The Jacksonville Jaguars are very fortunate to have one of the best coaching staffs in the entire NFL.

Head coach Liam Coen, widely regarded as one of the best offensive coaches in the league, led the Jaguars to a 13-4 record and a surprise AFC South title in 2025. Coen, however, is only one of the Jaguars' coaches coveted by other teams.

Offensive coordinator Grant Udinski is one of the hottest names to get a head coaching job in the inevitable 2027 coaching carousel. Defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile is also considered a future head coach and was interviewed by the Miami Dolphins, Arizona Cardinals, and Baltimore Ravens for their vacant head coaching positions after the 2025 season.

Losing either coordinator to another franchise will certainly be a tough break for Jacksonville, but that is what happens when your team finds success. 

Luckily for the Jaguars, they may already have their next defensive coordinator already on their staff in defensive pass-game coordinator Mathieu Araujo.

Shortly after Campanile announced he would be returning to Jacksonville, the Jaguars made Araujo a new addition to his staff. After spending the past four seasons with the Dolphins, including the previous two as cornerback coach, Araujo was given the title of defensive pass game coordinator with the Jaguars.

In his short time with the Jags, Araujo has already made an impression of both his players and Campanile, who said,

“Coach Araujo has done an incredible job with those guys. Just overall, those meetings, I wish you could be in them. They’re super detailed. He’s a great young coach and I think the guys are really taking to him, and he’s challenging them every day as you see him here in the individual period, so those guys are getting better each day and that’s what they’re all doing. He’s really kind of come up with a good action plan for each guy that way.”

That's a pretty impressive endorsement from one of the NFL's better defensive coordinators.

Araujo has risen quickly through the coaching ranks throughout his career, and that is expected to continue in Jacksonville. He began his coaching career at Maine Maritime Academy in 2015 before moving on to Yale in 2019. Three years later, he was with the Dolphins in the NFL.

While in Miami, Araujo overlapped with both Brian Flores and Vic Fangio, who are two of the best defensive coordinators in NFL history. Learning from Flores and Fangio gives Araujo a clear advantage over other potential DCs.

Araujo is clearly on a fast track to becoming a defensive coordinator. If Campanile does get a head coaching job in 2027, the Jaguars will probably need to promote Araujo or risk losing him to another franchise. It is highly possible that Campanile could try to make Araujo the DC of his new team.

If the Jaguars don't want to lose Araujo, they will need to act swiftly in naming him the team's next defensive coordinator. If they don't, another team surely will.

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