JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jacksonville Jaguars are not picking up the fifth-year option for defensive end Dante Fowler Jr.'s contract, so the third overall pick in 2015 will become an unrestricted free agent after the 2018 season.
Fowler had a career-high 8.0 sacks during the 2017 regular season and two in an AFC Championship Game loss to New England, but the fifth-year option would have been worth $14.2 million in 2019. That would have been guaranteed for injury only, before becoming fully guaranteed if Fowler were on the roster when the 2019 league year began.
"We do like Dante and we feel that he's on the verge of having a great season," said Tom Coughlin, the Jaguars' executive VP of football operations. "He is making good progress and we like how he practices and how he plays, as he did in the AFC Championship Game, and we want him to have a great season and earn a new long-term contract with us this year."
Fowler missed his rookie season with a torn left ACL and had 4.0 sacks in 2016. He has started just one game in his career, though he's a major part of the pass-rush rotation.
Fowler has had several off-field issues. In March, he pleaded no contest to charges of battery, criminal mischief and petit theft stemming from an arrest last July in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. Fowler was sentenced to a year of probation and 75 hours of community service and was fined $925, according to court records.
That was Fowler's third off-field incident in 17 months. He also was arrested in Miami Beach in March 2016 and charged with assault against a police officer/EMT and resisting arrest without violence. The misdemeanor charges were dropped in December 2016 after he completed a pretrial intervention program.
A month before that, a video surfaced on TMZ.com of Fowler apparently refereeing a fight between his girlfriend and the mother of his child. The NFL investigated the matter, but Fowler was not disciplined by the league and he released a statement apologizing for his actions.