Dexter Lawrence a ‘force’ up front

4. Familiarity with Doug Pederson

Last week, defensive coordinator Wink Martindale faced his former team in the Baltimore Ravens. Martindale spent 10 seasons with the Ravens, leaving Baltimore only a few weeks before joining the Giants. It may not be quite the same situation this week, but offensive coordinator Mike Kafka has some ties to the Jacksonville Jaguars sideline.

Kafka began his NFL playing career with the Philadelphia Eagles from 2010-11. During those two seasons, Doug Pederson, Jacksonville’s head coach, was serving on Andy Reid’s coaching staff, first as offensive quality control coach and then as quarterbacks coach. Because of their roles, Kafka and Pederson worked closely together, obviously, as Pederson was once an NFL quarterback, as well.

“Doug is great,” said the offensive coordinator. “Great person. He’s a great football coach. He sees the game through the quarterback’s eyes being an ex-quarterback, so that was always great. His meetings were very detailed. I loved playing for Doug.”

On the field, Pederson has helped transform the Jaguars’ offense. Jacksonville ranked last in points and 28th in yards last year. Through six games, the unit ranks 15th in points and 11th in yards, while second-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence has looked significantly better. The 2021 first overall pick has completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 1,397 yards (232.8 yards per game), nine touchdowns and four interceptions, and added two scores on the ground in last week’s loss. Martindale believes Pederson was the perfect coach to help Lawrence improve his game.

“I think that it’s a perfect marriage between he and Doug and Mike McCoy, the quarterback coach,” said the defensive coordinator. “Doug has always had a good quarterback and they always play well with his offense. It’s pretty cool to see just because of how much I respect Doug and Trevor because he was the first player taken in the draft. You know he has talent.”

5. Saquon ‘managing’ shoulder; Toney getting better

Saquon Barkley has been tremendous this season. The fifth-year running back leads the NFL with 771 total yards from scrimmage, and is the only player with 85+ total yards in every game this year. Barkley was briefly forced out of the Week 5 win over Green Bay when he injured his shoulder, but returned to the field and ended up scoring the game-winning touchdown. The talented back was a limited participant in practice last week and ended up playing 88 percent of the snaps against Baltimore,…