• The Jaguars expect Anthony Campanile to turn the defense around. A trusted Packers voice believes he’s up to the task.
The Jacksonville Jaguars hired Anthony Campanile as their defensive coordinator to get the most out of a group that had plenty of talent but underachieved last year. While he’s never held the position before, he’s got what it takes to steer the ship in the right direction, according to a trusted Green Bay Packers voice.
Peter Bukowski of Locked on Packers made an apperance on 1010 XL’s Helmets & Heels and cited the impact linebacker Edgerrin Cooper had as a rookie as one of the reasons Campanile is great at coaching.
“They had to totally revamp the way the linebackers were playing, just sort of a pretty basic Gus Bradley cover 3, and they had to change to this more attacking style, this simulated pressured world, and that doesn’t work if your linebackers are not getting coached up. Anthony Campanile was a huge part of that,” Bukowski said. “And let me just throw this stat at you guys: Edward Cooper had 13 tackles for loss this year as a rookie, 13. Jared Verse won the Defensive Rookie of the Year.”
Bukowski continued, “He did not have as many tackles to watch as Ed Cooper in this century, 22 players have 13 tackles to watch his rookies. All of them went on to be Pro Bowl players, all of them. So that’s that’s the improvement that we saw for to finish from this room. There’s a reason that Penn State wanted to give him their defensive coordinator job and that Robert Salah was Plan A in San Francisco. Anthony Campanile was Plan B. This was the most coveted defensive coordinator of the cycle.”
A second-round pick in last year’s draft, Cooper has superstar potential. He appeared in 14 games with four starts and registered four passes defensed, 3.5 sacks, 87 total tackles, and 13 tackles for loss in 2024. Campanile’s tutelage played a role in his success.
In Jacksonville, Campanile could have a similar impact for linebackers Foyesade Oluokun, Ventrell Miller, Chad Muma, and Devin Lloyd.
Aside from his work with the linebacker, Campanile also played a massive role in turning the Packers run defense into one of the best in the league, going from 28th in rushing yards and 17th in rushing touchdowns allowed to seventh and 10th, respectively. Below’s Bukowski’s full exchange on 1010 XL:
The Jaguars have an ascending defensive mind in Anthony Campanille
As impressive as Anthony Campanile’s work with the Green Bay Packers was, he now needs to prove that he can oversee a whole defense, not just the linebacker corps. Fortunately for the Jacksonville Jaguars, it looks like he has what it takes and his versatility should allow him to have success early on.
“This what you want from a modern defensive coordinator, someone who can give you everything and be able to be adaptable. Because you might come in with a plan, and all of a sudden, your guys are just not as good as you thought. This happened in Green Bay, where they thought they were going to rush four all year, and their four-man rush just didn’t show up, Peter Bukowski said.
“And so, you have to be able to manufacture something on the fly, which the Packers did, and they end up a top 10 defense. You mentioned a run game coordinator piece of this, this is the best hackers-run defense that I can remember.”
Campanile’s ability to make chicken salad will come in handy with the Jaguars. Their defense ranked 27th in points suffered and 31st in yards allowed last season. At one point, they were the worst in the whole NFL, and that falls on Ryan Nielsen’s shoulders. Expected to put an emphasis on technique and fundamentals, he instead rubbed players the wrong way with his arrogant demeanor. It showed on the field with a lack of preparation.
It’s fair to say that Anthony Campanile has his work cut out with the Jackonsville Jaguars, but based on what he did last year, he should have immediate success.