Josh Hines-Allen shares early impressions of Anthony Campanile and new Jaguars' defense

USA Today

02-06-2025

Josh Hines-Allen shares early impressions of Anthony Campanile and new Jaguars' defense After Monday's OTA practice, DE Josh Hines-Allen shared his early impressions of Anthony Campanile and the Jaguars' new defense.
When Emmanuel Ogbah described what it is like playing for new Jacksonville Jaguars' defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile, a few of the traits he mentioned were his "energy" and "toughness."
For Josh Hines-Allen, it's Campanile's love and passion for the game and his players that stick out.
"Coach Camp has been awesome," Hines-Allen said after Monday's practice. "You step in that meeting room, you're going to expect one thing, it's the passion, it's the love. It's the love of the game he has. Calais (Campbell) always told me, if you want to be great at something, you gotta love it, you gotta respect it. And so for me, he respects the game, he loves it, he loves the team, he loves the players that are playing for him."
Under Campanile, this is going to be a more malleable defensive scheme, meaning that it will be quick to adjust on a week-to-week basis, and in-game, depending on what the opponent is doing. Like any play-caller, Campanile has his core principles that his system is built around, but he will mold the scheme to what his players do well and the skill sets he has on the roster to work with.
In the secondary, Campanile discussed recently the importance of versatility, which can help disguise coverages and keep quarterbacks guessing. While up front, Maason Smith highlighted the attacking play style that the defense line is asked to play with in this system.
Of course, the scheme, the implementation of it, and the execution on the field all matters immensely. But also at the top of the priority list for Campanile is making sure this Jaguars' defense has a "tough, fast, physical, and violent at the point of attack" play style.
With Campanile leading the way, the defenders that were already on the roster, and the additions made this offseason, the Jaguars are a team that appears to be on the right path. However, as Campanile says, and as Hines-Allen reiterated, "talk is cheap." Improved play on defense begins with what the Jaguars are doing right now in practice and the foundation they are laying.
"It starts right now," said Hines-Allen. "Coach Camp has a saying, talk is cheap. We can talk about how good we're going to be or how legendary our defense or individual players can be, it's all about the work we put in every day. The communication that we have in the red zone, backed up situations, playing good situational football. Knowing what everybody has to do, being in the right place, and it starts out here.
"If we can stack great days out here, if we can keep doing it, and then we put the pads on, and we can continue to be physical up front, linebackers flying downhill, DBs staying in the backfield because we don't kneed them because we're stopping the run up front, and we got pass rushers up front. It's all about that trust."