Player Spotlight: Jourdan Lewis

Monday player spotlight goes to starting CB Jourdan Lewis. It was a tough choice between Lewis and running back Travis Ettiene who dare I say looks like a top 10 running back in the NFL again. I felt like I had to go with Jourdan Lewis here however after he had the best Jaguar debut since Calais Campbell in 2017. The man was simply everywhere yesterday and made big play after big play for a Jacksonville defense that looks way better than last year just 1 game in to the season.

Jourdan Lewis in his Jags debut had 5 Total tackles, 3 Pass deflections, a Fumble Recovery, and an INT. He was sticky in coverage all day not allowing a lot of separation for receivers and made it tough for Bryce Young to look his way at all. Lewis came in and has already played a huge part in turning around a pass defense that finished dead last in the NFL last year. Coming into the season I believed Tyson Campbell was the clear cut number 1 corner on the team and it would be Jarrian Jones battling with Jourdan Lewis to see who stayed on the field when the Jags went back to base defense. Lewis clearly established himself as a guy you can't take off the field yesterday and has a very good argument for best CB on the team.

Best Highlights

Jourdan Lewis's first big play of the game came with 49 seconds left in the first quarter. The Panthers are driving and after converting two straight 3rd down conversions on the drive are faced with 3rd and 5 on the Jacksonville 31yrd line. Lewis is lined up against Hunter Renfrow in the slot to Bryce Youngs left. The Panthers run a pick play to try and open up a wheel route for Renfrow. Lewis is able to fight through the pick from Xavier Legette and recover to track down and get in front of the ball before it makes it to Renfrow. The ball was slightly underthrown by Young but still nice work to fight through the pick play and recover to the receiver. Lewis helped the Jags defense hold the Panthers to a field goal on the drive which would end up being the only Panther's points of the half.

After a Jaguars touchdown the Panther's are again driving to answer and find themselves on the Jaguars 40yard line with 3:55 left in the 2nd Quarter facing 3rd and 8. Lewis is again line up in the slot against Renfrow to start the play. This time the Jags dial up the nickel blitz and Bryce Young never sees it coming. Lewis comes flying off the edge and gets to Young before he can get a throw off cleanly. Jourdan Lewis again shuts down a Panthers drive on 3rd down and this time forces a punt from Carolina.

Lewis's best play of the day came with 0:52 left in the 4th Quarter with the Panther's trailing by 16 and looking for a quick score. The Panther's have 1st and 10 from their own 45 yard line and once again Lewis is matched up with Renfrow in the slot. The Jaguars are running a deep zone on the play so Lewis passes off Renfrow to the deep man and sits in coverage at about 7 yards off the line of scrimmage. Lewis sees Bryce Young's eyes go to the underneath receiver running a shallow crossing route. Young makes a poor throw that comes off the receiver hands and is corralled with one hand by Jourdan Lewis. Lewis sealed the game for the Jags with his one handed snag.

What's Next?

Jourdan Lewis and the rest of the Jaguars secondary will face arguably its toughest test of the season next week going up against the best WR room in league in Cincinnati. Chase and Higgins will be much tougher to contain than anyone on the Panther's roster especially with Joe Burrow throwing them the ball. Lewis spent much of his day matched up against Renfrow in the slot so it will be interesting to see if Lewis is still the one who slides inside or if they elect to keep him outside on either Chase or Higgins and let Jones man the slot a bit more.

Honorable Mentions:

Travis Ettiene

Ettiene after a down year last season has come out of the gates on fire. He torched the Panther's D for 143yds on 16 carries and grabbed 3 receptions for 13 yards on top of that. 71 of those yards came on a long run with the Jags backed up on their own 9 yard line. The most impressive part of Ettiene's game on Sunday, besides the burst he showed, was the vision he ran with and hadn't really displayed for the first couple years of his career. He ran a temendous amount of patience until he could find where the open whole in the defense was and then came sprinting through it gashing the Panthers for huge runs late in the game. Ettiene effectively silenced any doubts he's the teams lead back for at least a week.

Foyesade Oluokon

Oluokon almost had an as impressive day as Lewis. He led the Jaguars in tackles with 10, forced a fumble that was recovered by Lewis, and grabbed an INT off a deflection from Eric Murray that led to the Jags first touchdown of the season. He also had a great stuff of Hubbard on a Panthers 3rd and 1 in the red zone that eventually led to a turnover on downs after a Bryce Young incompletion. If the Jags can put together a good record and the defense look for Ouluokon to be a sneaky Pro bowl and possible All-Pro pick this year.

Brenton Strange

I was only going to do two of these but how do you not mention how good Brenton Strange was yesterday. He was able to help stretch the field and grab 4 receptions for 59 yards for QB Trevor Lawrence. As good as he was as a pass catcher, where he really shined was a run blocker. On Ettiene's 71 yarder he came over from the TE position and absolutely clobbered a defender opening up the perfect cut back lane for Ettiene to run through. He was a big key in the Jaguars success on the ground yesterday. He's making a case for being an upgrade over Engram who had a nice run himself as a Jaguar.