Jaguars DT Sen’Derrick Marks feels ‘slapped in the face’ by lack of playing time

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks dealt with injuries in 2015 and battled his way back to be a contributor again in 2016, but he’s getting phased out of the defensive rotation and he’s not happy about it.

“[Watching] is not my game,” Marks told Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union. “I’ve flat-out done a lot for this organization and to be slapped in the face – I was on the sideline for the majority of the game and I didn’t like it.”

Marks joined the Jaguars in 2013 on a cheap, one-year deal worth $1.5 million. By the end of the season, he proved he was worth a four-year, $18 million contract that included another $4 million in available incentive-based pay.

He validated that deal with 8.5 sacks in 2014 — including a walk-off, game-winning sack that earned him $600,000 — but the defensive tackle suffered a torn ACL in the team’s Week 17 finale.

The recovery from the injury cost him time at the beginning of the 2015 season and a torn triceps ended his season after only four games. In the offseason, the Jaguars signed Malik Jackson to an $85.5 million deal and drafted Sheldon Day in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL draft.

While Marks has played well in 2016 now that he’s healthy, he’s no longer a starter with Jackson in town and he’s losing snaps to Day as well.

According to O’Halloran, Marks averaged 31.9 snaps in the first eight games of the season, but still entered Week 10 third on the team in combined sacks, pressures, and hits with eight — behind only Yannick Ngakoue and Jackson, respectively.

But even with that production, Marks’ play time was slashed even more and he was on the field for just 23 of the 63 snaps against the Houston Texans offense Sunday. Fourth-year defensive tackle Abry Jones was on the field for a season-high 41 snaps after averaging 25.9 in the first eight games and Jackson was in on 46 snaps — his most since Week 5.

Much of the snap-count shuffle likely had to do with the matchup against the Texans, who have struggled to pass the ball, but are dangerous on the ground with Lamar Miller. Jones is a bigger, run-stuffing defensive tackle, but Marks told the Florida Times-Union that his frustrations have been “simmering for a while.”

Given Jacksonville’s 2-7 record, there are plenty of frustrations to go around. But Marks probably should’ve seen this coming the moment the team gave Jackson a blockbuster deal. The Jaguars are going to maximize the value they can get out of their biggest offseason addition, and it makes perfect sense for a bad team to use a 25-year-old (Jones) and 22-year-old (Day) more than a 29-year-old (Marks).