By Don Coble, Jax Sports Wire
JACKSONVILLE – The phone pinged with a text message just as Josh Hines-Allen was getting ready for Thursday morning’s training camp workout. It was from former Jaguars player and dear friend Calais Campbell.
“I actually got, surprisingly, great text this morning from the Ravens defensive end, said, ‘I love you, Josh. You’re going to lead the league in sacks this year.’
“For me, it’s just even more validation that I’m on the right path mentally. I got peers around me that see the same thing. I got a guy that I looked up to my whole career text me out of the blue when I’m thinking about it naturally. So, for me, it’s just to keep pushing and keep finding things to get better in and maximize off every opportunity that I can.”
Others have noticed, too. Players around the NFL voted for their Top 100 players for 2026, and they ranked the ninth-year defensive end 48th – an improvement of 17 spots compared to 2024.
His 80 quarterback pressures last season was tied for fourth in the NFL and 46 more than any other teammate.
The confirmation also came a year after his son, Wesley, then 7, completed months of chemotherapy to put his rare form of blood cancer in remission.
There is a quiet fury behind Hines-Allen’s words and actions. He obsesses to be the best pass rusher in the league, but he knows when to flip the switch and turn it off. Obsession, he said, can be motivating. It can also be self-destructive.
“I like to be obsessed with it, [but] you’ve got to be healthy about it,” he said after Jacksonville wrapped up day two of training camp. “And that’s what I’m talking about being intentional about the work that you do. Like when I go home, I’m not obsessive about it. I’m dialed in. I’m in that moment. I’m spending time with my family and I’m taking off, relaxing my brain because if I just wake up and … I wake up thinking about football. I go to sleep thinking about football. But when I don’t need to and I’m spending time with my family, I’m in that moment. I’m in the hotel room; I’m watching film because I’m here. But as soon as I get home and the playbook’s down, it’s Josh, daddy Josh.”
The Jaguars drafted defensive tackle Albert Regis in the third round, and defensive ends Wesley Williams (fourth round) and Zach Durfee (seventh) and linebacker Parker Hughes (seventh) to fill one of the team’s glaring 2025 deficiencies – lack of quarterback pressures.
Hines-Allen was impressive, but he essentially was the only successful pass rusher on the roster.
He called nose tackle DaVon Hamilton “the best nose in the game.” End Travon Walker is a curious understudy who “has that mindset that he is the best in the world.” A few more pieces on defense would add the punch Jacksonville desperately needs to get to the quarterback more consistently.
As one of the league’s most respected edge rushers, Hines-Allen said the work to improve never ends. The moment he stops getting better and rests on his laurels is when he stops evolving as a player.
Now others are seeing the results of his obsession to build on his success.
“I’m appreciative, but I play the game to be the best in the world,” he said. “It’s just a step closer, I would say. But it’s motivating and I just have to keep it up. The guys watch the film, and they see what they see. And for me, man, I’m just trying to be an inspiration to myself, an inspiration to guys behind me and keep going in this thing until I get
No. 1.”
Like the rest of the NFL, Calais Campbell will be watching.
