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EspañolThe Jacksonville Jaguars are already facing a tough decision surrounding star linebacker Devin Lloyd. And unfortunately, with each new metric from the 2025 season that gets released, that decision only gets more difficult.
Lloyd is set to be a free agent, and it's widely assumed that there will be many teams interested. In 2025, he earned a spot in the Pro Bowl for the first time and was named a second-team All-Pro. And he is consistently considered one of the top free agents available.
A new evaluation from Daire Carragher at Pro Football Focus will surely have teams even more excited to add Lloyd to their roster. Carragher came up with the top five most effective blitzers in 2025, and Lloyd didn't just make the list — he was #1.
"Lloyd finished the season with the third-most pressures of any linebacker, but the two players listed ahead of him moonlighted as edge defenders and rushed the passer almost twice as often. Lloyd finished off his season with three pressures on five blitzing snaps against Josh Allen in the wild-card round, improving his already-strong pressure rate up to 27.2% for the season," Carragher said, adding,
"Lloyd still impacted the psyche of his opposition, scoring nine quarterback hits — the most of any NFL player not on the defensive line. As good as Lloyd was as a pass -usher, he graded out even better as a run defender, and his coverage grade remained pretty impressive, thanks to five total interceptions. Lloyd closed out the season with PFF’s second-highest overall grade among eligible linebackers behind Detroit Lions’ Jack Campbell."
The problem for Jacksonville is that there simply isn't much in the way of cap space for them to work with. And given just how good Lloyd is, that presents a problem that will likely be difficult for James Gladstone to solve. There are options, of course, but Gladstone will need to exercise some creativity and bring that aggressiveness he's been known for to the table.
Working in the Jags' favor are remarks Lloyd made at the Pro Bowl this year, in which he discussed how Anthony Campanile gave him the room to show what he's capable of.
"As the weeks progressed, they really started allowing me to utilize that skill set more and more and play at the level that I'm playing," he said. "So it's always great whenever a defensive coordinator believes in you."
Another team may offer more money, but that relationship with Campanile could help make Lloyd more open to negotiations. But whatever the path, keeping him in Jacksonville will be difficult.
The Jaguars would need to restructure existing contracts, let go of some other costly veterans, like Travis Etienne, or sign Lloyd to a longer contract with a low first-year cap hit -- the latter of which relies upon Lloyd being willing to take such a deal. But if he is, and the Jags can keep him around, it will certainly be worth it; Lloyd has proven how much he can add to this defense, and if he can stay in Jacksonville, Gladstone should make sure he does.
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars LB Devin Lloyd shows elite blitz value before free agency