Houston Texans v. Jacksonville Jaguars: A showdown of defensive prowess

Young linebacking corps

Jaguars Starters: Telvin Smith, Myles Jack, Leon Jacobs

Key Reserves: None

Smith and Jack are two young, promising linebackers. Both were extremely productive in college but both guys fell in the draft. Smith due to his size and Jack due to injury. However, neither of those things have stopped them from elevating the Jaguars defense.

However, both guys haven’t been phenomenal this year. Smith has been worse than Jack but losing Paul Posluszny has seemed to put an increased amount of pressure that they haven’t handled well. Jacobs is listed as a started anywhere you could research it but he doesn’t play enough snaps to really qualify.

Texans Starters: Benardrick McKinney, Zach Cunningham, Whitney Mercilus

Key Reserves: None

McKinney and Cunningham are also two very young, promising linebackers. McKinney quickly became the leader of this defense and has been very productive. Cunningham had a solid rookie year but has slightly disappointed this season.

I listed Clowney as a defensive lineman and Mercilus as a linebacker due to where they play even though they’re both listed as linebackers. Clowney has only played three coverage snaps and has spent most of his time along the line. Mercilus has pretty evenly split his time rushing the passer and in coverage.

Advantage: Texans

The results these guys have produced this season are largely the same. Jack and McKinney have been nearly identical while Cunningham and Smith have been similar as well. However, what pushed me to give the Houston Texans linebackers the advantage is what they’ve been doing recently versus what the Jaguars guys have done.

Cunningham, specifically, had the best game of his season and maybe his career last week against the Bills. If he can continue to build off of that against the Jaguars the Texans will have a distinct advantage here.