JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jacksonville Jaguars are ready to move past their Week 6 loss to the Houston Texans and move into the bye week, but first there are a few loose ends to take care of.
Amongst those loose ends? Finding out what the Jaguars' snap counts from the last-second lass to the Texans mean, both for last week and moving forward.
So, which snap counts stood out to us when the Jaguars took on the Texans, and why? We break it down below.
The Travis Hunter Role Has Been Figured Out
Travis Hunter's performance against the Texans made it very clear how he should be used moving forward. Hunter played 98% of the defensive snaps with 62 snaps, just one away from playing all 100%. Hunter made one of the game's biggest plays with an end-zone interception of C.J. Stroud, becoming the first defender to pick off Stroud this season. He also was matched up with Nico Collins frequently, providing strong coverage throughout the day with his lone big play given up being the double-move to Collins in the first-half.
Offensively is where things got interesting, with Hunter catching four passes for 59 yards and a touchdow ... on just nine offensive snaps. This was the first game of Hunter's career where he truly made game-changing plays on both sides of the ball in one game, and the Jaguars now have the blueprint: keep him as a full-time player on defense, while preparing him for certain packages and situations on offense. Hunter just proved he can handle doing it, and the Jaguars must now lean into his special traits as a result.
The Jaguars Have a Safety Issue
Despite picking safeties in the top-100 in back-to-back seasons, the Jaguars appear to have a safety issue moving forward. The Jaguars have actually drafted three total safeties in the last two drafts, but none of them took a snap against the Texans. Caleb Ransaw, of course, is on injured reserve for the foreseeable future, but Jalen Huskey was once again a healthy scratch and Rayuan Lane did not get any defensive snaps despite Antonio Johnson going down with an injury in the Texans loss.
When Johnson went down, the Jaguars opted to put former practice squad safety Kaevon Merriweather on the field, with Merriweather playing 43 snaps (68%). With the amount of coverage busts the Jaguars had, and with Eric Murray allowing two touchdowns, the Jaguars simply need to lean into their young talent or find other safety upgrades. Huskey getting zero defensive snaps over the last two weeks makes very little sense.
One Defender Needs More Snaps
The Jaguars' defense was simply not good enough against the Texans, but there were still some good flashes. Amongst those flashes came from third-year defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro, who has started to pick up some momentum over the last month after a slow first few weeks of the season. Orhorhoro was one of just two Jaguars defensive linemen to record multiple pressures against the Texans, and he had the best pressure rate of any Jaguars' pass-rusher. He did all of this while playing 24 (39%) of the snaps.
Orhorhoro has now collected multiple pressures in four straight games after just one pressure in the first two weeks. He is starting to heat up, and the Jaguars would be wise to let him start getting some of the snaps that have been earmarked for Arik Armstead, who has been more up-and-down in his week-to-week consistency.
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