{"id":702468,"date":"2026-01-24T22:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/702468\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:18:19","slug":"jaguars-begin-reshaping-position-group-on-defense-in-2026-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/702468\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaguars begin reshaping position group on defense in 2026 mock draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a very early 2026 NFL mock draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars <\/a>begin revamping a position group on the defensive side of the ball.<\/p>\n

As we know, the Jaguars<\/a> do not have a first-round pick in this year’s NFL draft. That selection was traded to the Cleveland Browns<\/a> in 2025 to trade up for Travis Hunter.<\/p>\n

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This means that the Jaguars’ first selection this year won’t come until pick 56 overall in Round 2.<\/p>\n

With that said, as we detailed recently, GM James Gladstone still has quite a bit of flexibility<\/a> when it comes to this year’s draft.<\/p>\n

So, using Pro Football Focus’ mock draft simulator<\/a>, who did the Jaguars select in the second round?<\/p>\n

Iowa State defensive tackle Domonique Orange. On Mel Kiper’s big board<\/a>, Orange is the seventh-ranked defensive tackle in this year’s draft class.<\/p>\n

Listed at 6-4 – 325 pounds, Orange has played 1,575 defensive snaps over the last four seasons. Over the previous three years, he’s logged 45 total pressures and one sack. He’s graded out quite well against the run by PFF’s metrics.<\/a><\/p>\n

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This is a position that we could certainly see Gladstone prioritize this offseason. For one, Dawuane Smoot, Matt Dickerson, and Austin Johnson are all free agents.<\/p>\n

In addition to that, the play from the defensive tackle position group was up and down at times last season.<\/p>\n

A defensive tackle’s presence may not always show up on the stat sheet. But when a player at that position is able to create a steady push, occupy blockers, and take up space, it frees up those around him to make plays.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars address a top need on defense in 2026 NFL mock draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a very early 2026 NFL mock draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars begin revamping a position group on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060],"tags":[10462,54,9094,2814,2793,49569,7,212,125,2401,213,1302,27088,4002,6,8467,410,128],"class_list":["post-702468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-austin-johnson","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-dawuane-smoot","tag-defensive-side","tag-defensive-tackle","tag-domonique-orange","tag-football","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jacksonvillejaguars","tag-jaguars","tag-james-gladstone","tag-matt-dickerson","tag-mock-draft","tag-nfl","tag-position-group","tag-pro-football-focus","tag-travis-hunter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115952400127869734","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702468","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=702468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}