Davon Hamilton's Injury Changes the Jaguars' Trade Deadline: Jacksonville Now Needs a Nose Tackle by Nov. 10, Not Just Pass-Rush Help
Jacksonville was already shopping for a pass-pushing defensive tackle before Hamilton was carted off against the Colts. Sports Illustrated's Jaguars file argues the injury changed the need, the fits and the urgency: now the middle of the run defense itself has to be replaced, and rookie Albert Regis has been a healthy scratch for weeks.
The Jaguars' 42-7 win over Indianapolis came with a deadline attached. Jacksonville had already been connected to the defensive tackle trade market ahead of the Nov. 10 deadline, Sports Illustrated's Jaguars site reported in a file opened and read directly by the desk this run - and that was before defensive tackle Davon Hamilton was carted off the field in the second quarter of Sunday's win over the Colts. The desk's injury file (SQ-20261101-061) reported Hamilton among four Jaguars hurt in the game; this file is what the injury does to the week that follows it.
Hamilton's value is the run defense itself. His teammates have pointed to him as the primary reason the Jaguars have been so dominant against the run over the last two seasons, the SI file reported, calling him arguably the defense's most valuable player this season for the attention he commands. Defensive end Josh Hines-Allen said after the game, in words quoted by SI: 'We're going to have guys that need to step up. We know what type of role D-Ham plays on our defense, and so the next person up has big shoes to fill.'
The next person up is the problem. Jacksonville drafted nose tackle Albert Regis in the third round, but he has been a healthy scratch for the last several weeks, the file reported, and asking a rookie to provide what Hamilton does was always a long shot. Before Sunday, the need was a pocket-pushing three-technique to work passing downs next to Hines-Allen, Travon Walker, Arik Armstead and Ruke Orhorhoro; now nose tackle - a player who can be trusted in the middle to command double teams - is a need too, the file argued.
The names the file lists as ones to watch are Roy Lopez in Arizona, Vita Vea and A'Shawn Robinson in Tampa Bay, Moro Ojomo in Philadelphia and Dalvin Tomlinson in Los Angeles. General manager James Gladstone is not the only GM fielding defensive-tackle calls - Chicago's move for Jeffery Simmons reset that market, the file noted. No trade is reported here, because none has happened: what has changed, eight days before the deadline, is the urgency. (The SI file's closing paragraph misnames the injury once as 'Harrison's'; the desk does not repeat that error - the injured tackle is Hamilton.)
