Category: Tyson Campbell

Poll: Who will start opposite Shaquill Griffin in 2021?

Who will win the outside cornerback job between C.J. Henderson and Tyson Campbell?

Jacksonville has at least one bit of certainty in the secondary heading into 2021: free-agent addition Shaquill Griffin. After signing with the Jaguars on a three-year, $40 million deal that pays him like a top-15 corner, he is expected to be a starter this fall.

But who will occupy the cornerback spot on the other side? That’s a question that’s a bit more interesting. Conventional wisdom would say C.J. Henderson, who the Jags took ninth overall in 2020. An injury-limited rookie season was largely unimpressive for Henderson, but the team still hopes he can develop into the top-tier corner it drafted him to be.

However, he won’t reclaim his spot unchallenged after finishing the year on the injured reserve (he’s also recovering from surgery this offseason). With the first pick in the second round in 2021, Jacksonville selected Georgia cornerback Tyson Campbell, who could certainly push Henderson to start.

The Jags have hinted that they may see a future for Campbell at nickel rather than on the outside (and his experience playing safety in high school could help with that transition), but it would be a major change for him. He lined up almost exclusively on the outside at Georgia (where players are crossed-trained under Kirby Smart), and the Jaguars invested a lot in him to try and play him outside of his natural position.

It’s fair to say the selection of Campbell was a bit of an insurance policy on Henderson, though they are far from mutually exclusive players. The team definitely drafted Henderson to replace Jalen Ramsey on the outside, but he probably has more versatility than Campbell and could likely handle a move to the nickel with more ease.

But that’s not where the team expected him to play when it picked him ninth, and most of Henderson’s experience has come on the outside, as well. So, it will certainly be interesting to see who can separate themselves in camp.

Do you think it will be Henderson or Campbell? Or will someone else, such as Tre Herndon or Sidney Jones, surprise everyone and win the job? Let us know in the poll below.

[polldaddy poll=10870129]

PFF not high on Jags’ secondary heading into 2021 season

Pro Football Focus ranked Jacksonville’s new-and-improved secondary just 27th, indicating that it doesn’t think the unit will improve much.

When the Jacksonville Jaguars made their run to the AFC title game in 2017, the secondary was at the core of an all-time defense. Led by young star Jalen Ramsey with a strong supporting cast that included A.J. Bouye, Tashaun Gipson, and Barry Church, the unit finished second in the league in interceptions with 21 on the year.

But now, all those players are gone. Ramsey and Bouye were traded, and Gipson and Church were released after their play dropped off. The team used one of the first-round picks it netted from the Ramsey trade to select his replacement last year in C.J. Henderson, who notched an interception in the season opener and loose impressive but struggled at times after that. Injuries also held him out of eight games.

Despite playing most defensive snaps when he was healthy, his impact could’ve been better for a selection taken in the top-10, and Jacksonville’s passing defense suffered. The patchwork unit finished as the sixth-worst defense against the air attack.

This offseason, Jacksonville completely revamped the unit. Henderson might be the only incumbent starter that will retain his role, and the group has a good mix of veterans and young players with potential. Still, that’s not enough to convince Pro Football Focus that the Jags’ secondary is significantly better as we approach the preseason. In its preseason power rankings of defensive backfields, the Jaguars came in at the No. 27 spot.

Jacksonville certainly hasn’t ignored its secondary over the past two offseasons. Between the additions of C.J. Henderson, Tyson Campbell and Andre Cisco in the draft and Shaquill Griffin and Rayshawn Jenkins in free agency, it’s a completely rebuilt unit.

There are some questions about how those pieces fit together in new defensive coordinator Joe Cullen’s scheme, though. None of Henderson, Griffin and Campbell is a natural fit in the slot, but they are the three cornerbacks the Jaguars should want on the field. It’s also worth monitoring Jacksonville’s volume of man coverage early in the year. Griffin, in particular, has graded much better throughout his career in zone (81.3 coverage grade) than man (37.0 coverage grade).

