{"id":728165,"date":"2026-02-04T06:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T06:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/728165\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T06:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T06:36:27","slug":"jacksonville-jaguars-defense-most-improved-in-2025-by-advanced-metric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/728165\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville Jaguars defense most improved in 2025 by advanced metric"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 3, 2026, 10:40 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

No defensive unit made a greater turnaround during the 2025 season than the Jacksonville Jaguars.<\/a><\/p>\n

Using EPA (expected points added) per play as the defining metric, the Jaguars<\/a>‘ defense made the biggest jump from 2024 to 2025 out of all 32 NFL teams.<\/p>\n

According to PFF<\/a>, the Jaguars’ defense went from allowing 0.107 points per play in 2024 to -0.116 points per play in 2025. That difference of -0.223 was the greatest in the NFL this past season.<\/p>\n

The next closest team was the New England Patriots with an EPA per play difference of -0.140.<\/p>\n

As noted by PFF, there were two major catalysts behind this improvement. One was the Jaguars’ ability to generate takeaways under new defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile. Only the Bears<\/a> forced more takeaways in 2025 than the Jaguars.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to that, the Jaguars were also very good at eliminating explosive passing plays.<\/p>\n

“The improvements on defense were radical,” wrote PFF’s Thomas Valentine. “In 2024, the Jaguars were 31st in EPA per play allowed. They were a disastrous unit on all fronts.<\/p>\n

“Coen brought Anthony Campanile along for the ride as his defensive coordinator, and the former\u00a0Green Bay Packers<\/a>\u2019 linebacker coach and run game coordinator was influential in the Jaguars\u2019 turnaround as the defense finished the season third in EPA per play allowed.”<\/p>\n

In part, what made Campanile’s defense so difficult to go up against was the malleability of it. This unit adjusted quickly and often based on who the opponent was and threw a variety of different looks at opposing offenses.<\/p>\n

This was also a very physical and sound tackling unit. Jacksonville’s ability to stop the run also puts offenses at a disadvantage, having to play from behind the sticks.<\/p>\n

During the Jaguars’ eight game winnin streak to end the regular season, the defense allowed fewer than 15 points per game. This unit wasn’t just good; they were dominant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 3, 2026, 10:40 a.m. ET No defensive unit made a greater turnaround during the 2025 season than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2060],"tags":[95878,7,212,125,2401,213,6,31186,95933,95882,96089,95976,95936,95896,95888,95895,95899,95906,95902,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-728165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville-jaguars","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","12":"tag-jacksonvillejaguars","13":"tag-jaguars","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnfljaguars","16":"tag-sstsnjaguars","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagchicago-bears","19":"tag-taggreen-bay-packers","20":"tag-tagjacksonville-jaguars","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnfl-hub","24":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","25":"tag-tagoverall-positive","26":"tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116010981038634518","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728165","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=728165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}