JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen was on the EverBank Stadium field early in the spring of 2022 thinking about the legacy he wanted to build.
He was by himself, refining the techniques that would eventually help him become one of the NFL’s best pass rushers. During a rest period, he looked around the stadium and read the names of the six players who have been inducted into the Pride of the Jaguars — the club’s ring of honor — hoping his name would join them someday.
At that moment, it seemed far away.
“I was working really hard. I was waking up really early,” Hines-Allen remembered. “And I’m looking up there and I’m seeing [Hall of Fame offensive tackle] Tony Boselli and I’m seeing all these guys. I’m like, ‘I’m going to put my name up there.'”
While he delivered one of the team’s most critical plays later that following season — returning a fumble for a touchdown in Week 18 to help the Jaguars win the AFC South — Hines-Allen wasn’t seeing the progress he’d hoped would result from all the extra training. He finished the season with half a sack less (7) than the season before (7.5). As a result, he worked harder last offseason.
All the work he was doing paid off in 2023. Hines-Allen recorded a franchise-record 17.5 sacks, which was tied for second in the NFL behind Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt. He also had career highs in QB pressures (96) and pressure rate (19.6%). That performance earned him his second Pro Bowl selection and a five-year, $141.25 million contract extension this offseason. And now, entering his sixth NFL season, he needs just 10.5 more sacks to break the Jaguars’ career record (55) set by Tony Brackens.
Hines-Allen, 27, has set a standard for himself. If he can continue that in 2024 and beyond remains to be seen — but he’s motivated by legacy.
Hines-Allen talks often about building his legacy on and off the field. It’s why he changed his last name from Allen to Hines-Allen this offseason and why it’s important for him to live up to (and surpass) his family’s athletic lineage. It’s why he played in a Kentucky bowl game despite being a top draft prospect. And it’s why he wants to be the defensive player of the year, win a Super Bowl with the Jaguars and be selected the game’s MVP.
What Hines-Allen did in 2023 is a great start, but must keep duplicating it to get where he — and the Jaguars — want to go. Head coach Doug Pederson compared him to Hall of Famer Reggie White in his attention to detail, the way he puts in extra work, and how important it is for him to be a great player. White was a game-wrecker throughout his career, and that’s what Hines-Allen needs to be.
“The challenge is for any player in that position, that has had success the year before is, can you do it again?” Pederson said. “And you have to do it again.”
That’s how you leave your mark on the game.
“I’m a legacy type of guy,” Hines-Allen said. “I want to leave a legacy everywhere I go.”
UNTIL THIS OFFSEASON, he was known just as Josh Allen — using only his father’s surname. Recently he went through a months-long process to legally change his name to pay tribute to his mother’s last name and honor the legacy of the Hines family.
Hines-Allen grew up in Montclair, New Jersey, listening to stories about his uncle Gregory “Duncan” Hines’ exploits on the basketball court and watching his three older sisters excel at Montclair High School and go on to play college basketball.
Hines, who was inducted into the Hampton University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009 (his 1,967 points are still second all time), was drafted by Golden State in 1983. He never played for the Warriors but did play professionally for 12 years.
But it’s Myisha Hines-Allen whom Josh considers as his measuring stick.
“My whole goal as an athlete is to beat my sister,” he said.
Josh’s older sister starred at Louisville and was a second-round pick (No. 19 overall) by the WNBA’s Washington Mystics in 2018. Myisha — who was traded from the Mystics to the Minnesota Lynx earlier this month — is now in her seventh season and won the WNBA title in 2019.
“The football achievements are very cool, and I love going home and I love looking at the trophies and seeing the work that I put in, but that doesn’t mean anything until I beat my sister,” he added.
“… She goes into the league [WNBA]. What’s my step? I have to go. She gets drafted. I remember that night. I was like, I have to get drafted higher. Got drafted higher than her. Cool. Now I’m up on her, and then she wins a championship. I’m like, ‘Well s—, I’ve got to win a championship.’ And the MVP once we get there. A Super Bowl and an MVP.”
Myisha, 28, is flattered but not surprised. The two have been competing against each other — and their siblings — their entire lives.
“It’s just the annoying little brother aspect,” she joked. “… It doesn’t matter what we were doing, whether it’s sports or just life in general, who can walk to school the fastest, things like that. So, it was always just wanting to one-up the next.”
