Jacksonville Jaguars v New Orleans Saints – NFL Preseason 2025
The Jacksonville Jaguars have released safety Darnell Savage, per an official team announcement. No corresponding move was made, indicating they simply viewed this decision as addition by subtraction.
Savage saw a limited reps through the first two weeks of this season, logging just a 36 percent defensive snap share rate. It was a sharp decline from his near-every-down role with the Jaguars in 2024 and his previous five years with the Green Bay Packers. He ostensibly fell out of favor with Jacksonville’s new regime, though cutting him outright with nothing in the hopper raises red flags.
Packers fans are left scratching their heads, wondering how Savage has experienced such a steep fall from grace. This is someone Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst selected No. 21 overall pick in the 2019 draft, and he’s suddenly becoming an afterthought.
Jaguars surprisingly release ex-Packers first-round pick Darnell Savage
Injuries limited the former Maryland standout to 10 contests in his final campaign with the Packers in 2023, and he never lived up to his first-round expectations in Green Bay. Pro Football Focus (PFF) gave him a solid 75.5 overall defensive grade across 701 total snaps ($).
Savage failed to live up to the three-year, $21.75 million contract the Jags signed him to in free agency last offseason. The once-promising Packers defensive back struggles in coverage, and his lack of size is exploitable in the run game.
For what it’s worth, letting Savage go could be more about Jacksonville’s first-year general manager and head coach, James Gladstone and Liam Coen, cleaning house. The veteran was a holdover from the previous administration, led by much-maligned ex-Jaguars executive Trent Baalke.
It’d be hard to blame the current brain trust for wanting to do things their way, especially given the work in progress situation they inherited.
Andrew Wingard, a core Jags special teamer, seemingly did enough to win over Coen and Co. So much so that they were comfortably parting ways with Savage. Notably, the former went undrafted the same spring the Packers chose the latter in Round 1 — talk about a full-circle moment.
Kudos to Wingard for carving out a carer in the NFL and working his way up the ranks in Jacksonville. Nonetheless, his rise can also be seen as a scathing indictment of Savage, who’s now hoping to latch on somewhere as a depth piece.
