JACKSONVILLE – He's showing growth, which matters for Maason Smith.

It's important for the Jaguars, too, with the rookie defensive tackle playing increasingly extensively – and increasingly productively – as the 2024 regular season approaches an end.

He's showing signs of being a force where the Jaguars need one.

"Every time I go out there, I put my best foot forward and continue to grow, continue to get better," Smith said as the Jaguars (3-12) prepared to play the Tennessee Titans (3-12) at the EverBank Stadium Sunday.

Smith in recent weeks has done just that, getting extensive playing time after often being inactive early in the season. He registered his second sack of the season this past Sunday in an impressive performance in a 19-14 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium In Las Vegas.

"I thought Maason played well," Jaguars Head Coach Doug Pederson said. "He had some really good plays in the game. He's improving each week. Probably, I would say, his best game to date."

Smith, a second-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, started a third consecutive game Sunday. He registered a sack, a quarterback hit and two tackles for loss.

"For me, it's just getting the reps," Smith said. "I feel like repetition makes perfection. So just doing it a lot more times helps me out. Ultimately it helped me out in my play [Monday]."

Sunday's game continued a recent stretch of increased opportunity, with Smith having played the last four games after being inactive six times this season. That stretch included five consecutive games, with multiple games missed because of an ankle injury.

"I choose not to really worry about that type of stuff – things that are out of my control," Smith said of being inactive when healthy. "I try to stay away from it, putting my mind on the things that are bad or things that haven't happened for me this season."

Smith said his growth this season has stemmed from "just really having a process," which he said improved dramatically around midseason – before which he said, "I was kind of winging it to a point, not necessarily getting in the facility as early as maybe I needed to or just going off of somebody else's routine."

Smith said veteran players such as defensive ends Josh Hines-Allen and Arik Armstead and defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton influenced him positively throughout the season.

"I had to take it into myself and find my own process and ask guys who have been doing it at a high level for a minute now what their process was and just configure my own – whether that's workouts, eating right, stuff like that," he said. "When we got back from London is when I really started to try to find that. After that, it kind of made me take a step back and look at it from the outside looking in, so I had to change some things.

"They all really just kind of took me under their wing. They've been doing it at a high level for a long time, so just seeing that, it makes sense for me, to try to make some process of mine – just being able to pick and choose what things that they do that I like and kind of just making my own plan."

NOTABLE

• The Jaguars' schedule this week won't change significantly despite Christmas falling on Wednesday, Pederson said. Jaguars players reported for lifting and treatment as normal on Monday, with Tuesday their weekly off day. "We're going to work Wednesday afternoon for a short period of time – get our work in Wednesday, get them out of the building," Pederson said. "Obviously spend Christmas morning at home and be with their families, be with their children in the morning, and then come in here in the afternoon, knock out our Wednesday schedule and then be home for Christmas dinner. Then, Thursday and Friday are normal. We've done this in the past when Christmas falls on what we call our workday, and it has worked really good. So, we'll get them in here for a short period of time, get the work done and get them out."

QUOTABLE

• Running back Tank Bigsby on staying focused as the end of the regular season approaches: "We just have to finish these next two weeks strong and worry about the offseason when it gets here. Cancel all the things that you have planned for the offseason, and focus on these next two weeks and give it all we've got. I feel like if we do that, we'll go 2-0, and we just have to do that first. Just focus on where our feet are at, be where our feet are at and execute."