JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Josh Hines-Allen is sitting where you’d expect him to sit: near the top, alone, with no real argument against it.
As the Jaguars’ annual ranking of the 25 most important players entering the 2026 season reaches its final stretch, the No. 2 spot belongs to the eighth-year edge rusher - a franchise legend whose resume already looks like it was built for the team’s walls. Hines-Allen set the Jaguars’ sack record last season, and he’s headed into 2026 with more to add.
That’s the thing with Hines-Allen: the production is obvious, but the impact runs even deeper. He is the player opposing coordinators circle first.
He is the one linemen have to account for the night before kickoff. And on a defense that has leaned on him for years, he’s become the face of the unit as much as the heart of the franchise.
The Jaguars need pass rush to matter, and Hines-Allen has been doing that job at a level no player in team history has matched. He’s not just chasing quarterbacks; he’s shaping the whole front. He can close to the sideline, set a hard edge and hold up against tight ends, making life miserable in ways that don’t always show up in the box score.
When it’s time to hunt the quarterback, he brings more than one answer. Speed.
Power. Counters.
Pressure. Hines-Allen has been one of the NFL’s most dependable pass-rushers year after year because he keeps winning his matchups.
The only real knock comes down to sacks, and even that needs context. Hines-Allen averages under 10 sacks per season if you take out his injury-filled 2020 campaign, and he has only two seasons above eight: 10.5 as a rookie and 17.5 in 2023. Those numbers don’t capture the full weight of what he does to a passing game, but they do leave room for one thing to chase.
"I know sacks have been a huge thing in my position. For me, I don't think about it. I've been up here before and I’ve always said, man, that's not a thing that kind of carries me, me turning on the tape and me knowing that I'm whooping the guy in front of me and that guy knowing that as well, and coaches knowing that, coaches knowing I’ve got to play against him," Hines-Allen said at the start of the offseason program.
"That’s what kind of drives me. But again, man, I did a lot of things from last year, knowing things I need to do better, to finish better, and I’m looking to improve on those aspects to get the job done.”
There’s a clear comparison here with Travon Walker, but Hines-Allen’s case is different because his level of play has been so consistently high. If he ever misses time, the Jaguars’ pass rush would take a bigger hit than it did when Walker was out last year.
This has been Hines-Allen’s defense since he broke through with a double-digit sack season in 2019. Injuries slowed his sophomore year in 2020, but after that he put together a run that very few players in the league could touch. According to data from NextGenStats, here is where Hines-Allen ranks amongst qualified defenders in each year since:
No one else on the Jaguars’ roster comes close to those numbers, not even Walker. That’s why Hines-Allen matters so much to everything Jacksonville wants to be on defense. And that’s why the Jaguars would be in real trouble if injury ever forced him out.
If that happened, the most likely move would be Danny Striggow stepping into his base-defense role, while linebacker Dennis Gardeck would handle the third-down job opposite Walker. That’s a plan the Jaguars would much rather keep on paper.
At this point, Hines-Allen is more than a productive player. Trevor Lawrence may be the face of the franchise because he’s the quarterback, but Hines-Allen has already earned his place among the names that define the organization, alongside Tony Boselli, Fred Taylor, Jimmy Smith and others.
Since being drafted in 2019, he’s checked every box the Jaguars could have hoped for from a first-round pick. He became a Pro Bowler as a rookie, grew into a long-time captain and community leader, and eventually became the franchise’s all-time sack leader - all before turning 29.
He’s one of the best players ever to wear a Jaguars uniform, and there was never much doubt he’d land at No. 2.
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