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Factoid

Dante Fowler / Jacksonville sacks

Crushing loss for sack-poor defense

The NFL can be cruel, and it certainly was yesterday for Dante Fowler and the Jacksonville Jaguars. On draft day they opted to try to upgrade an annually poor pass rush -- one that was starting to come around -- and on the first day of rookie minicamp, those efforts were scuttled.

No. 3 overall pick Dante Fowler tore his ACL yesterday and is gone for the season. Fowler had 8.5 sacks at Florida last year and was the team's choice to bring some teeth to Jacksonville's sack numbers.

The Jaguars were headed in the right direction, too, after finishing last in the league in sacks in both 2012 and 2013. Last year they had a better than average 45 sacks, and Fowler was to be the piece to get them even higher in production.

Now, they'll need to have somebody else step up this season.

The table below shows sacks over the last five seasons. Over that time span, only two teams have had fewer sacks than the Jaguars. They're trending up, at least, but will have a hard time continuing that without Fowler to pump up their pass rush.

TEAM SACKS, 2010-2014
Team10 Sk11 Sk12 Sk13 Sk14 SkTotal
St. Louis4339525340227
Green Bay4729474441208
NY Giants4648333447208
Minnesota3150444141207
Philadelphia3950303749205
Buffalo2729365754203
Miami3941424239203
Baltimore2748374049201
Carolina3131396040201
New England3640374840201
Denver2341524141198
Arizona3342384735195
Detroit4441343342194
NY Jets4035304145191
San Francisco3642383836190
Houston3044443238188
Kansas City3929274746188
Pittsburgh4835373433187
Seattle3733364437187
Cincinnati2745514320186
Tennessee4028393639182
New Orleans3333304934179
Chicago3433413139178
San Diego4732383526178
Washington2941323637175
Indianapolis3029324241174
Dallas3542343428173
Oakland4739253822171
Cleveland2932384031170
Jacksonville2631203145153
Atlanta3133293222147
Tampa Bay2623273536147

--Andy Richardson

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