The Jacksonville Jaguars are coming off a mildly surprising season that saw them in contention for the AFC South division title into December. 

With the emergence of Blake Bortles, Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns, Jacksonville boasts an elite-level trio of young playmakers on the offensive side of the ball. 

It is, however, on defense where this team has struggled a great deal. That was magnified by the loss of then rookie top-five pick Dante Fowler for his entire first season after an injury during the summer. This is where the team's focus is going to be heading into the offseason, the defense. 

In continuing with this 32 article series, here's a look at the top needs for the Jacksonville Jaguars as well as a seven-round mock draft we ran through the FanSpeak mock draft simulator. We manually picked for Jacksonville while the picks for all other 31 teams were selected by the simulator. 

1. Cornerback

Aaron Colvin and Davon House are currently the team's two starting corners. While both are acceptable as part of a rotation, neither strikes me as a true No. 1 guy. In reality, the Jaguars would be much better off relegating one of these guys to a nickel role. Outside of that, there's a shocking lack of talent at corner on a Jaguars defense that finished this past season yielding the fourth-most passing yards in the NFL. 

2. Middle Linebacker

It should be a defensive-centric draft for the Jaguars this upcoming April. After all, this team has some of the best talent on the offensive side of the ball in the NFL. One of the biggest areas of concern is going to be middle linebacker. Paul Posluszny has been good enough. But at 31 years old and no real upside from his slightly above-average performances over the past few seasons, the Jaguars are going to look for a dynamic young upgrade — something that's currently not on the roster. 

3. Defensive End

2015 top-five pick Dante Fowler Jr. will act as a boon for the Jaguars' pass rush after missing his entire rookie season with a torn ACL. Here's a team that did a somewhat decent job getting to the quarterback in 2015, recording 36 tackles. However, it was more of a committee thing than anything else. Not a single player recorded more than 5.5 sacks with a total of nine putting up two-plus sacks. 

Fowler might be that guy who takes this defense to the next level from a pass-rush standpoint, but he sure could use a running partner in Gus Bradley's hybrid 4-3 scheme. That could come early in April's draft. 

4. Guard

Releasing Zane Beadles was a logical move for the Jaguars, but his absence does leave a hole at guard. After all, Beadles started all 32 games after Jacksonville signed him from the Broncos in 2014. With 2015 third-round pick A.J. Cann slotted in as the starting right tackle, the area that's going to have to be addressed is along the left side of the line. Luke Bowanko could very well be the answer there, but the least Jacksonville can do is add needed competition. 

5. Safety

Johnathan Cyprien continues to struggle from a coverage standpoint at strong safety, but that's something Jacksonville can deal with due to his ability against the run. The larger issue is at free safety where Sergio Brown is nowhere near the answer. Much like a vast majority of teams around the NFL, Jacksonville needs an upgrade from a coverage perspective. The largest issue is that there's not much to see here in the draft — an indication that the Jaguars will either stick with Brown or hit a watered-down free-agent market for an upgrade.