Billy Napier is toying with options to fill snaps lost to Jamari Lyons injury

Billy Napier confirmed yesterday that defensive lineman Jamari Lyons broke his ankle during Saturday's scrimmage and will miss the 2024 season. The former four-star prospect out of Vierra High took 198 snaps last season in a rotational role and was positioned to take about the same number of snaps in 2024.

In a vacuum, the Gators should have players who can step up, but replacing the versatility of Lyons will be a challenge for Florida in 2024.

Florida Football: Move Around

During his press conference, Napier highlighted the flexibility Lyons has to play both inside and along the end.

"There will be some adjustment. But the biggest thing was Jamari (Lyons) can play nose and end. That's where we're going to have to shuffle the deck a little bit."

To that point, last year Lyons lined up in the A gap 76 times and in the B gap 110 times, according to Pro Football Focus. He was better at stopping the run than he was getting to the QB, but having a guy who can eat up snaps at multiple spots as needed does add value to the team.

Napier hinted Michai Boireau and Kelby Collins would be the next guys up to take on the snaps Lyons was going to get.

Boireau is a true freshman who has had quite the journey to fall camp. Listed at 6'5" and 351 pounds, he was committed to Florida, then de-committed in September and re-committed in December. On paper, he would take the inside snaps Lyons took.

Collins had 274 snaps last season, with all but 46 of those snaps coming out wide. He had three sacks and 15 hurries as a true freshman and could inherit the outside snaps from Lyons.

Napier also mentioned the possibility of moving Tyreak Sapp back inside. Sapp played EDGE last year in the wake of the injury to Justus Boone after playing inside during the 2022 campaign. Sapp was solid in spots along the outside, but his "win rate" of 7.7% was bottom half in the country among defensive ends who had at least 100 pass rush attempts.

And while there isn't a ton of depth along the outside, and Sapp is a potential starter along the outside this year, Napier may feel he can get close enough production from guys like Collins, Kamram James, or five-star freshman LJ McCray then it may make sense to try and push Sapp back inside.

If all of this sounds complicated, the moral is that Lyons was slated to take about 15 to 20 snaps per game, and Napier has multiple pathways to fill those snaps.