WHEN HE WALKED onto Kentucky’s campus in 2015, Hines-Allen told head coach Mark Stoops that he wanted to be the best player Stoops ever coached.
Hines-Allen played in every game over four years (35 starts) at Kentucky. By the end, he was one of the nation’s best players, winning the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year award, the Bronko Nagurski Award, the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Ronnie Lott IMPACT Trophy, and the Jack Lambert Award after leading the SEC with 17 sacks. Entering the draft, he was regarded as a lock to be a top-10 pick.
Stoops said it’s something Hines-Allen told him while driving home from the airport after winning one of those awards that represents the kind of legacy he left in Lexington.
Kentucky was preparing to face Penn State in the 2018 Citrus Bowl and a victory would give the Wildcats 10 victories for the first time since 1977.
“He could have very easily just said, ‘Man, there’s just too much going on right now,'” Stoops said. “And he was very matter of fact and very to the point like, ‘Nope, I’m playing.’ And that’s it. And not only did he play, he went out there and he had three sacks and helped us to beat Penn State, win 10 games. So that’s just who he is.”
And now, Stoops said Hines-Allen — who is Kentucky’s all-time sacks leader (31.5) — is one of three players he’d consider the best who have played for him, along with safeties Ed Reed and Sean Taylor, both of whom he coached while he was an assistant at the University of Miami.
“When I took over Ed, he was already an All-American,” Stoops said, “and with Josh, I helped him come from a two-star from [Montclair] to come to Kentucky and shine in the SEC and become one of, if not the best player in Kentucky history.
“And definitely either the best or one of the very best I’ve ever coached.”
HINES-ALLEN WAS DRAFTED No. 7 overall by the Jaguars in 2019. He set a franchise rookie record with 10.5 sacks and made the Pro Bowl in his first season but dealt with a knee injury in 2020 that landed him on injured reserve. Over the next two seasons, he had 14.5 sacks combined and had fleeting moments where he was a game-changing player.
Last season, playing on the last year of his contract, Hines-Allen broke the Jaguars’ single-season sack record (14.5; set by Calais Campbell in 2017). Three months after that standout performance, the Jaguars rewarded Hines-Allen with a massive five-year contract.
It’s unfair to expect Hines-Allen to hit 17.5 sacks again in 2024, but he’s in a good situation to reach double-digits again and pass Brackens. Travon Walker, who is coming off a career season (10 sacks), is on the opposite side of the formation and the Jaguars added defensive end Arik Armstead (33 career sacks) in March. Offenses won’t be able to concentrate on stopping only Hines-Allen with those two by his side.
New coordinator Ryan Nielsen has been with Hines-Allen for only seven months, but what he has seen in that time is enough to convince him the awards and accolades Hines-Allen seeks are attainable.
“It’s all about practice, work, preparation, how he is in the meetings,” Nielsen said. “Then go out there and win every block. That’s really what it’s about: Do your job on every block. Not necessarily make every play, but just win every block.
“He’s fully capable of doing that, but that takes focus, takes determination, a little bit of toughness rolled in there — and he has it.”
But if Hines-Allen wants to be considered the best defensive player in franchise history, he must surpass Brackens’ sack record.
“[Brackens] has been the sack leader for more than 20 years. No one’s even come close,” said Brian Sexton, a Jaguars historian and the franchise’s original radio play-by-play announcer who is now a senior correspondent for the team. “If you ask Boselli or you ask anyone who played with him … anytime he put his hand on the ground, he changed the course of the game — or he could change the course of the game.
“And Josh has the ability to be that kind of player. He showed it to us a little bit in 2022, a lot more in 2023. … And that’s what we have to see from Josh to be the best player on the defensive side in franchise history.”
And potentially one of the best in NFL history, Campbell said.
“He’s going to continue to get better and better and I think he has a shot to get a gold jacket one day,” Campbell said. ” … The guys who are the best players in the league, the thing that motivates them is legacy.”
But on the field, it always comes back to one thing: one-upping Myisha.
“My sister has won a professional championship, so she’s up on me,” he said. “… I’m not going to stop until I get that. That’s motivating me. That’s bigger than money.
“For me, if I can do that and bring the first [Super Bowl] win to Jacksonville, and be MVP, that’s my goal. I’m not stopping until I get there.”