Big Cat Country
If the 2026 Jacksonville Jaguars defense is set to make the jump into becoming a top pass-rushing unit, defensive tackle Arik Armstead could be Defensive Coordinator Anthony Campanile’s most important chess piece on the board.
Set to return primarily at interior defensive tackle in 2026, following a 2024 campaign in which he played as a defensive end, 2025 Arik Armstead quickly showed flashes of his former self, racking up 48 pressures. Despite sliding inside, where defensive linemen typically generate fewer pressures than edge rushers, Armstead improved on his 36-pressure output from 2024 while doing so in one fewer game played. The 2024 Walter Payton Man of The Year also increased his sack output from two in 2024 to 5.5 in 2025, the third-best single-season total of his career and his best mark since 2021.
However, much of that production, including all five of his sacks, came before a Week 12 hand injury suffered in late November. After averaging 73.8 percent of the team’s defensive snaps in Weeks 9 through 12, and collecting two sacks during that stretch, Armstead missed Week 13 before seeing his snap rate drop to an average of 38.4 percent over the final five regular-season games.
Some context that often gets lost in recapping Jacksonville’s 2025 season is that, prior to his week 12 injury, Armstead was tied for first in the NFL of all interior defensive lineman with only Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons at 5 and a half sacks, while also tied for sixth in quarterback pressures for all interior defensive linemen. In other words, when healthy, Armstead was, in every sense of the word, dominant.
The veteran spoke candidly with Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union about managing the injury late in the season: “I was playing with one hand for six games… Couldn’t play as many snaps because it was hard to play the run with just one hand, so I was limited to pass-rush situations. As I got more comfortable with the cast, I was able to be somewhat effective, but couldn’t grab the blocker and couldn’t do certain moves.”
With that context provided, and despite those limitations present, Armstead’s 81.8 PFF grade in the Wild Card loss to the Buffalo Bills suggests he was approaching being back to full effectiveness towards the end of the year, while being managed late. In 66 percent of defensive snaps against Buffalo, he totaled one quarterback pressure, two defensive stops, and four total tackles, a promising sign for what a fully healthy 2026 could look like. His 85.2 PFF run-defense grade led all Wildcard Round defensive linemen. With a complete offseason of training and rehabilitation behind him and no injury limitations heading into camp, Armstead appears primed for an even bigger bounce-back season than Duval fans may be expecting.
Pro Football Focus Grading Scale
