Pro Football Rumors
Jacksonville was not a popular pick to contend for a playoff spot in 2025, head coach Liam Coen‘s first year at the helm. Vegas set the Jaguars’ preseason over/under win total at 7.5, but the club smashed expectations during a 13-4 campaign. The offensive-minded Coen was the runner-up to the Patriots’ Mike Vrabel in Coach of the Year voting. With Coen’s help, quarterback Trevor Lawrence bounced back from a rough 2024 to finish fifth in MVP balloting.
While the Jaguars edged out the 12-5 Texans for the AFC South title, they were unable to capitalize on home-field advantage in the wild-card round. After losing in dramatic fashion to the Bills, the Jaguars went into the offseason low on cap space and without a first-round pick. Those factors prevented second-year general manager James Gladstone from making any headline-grabbing additions, but there is an argument he didn’t need to do anything drastic. With a couple of notable exceptions, the vast majority of last year’s main contributors are back. Between that and the return of 2025 No. 2 overall pick Travis Hunter, who missed most of his rookie year with a knee injury, the Jaguars are heading into 2026 with high expectations.
A week before April’s draft, Gladstone and Falcons GM Ian Cunningham shook hands on a change-of-scenery swap involving a pair of defensive tackles. Because both players were 2024 second-round picks (Orhorhoro went 35th overall, Smith 48th), they come with similar contracts. Orhorhoro is halfway through a four-year, $9.92MM deal. He will count approximately $1.7MM against the cap in 2026. Smith, who signed for $8.02MM, carries a $1.52MM cap hit this year.
The 6-foot-5, 306-pound Smith had four quarterback hits, three sacks and three tackles for loss during an 11-game rookie debut. However, he didn’t make a dent in any of those categories in 13 games last year. In his first season as the Jaguars’ defensive coordinator, Anthony Campanile used Smith on just 28.38% of snaps. The LSU product totaled a meager 15 tackles and 11 pressures. Smith finished the year as Pro Football Focus’ 100th-ranked interior defensive lineman out of 127 qualifiers.
PFF had an even harsher view of Orhorhoro, whose 2025 performance ranked 123rd at his position. However, going by traditional numbers, he easily outproduced Smith. While playing a full 17-game season and logging a 54% defensive snap share, Orhorhoro tallied 30 pressures, 25 tackles, six QB hits, four TFL and 3.5 sacks.
The 6-4, 295-pounder from Clemson made the first eight starts of his career last season, but the Jaguars will initially deploy him as depth behind DaVon Hamilton and Arik Armstead. If Orhorhoro performs well in his first year under Campanile, he could slide into Armstead’s starting spot in 2027. While the Jaguars are expected to keep Armstead this season, they are likely to let the soon-to-be 33-year-old walk in free agency next March.
