The masses caught their first glimpse of the Jaguars' young, retooled defense on Thursday night in Jacksonville's 17-13 loss to the Jets, and there was much to be excited about.
While Jalen Ramsey didn't play for health precautions, rookie Myles Jack and "redshirt" rookie Dante Fowler took the field for the first time alongside new signing Malik Jackson.
A member of the Super Bowl 50 champion Broncos, Jackson knows what it takes to take a defense to the Promised Land and is convinced his new franchise can do it, just not right away.
"I think once you get here, I think the fans really put the pressure on like, *Super Bowl! Super Bowl! Super Bowl!* I'm like, alright, I'm just trying to come here and do my thing," Jackson told The MMQB. "There are 11 of us. I think this team understands that, so when you go into the locker room, it's all chill. Nobody is like, you do this, and you're supposed to do this. We understand that we are all players and we're all trying to get better together.
"I think that there is pressure, but not in the locker room. Everybody understands that this is the year we have to turn it around and we really have to start working hard and have a winning season and win the AFC South.
To reclaim the South title, Jacksonville will need to shore up its defense as the division is littered with emerging offenses, led by Andrew Luck and Marcus Mariota; you can't beat offense with offense forever.
Jacksonville has enough playmakers on offense -- Blake Bortles, Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns -- but what about on defense? Jackson has a suggestion, and it's not himself.
"Dante (Fowler) has a lot of energy. He is a very cerebral player. To me, he is very Von-esque," Jackson mused. "I've seen some of that in Dante. I think he can definitely be the same player. Just a lot of potential, we've just got to go out there and work together to get these sacks."
There is no higher honor in today's NFL than to be compared to Von Miller, the Broncos linebacker who in the past calendar year has taken down Tom Brady and Cam Newton en route to winning Super Bowl MVP and then followed that up with a record-setting six-year contract extension. And the compliment comes from a reliable source in Jackson, who was the beneficiary of Miller's strip sack in Super Bowl 50.
Coming off a season-ending ACL injury in last year's camp, Fowler has lived up to Jackson's hype. He's reportedly been "embarrassing" Jaguars linemen and has "rarely been blocked" in camp. Fowler appears to be on the verge of a dominant rookie campaign, but we'll gladly take a larger sample size of games before putting him in the same class as Miller.
