JACKSONVILLE – Toughness and violence will be watchwords.

When it comes to explaining his approach, new Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile talks little about scheme and a lot about play style. And make no mistake:

Campanile believes the Jaguars' players fit his style.

"It's a pretty good fit," he said.

Campanile, the Jaguars' new defensive coordinator, on Thursday met with local media for the first time in his new position – speaking along with new offensive coordinator Grant Udinski and special teams coordinator Heath Farwell.

"I couldn't be more excited about this opportunity, really to work with these guys," Campanile said.

Campanile, in his first NFL coordinator position, spoke of a multiple scheme – and also about the aggressive style that is his vision for improving a defense that ranked as one of the NFL's worst in 2024.

"You've got guys who take pride in not getting blocked," Campanile said. "The most important thing you talk about when you talk about defense is your play style. My vision for us defensively, we want to be a tough, fast, physical, violent-at-the-point-of-attack team.

"Everybody talks about running to the ball. I don't think there's another person in the world who believes in running to the ball more than I do. But you can't run to the ball if you don't get off the blocks, and that is something that's going to be celebrated in our room.

"It's going to be celebrated in the culture of our team."

Campanile continued, "There's a point in every play where somebody tries to block you. Your passion to not stay blocked is really what makes plays on defense. Coaching, scheme, all that stuff — that's great, really important. But players win the game, and the violence at the point of attack, the effort, the strain, and the finish that it takes to not stay blocked and run to the football—that's what really creates a great defense."

Campanile, too, discussed forcing takeaways. The Jaguars, after forcing 27 turnovers in 2022 and again in 2023, finished 32nd in the NFL in the category in 2024 with nine.

"A lot of that comes from vision on the ball," Campanile said. "When you have vision on the ball, you have a better opportunity to create takeaways. Guys that have great ball awareness and the guys that strain as a team, the units that really strain that – how many attempts are you making on the ball, whether that's punching the ball, violent contact on the ball … all those things can factor into takeaways.

"You have to do a really good job studying that and presenting that information visually to the players. There is a technique and a coaching philosophy to that."

Campanile said while he has watched extensive video of the defense from last season, the staff – having been finalized late last week – is still on the "front end" of the process of evaluating the roster.

"Just looking at the players, looking at the roster, that'd probably be the most exciting part of it for me," he said. "I'm amped up in every which way. We want guys that are going to play with their shoulders square, be able to read everybody's number and name tag every play, and attack contact, and never turn it down. Those are tenants of a great defense.

"I watched that on the tape. When I watched the guys here, I see a lot of that. I see great effort, great strain. Meeting these guys, we've got a lot of great people in here, guys I'm excited to coach."

QUOTABLE

• Campanile: "I don't want any drills that end without a tackle or a takeaway or an attempt at a takeaway. Every play is going to end that way. That's what we're shooting for. We're shooting for violent finish on a tackle, violently trying to separate somebody from the ball when the ball's in the air, or violently trying to take the ball away at the point of attack. We need to be drilling that every day, and that's on me to make sure we are."

NOTABLE

• Among the tasks facing the Jaguars' coaching staff next season: Improving a running game that Head Coach Liam Coen considers a priority. The Jaguars last season ranked 26th in the NFL with 101.7 yards rushing a game and 19th in the NFL with 4.4 yards per carry. "We'll be multiple," Udinski said. "We want to be a complete offense in the sense that we have the ability to attack defenses in a variety of ways, whether in the run game or the pass game or screen game. You need all the tools in the bag. It comes down to how can we take what our guys execute, what our guys execute well, and put those players in the best position for success. The run game is a piece of that because we never want to become one-dimensional. We always want to be dictating and having the ability to run the ball and run on our terms and be attacking."