Though Jacksonville retained a lot of the players who saw significant action with Henderson’s injury, like Tre Herndon and Sidney Jones, they were likely relegated to depth when the team brought in Griffin from Seattle. The 25-year-old had a career-high three interceptions last year despite only appearing in 12 games, and he was rewarded with a big-time deal from the Jags.

Griffin has a lot less to prove than Henderson, who showed promise but far from reassured the Jaguars that they made the right call selecting him ninth. The selection of Campbell from Georgia to lead off the second round was a bit curious given the presence of Henderson and Griffin, but it will likely put pressure on the former to improve in his second year.

The safety duo could also be totally different, as Jenkins comes in after contributing quite a bit in his four years with the Chargers, and Cisco, a third-round pick, is a risk/reward player coming off an ACL injury. Health limited him to just 24 games in college at Syracuse, but there was a time when he was considered a first-round prospect and one of the top safeties in the draft. If Jacksonville gets that level of play from him, this will be one of the biggest steals of the entire draft.

This is still a young group, and its play will largely depend on the development of Henderson and the other young players expected to play significantly this year. But from a production standpoint, it’s hard to imagine the unit won’t improve and surpass its current ranking from PFF.

Former NFL DB Darius Butler thinks Tyson Campbell is a better fit as a perimeter CB

Though Urban Meyer has said the team’s second-round pick could see action at nickel, Darius Butler thinks that would be a mistake.

Jacksonville had many directions it could have gone with the 33rd overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft. With safety Trevon Moehrig, defensive tackle Christian Barmore and offensive tackle Teven Jenkins all falling out of the first round, the Jaguars could have selected any one of them with that pick.

Instead, the team made a move that came as a bit of a surprise (especially to national analysts) in drafting Georgia cornerback Tyson Campbell. It’s a position the team has invested heavily in over the last two years, drafting C.J. Henderson in the top 10 last year and giving Shaquill Griffin a three-year contract that guarantees $29 million this offseason.

But on the “Cris Collinsworth Podcast,” coach Urban Meyer said that Campbell’s versatility (he also played safety in high school) was the driving factor leading to his selection. Asked if it was an “insurance policy” for Henderson, Meyer said that Campbell’s ability to play nickel makes him more than that.

“It is, but no — I wouldn’t say ‘insurance policy,'” Meyer said, according to transcription from 247Sports. “It’s an ‘insurance policy,’ the fact that guys get dinged up at that position. Last year was a tough year for us. We had a lot of injuries back there. But it’s also — the thing Tyson Campbell gives us is flexibility, something other than (cornerback). He was a safety in high school and he’s a very physical player, great blitzer. Those are all the qualities of a nickel.

“I love the guy,” Meyer said, according to Pro Football Focus on Twitter. “We’re going to dual teach him out of the gate at corner and nickel.”

Though his athletic profile may allow him to play both inside and outside, Campbell played on the perimeter in college (though Georgia cross-trains players in practice), and most analysts projected that’s where he would play in the pros. Former NFL defensive back Darius Butler, who played nine seasons in the league for the New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts, said on Twitter that playing Campbell at nickel would be a mistake.

“BIG MISTAKE! Put him outside and let him figure that out first,” he said. “They do have a “Nickel” Coach on the staff but still a big mistake IMO.”

It’s easy to see where Butler is coming from. Adjusting to the speed of the professional level and stylistic differences in the passing game is hard enough for defensive backs playing at their most natural position. But it sounds like Meyer and the staff want him to play at a position he didn’t even play much of in college — and likely sooner rather than later.

The Jags still have considerable depth issues in the secondary, and they wouldn’t have invested the first pick in the second round in Campbell if they didn’t think he’d be a major contributor in Year 1. But Butler, who played most of his career at cornerback and moved to safety his final season, knows how difficult a position change can be in the NFL. If Campbell is going to be a successful nickelback, his work is cut out for him.