Arik Armstead has played for five coaches during his 12-year NFL career and he implied it’s no accident that the best years he had in terms of personal and team success came with the San Francisco 49ers from 2017 to 2023 under coach Kyle Shanahan.
Why?
He said it’s consistency in a coaching staff that enables the building of a winning culture, which he hopes the Jacksonville Jaguars will maintain in his third season with the team and his second playing for coach Liam Coen and defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile.
“It’s something that has been needed here in Jacksonville, the consistency in coaching,” the Jaguars defensive lineman said July 7 during an appearance on “Players Point” with Carolina Panthers long snapper J.J. Jansen, a radio series on the NFL’s Sirius XM channel. “To be able to accrue time together, not have to learn a new scheme and learn new people. So going into year two, it’s an opportunity to take another huge step and switch from learning the scheme … learning what the coaches want to now. I can actually master what the scheme is and master my responsibilities.”
Armstead said Jaguars’ challenge is to maintain success
Armstead played for three coaches in his first three years with the 49ers. San Francisco went 5-11 under Jim Tomsula when he was a rookie in 2015 and 2-14 under Chip Kelly in 2016.
The Niners hired Kyle Shanahan in 2017 and management showed patience during 6-10 and 4-12 seasons. But beginning in 2019 with a 13-3 record and an NFC Championship, Armstead was on four playoff teams in five years, with two NFC titles and two trips to the Super Bowl (losses to Kansas City both times).
Armstead played one season for Doug Pederson after coming to the Jaguars in 2024 when the team went 4-13. But Coen reversed that with a 13-4 record and the AFC South title last year, with Armstead contributing 5.5 sacks, seven tackles for loss and eight quarterback hits.
Armstead said the annual challenge in the NFL is having a short memory, while at the same time embracing what works.
“We had a great season last year … last year doesn’t really mean anything,” he said. “You’ve got to start over and you can’t rest on what you did. There’s going to be some teams this year that get a lot better. There’s going to be some teams that get a lot worse. The challenge for us, coming off a 13-4 season, is what is the next step?
Armstead praised Jaguars coaches for ‘focus’
Armstead said that with a more difficult schedule, the Jaguars might be a better team and still a playoff team without matching last year’s record.
“I don’t think that next step is a better record, per se,” he said. “But being a better football team. The ball bounces your way sometimes, [and] sometimes it doesn’t. But how can we be better versions of ourselves in year two? I think that’s the most important thing. Focus on that process and what we need to do to be better and let the results happen.”
Armstead said Coen and the Jaguars staff “have done a great job of keeping us focused on the task at hand” during OTAs and minicamp.
Other Arik Armstead observations
On two-way player Travis Hunter: “He’s probably the most naturally-talented athlete, just pure athlete I’ve been around, and I’ve been around some amazing ones. [Hunter playing two positions] is good for our sport and good for our team. He adds a lot of value on both sides of the football. I think he was starting to hit a stride before he got injured and heading into this offseason, he’s looking extremely well and healing up amazingly.”
On never scoring a touchdown: “Kind of sad. I played both offense and defense in high school but I played offensive and defensive line. My team just ran the ball behind me every play and I used to just pancake people, but never got on the offensive package. I feel like I could definitely do it. Put me out there in a 13 or 14 personnel. Let me block, let me dump one of those safeties … and then let me get a pass, too. I need to pick up a fumble. When it’s all said and done, I definitely got to touch that end zone.”
On WR Brian Thomas Jr.: “The deep ball … the ball’s in the air forever and you are running full speed. There is a skill to it and one of the best I’ve been around is BTJ. That is his best quality, being able to run under a ball and track a deep ball is something I haven’t seen a lot of guys able to do. It’s an underrated skill.”
On the “Sack Summit” later this week in Las Vegas, a camp for defensive linemen: “One hidden added value is the elevation of our position. The defensive line wasn’t a premier position for many years, and it wasn’t until guys made it that way that the game changed. Guys made the position a premier position. Guys like Von [Miller] and guys like Aaron Donald and these guys made the position what it is now … the ability to come together and to talk through some film, to be able to we all watch film with each other. I study other defensive linemen in the NFL, but I am not in their head to know why they did what they did on film.
“Being in the same room with one another and being able to watch film and discuss and have a conversation of what they were going, what their mind was going through when they did certain things out there on the field is, is invaluable for all of us to learn from one another and continue to elevate the position, grow the game.”
On NFL players giving back (Armstead was the 2024 NFL Man of the Year and created the Armstead Academic Project for youth): “Our organization was founded in 2019 with the mission to ensure that every student, no matter their economic status, has access to the resources they need to be successful. Our career camps [are] all about building social capital for youth. How can our youth see what is possible and what is imaginable in their life being successful? We bring high schoolers to companies and corporations and teach them about jobs and careers that they can have, and we create internships for them.
“I am definitely very proud of this era of athletes. There are a lot of great men in this league that go on above and beyond for their communities and want to see people’s lives be better. We have some tremendous men in our league.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Arik Armstead said consistency is crucial for continued Jaguars success
Reporting by Garry Smits, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Garry Smits, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union | USA TODAY Network
