The Jacksonville Jaguars have one of the best pass-rushers in football entering the 2024 season, with Josh Allen firmly placing himself in the top-10 conversation.

In a recent ranking of the 32 best edge defenders, PFF placed Allen at No. 8 — a spot that may even be too low considering Aidan Hutchinson and Khalil Mack were ranked above him.

Many eyes were on Allen to see how he would follow up his six-sack season in 2022 ahead of a contract year. It couldn’t have worked out better for him, as he recorded a career-high 16.5 sacks and a 20.3% pass-rush win rate. It was the best version of Allen we’ve seen yet, and he was also a solid run defender for the third straight year.

– Trevor Sikkema, Pro Football Focus

Allen signed the biggest contract in franchise history this offseason, earning a five-year extension $141.25 million and $76.5 million in guarantees.

Allen, the No. 7 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, is the first Jaguars’ first-round pick to sign an extension with the team since Blake Bortles.

Allen broke the Jaguars’ rookie sack record in 2019 with 10.5 sacks before breaking the single-season sack record with 17.5 sacks in 2023. Allen was one of the NFL’s most productive pass-rushers in 2023, combining with Travon Walker for 27.5 sacks to lead all pass-rusher duos.

In five years with the Jaguars, Allen has recorded 45 sacks, 53 tackles for loss, nine forced fumbles, and two interceptions.

Allen will spend 2024 under new defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen, who has already expressed an interest in moving Allen around the formation.

“Yeah, it’s just matchups. Like it’s a matchup game right? So we want to have the best matchups for our guys to have success. So, we’ll manipulate the front, covers, and things that we’re doing to put our guys in the best matchups for them and then ultimately play our best defense and win games,” Nielsen said in May.

“So, it’ll always be designed around winning. Football, a lot of it is a one-on-one game. Another thing to that is we don’t want him [OLB Josh Allen] just to be on the right side and they know he’s right here all the time and they can chip or put a tight end to his side and take what he does away. Then we got to beat two guys to get to the quarterback. So if we move him, it makes him a little bit harder for an offense to find out and identify where he’s at every snap.”