Heading into the first offseason with Urban Meyer as the head coach, a lot of the narrative has been centered around what the first-time NFL coach has to learn in his new position. Meyer has even framed that narrative a bit himself, saying that he “learned a lot” and “asked a lot of questions” during this year’s process.
But Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said that Meyer’s experience as a college recruiter actually helped the team quite a bit during the draft. Most of the players in this draft were recruits in either the 2017 or 2018 recruiting classes. Meyer was the head coach at Ohio State at that time, and because of that, he had at least some familiarity with a number of players in this class, not just former Buckeyes.
“It helped a lot,” Baalke said. “When you look at what [Seahawks Head Coach] Coach Carroll was able to do when he first went to Seattle, his understanding of that group of young men that he had heavily been involved with in their recruiting process. I think you get to know them at a different level, especially in the situation we’re currently in with COVID and the inability to get in front of these guys. Having all that previous knowledge of these guys as they came through high school made a huge difference.”
This can be illustrated by Meyer’s comments about second-round pick cornerback Tyson Campbell, a five-star recruit in the 2018 class who eventually signed with Georgia. Meyer said that one of the main reasons the team decided to select him was the versatility he demonstrated in high school by playing both corner and safety, and he indicated that the team will look to play him at the nickel spot.
“The thing Tyson Campbell gave is flexibility at something other — he was a safety in high school and he’s a very physical player, great blitzer,” Meyer said. “Those are all qualities of the nickel. They’re very hard to find.”
Of course, it remains to be seen if Meyer’s insights during this draft lead to positive outcomes on the field, but it seems that while Meyer has had to tackle a bit of learning curve with the draft process, he was able to contribute significantly with his own area of expertise.