{"id":908270,"date":"2026-06-02T20:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/908270\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T20:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:36:20","slug":"could-mathieu-araujo-be-the-heir-apparent-to-jaguars-dc-anthony-campanile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/908270\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Mathieu Araujo be the heir apparent to Jaguars DC Anthony Campanile?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> are used to being labeled \u201coffseason winners.\u201d Just last year, the team brought in an entirely new regime, signed nine veteran free agents, and added 29 rookie players, including No. 2 overall pick Travis Hunter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There were far fewer splashes this offseason than Duval County residents are accustomed to seeing. The only free agent pickup from this spring, Chris Rodriguez Jr.<\/a>, was a candidate to pace the backfield in carries before missing the start of OTAs<\/a> with a mysterious injury. Maybe trade acquisition Ruke Orhororo can carve out a role along the defensive line, but as far as 2026 player acquisitions go, the only other place to look for contributions is within the rookie class.<\/p>\n

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This offseason, Jacksonville\u2019s front office looked to add depth to a roster that already has plenty of penciled-in starters. The same approach was taken with the coaching staff.<\/p>\n

The head ball coach is Liam Coen, who finished second in NFL Coach of the Year voting last year. His staff is headlined by offensive coordinator Grant Udinski and defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile, each of whom completed multiple head coach interviews in January. That Udinski and Campanile are both back is a pleasant surprise; it seems like it\u2019s a question of when, not if, they\u2019ll be given their own opportunities to lead a building.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big win to keep those two on board, but the team wasn\u2019t just looking to run back last year\u2019s group. Jacksonville hired Brian Picucci to coordinate the offensive run game and Mathieu Araujo to coordinate the defensive pass game.<\/p>\n

Picucci\u2019s hiring is fascinating on several levels. Firstly, he has intimate experience with Coen, having served as his offensive coordinator at UMass (2004-08) before coaching under him at Maine (2016-17) and in Tampa Bay (2024). Picucci would\u2019ve joined Coen\u2019s inaugural Jaguars staff, but the Buccaneers<\/a> blocked the move by promoting him to offensive line coach. Jacksonville nabbed him this offseason after its 2025 run game coordinator, Keli\u2019i Kekuewa, left for Stanford. And Piccuci has an immediate challenge on his plate: can he help remove the \u201cstink<\/a>\u201d of last year\u2019s offense?<\/p>\n

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I would assume that Piccuci will coach here until he retires. Meanwhile, Araujo doesn\u2019t figure to stay in his current position for long. He seems to be a rising star.<\/p>\n

Araujo played defensive back at Bridgewater State for four years before becoming the wide receivers\/running backs coach at Maine Maritime Academy in 2015. He racked up small-time promotions over the next three years before settling with Yale from 2019-21 and the Dolphins from 2022-25. Araujo spent time with prominent NFL defensive coordinators Brian Flores and Vic Fangio during his time in Miami, which makes him a natural fit for Campanile\u2019s staff in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Given that he already \u201cspeaks the same language,\u201d Araujo ought to start contributing immediately without any kind of ramp-up period.<\/p>\n

That appears to be the case at Jaguars OTAs. Campanile was asked about recently re-signed cornerback Montaric \u201cBuster\u201d Brown on Monday, and he took the opportunity to hype up the guy who\u2019s been coaching Brown in the background.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Araujo has done an incredible job with those guys. Just overall, those meetings, I wish you could be in them. They\u2019re super detailed. He\u2019s a great young coach and I think the guys are really taking to him, and he\u2019s challenging them every day as you see him here in the individual period, so those guys are getting better each day and that\u2019s what they\u2019re all doing. He\u2019s really kind of come up with a good action plan for each guy that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

When strolling the sidelines at the Miller Electric Center, Araujo comes to the foreground of attention in a flash. During Monday\u2019s individual drills, when a defensive back failed to harness the football, he barked, \u201cFinish that fucking shit! Finish! Finish! Finish!\u201d The same energy came to light in an ensuing 7v7 drill. As a checkdown was being thrown to a running back on the opposite side of the field, Araujo ran across the grass, following his players in the pursuit drill. \u201cFiniiiiiiiish!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jacksonville\u2019s top brass prides itself on its acquisition process. At every level of the building, the Jaguars want to bring in individuals with \u201cJaguars DNA.\u201d People who \u201celevate the space by being nothing more than themselves.\u201d Folks who are \u201cintangibly rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early indications point to Araujo being exactly that type \u2014 so much so that he may already be the top internal candidate to eventually replace Campanile.<\/p>\n

Jags fans, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville Jaguars are used to being labeled \u201coffseason winners.\u201d Just last year, the team brought in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060],"tags":[4192,103374,211,391,9764,121683,7,212,125,2401,213,1642,101344,251,6,4656,12611,2976,128],"class_list":["post-908270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-anthony-campanile","tag-brian-picucci","tag-buccaneers","tag-chicago-bears","tag-chris-rodriguez-jr","tag-coach-araujo","tag-football","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jacksonvillejaguars","tag-jaguars","tag-liam-coen","tag-mathieu-araujo","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-preseason","tag-offensive-coordinator","tag-offensive-line-coach","tag-travis-hunter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116682436426136017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908270","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=908270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}