Greg Olson (not the tight end but the football coach) is the new offensive coordinator in Jacksonville, and the first order of business will be to reduce the number of times Blake Bortles gets knocked on his can. Jacksonville was remarkably bad in this area last year, giving up 71 sacks. That’s the most by any team since the 2006 Oakland Raiders.
They can start by trying to improve their offensive line. In particular, left tackle Luke Joeckel thus far has been a disappointment (along with Eric Fisher, left tackles were the first two picks of the 2013 draft, and they’ve both struggled). The Jaguars signed center Stefen Wisniewski, who should help some, but Andy Richardson put together offensive line rankings for the magazine, and he’s got the Jaguars at next-to-last.
More realistically, Olson can re-work the offense, with the ball coming out of Bortles’ hands more quickly – more short passes and more throwaways. That’s the approach Olson used last year in Oakland, where he was the offensive coordinator for another young quarterback (Derek Carr). Only four teams allowed sacks on a lower percentage of pass plays last year, and all have quarterbacks who have won multiple playoff games – Peyton Manning, Joe Flacco, Tom Brady and Andrew Luck.
My expectation is that defenses will probably sack Bortles at least 20 fewer times this season. At the same time, he’ll probably run less and connect on far fewer downfield passes. In Olsen’s offense last year, Carr averaged a league-low 5.5 yards per pass attempt.
At the same time, Carr (with Olson gone) should attempt more downfield passes. He'll probably be sacked a lot more (while hitting on more longer throws).
| PERCENTAGE OF SACKS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Att | Sack | Pct |
| Denver | 607 | 17 | 2.7% |
| Baltimore | 554 | 19 | 3.3% |
| New England | 609 | 26 | 4.1% |
| Indianapolis | 661 | 29 | 4.2% |
| Oakland | 629 | 28 | 4.3% |
| New Orleans | 659 | 30 | 4.4% |
| Cincinnati | 503 | 23 | 4.4% |
| Atlanta | 632 | 31 | 4.7% |
| Arizona | 568 | 28 | 4.7% |
| NY Giants | 607 | 30 | 4.7% |
| Philadelphia | 621 | 32 | 4.9% |
| Houston | 485 | 26 | 5.1% |
| Pittsburgh | 612 | 33 | 5.1% |
| Green Bay | 536 | 30 | 5.3% |
| Cleveland | 502 | 31 | 5.8% |
| Dallas | 476 | 30 | 5.9% |
| San Diego | 574 | 37 | 6.1% |
| Chicago | 609 | 41 | 6.3% |
| Buffalo | 579 | 39 | 6.3% |
| Detroit | 604 | 45 | 6.9% |
| Carolina | 545 | 42 | 7.2% |
| Miami | 595 | 46 | 7.2% |
| St. Louis | 515 | 47 | 8.4% |
| Seattle | 454 | 42 | 8.5% |
| NY Jets | 498 | 47 | 8.6% |
| Tennessee | 513 | 50 | 8.9% |
| Tampa Bay | 531 | 52 | 8.9% |
| Minnesota | 517 | 51 | 9.0% |
| Kansas City | 493 | 49 | 9.0% |
| Washington | 547 | 58 | 9.6% |
| San Francisco | 487 | 52 | 9.6% |
| Jacksonville | 557 | 71 | 11.3% |
—Ian Allan