam","tag-cam-little","tag-coen","tag-dennis","tag-dennis-gardeck","tag-devin","tag-devin-lloyd","tag-dickerson","tag-enabled","tag-etienne","tag-football","tag-fournette","tag-gardeck","tag-highlights","tag-hines-allen","tag-hub","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jaguars","tag-johnson","tag-jonathan","tag-jonathan-taylor","tag-josh","tag-josh-hines-allen","tag-jr","tag-lawrence","tag-leonard","tag-leonard-fournette","tag-liam","tag-liam-coen","tag-little","tag-lloyd","tag-matt","tag-matt-dickerson","tag-national","tag-national-sports","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-hub","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-positive","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-story","tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-taylor","tag-tennessee","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-titans","tag-travis","tag-travis-etienne-jr","tag-trevor","tag-trevor-lawrence"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}