While the Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t in the postseason this month there will be plenty of meaningful football to watch for the team’s fans as they will have the Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl to look forward to for all of the draft addicts. The offseason also means mock drafts will be surfacing left and right on the web, especially from our comrades at USA TODAY.
Thursday, Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz of USA TODAY Sports posted his first mock draft of the year and it was one full of interesting selections. The Jags themselves were able to land two standout players from the best collegiate conference in football, the Southeastern Conference, starting with a successor to Marcell Dareus in Auburn’s Derrick Brown.
9. Jaguars — Derrick Brown, DT, Auburn: No one in college football dominated games on the interior in 2019 quite like Brown, who became a fixture in opposing backfields. With Marcell Dareus a seeming long shot to stick around due to his $22.5 million cap hit, Brown would give Jacksonville a promising player to pair inside with 2018 first-round pick Taven Bryan.
Most Jags fans would agree that Brown falling to the team at the No. 9 pick would be a dream scenario as the Jags struggled mightily to stop the run without Dareus. The powerful Auburn defensive tackle could speed up the process for the Jags’ defense to become elite again like the 2017 unit fans grew to love and maybe he and Bryan could grow into one of the league’s dominant young duos.
Additionally, Brown fits in the sense that the Jags love SEC talent as their last three first-round picks (Bryan, Leonard Fournette, and Josh Allen) were from the conference. It’s a given that they would also be intrigued by his dominance against other elite players in the conference as he was able to rack up 55 total tackles and four sacks while anchoring Auburn’s defensive line.
With their second first-round pick (from the Los Angeles Rams), the Jags were slotted Louisiana State cornerback Kristian Fulton. He’s a player we’ve talked about often here on Jaguars Wire and our own Daniel Griffis did an article on him highlighting his skill set. In a nutshell, his technical skills (footwork and hip fluidity specifically) would make him the perfect candidate to either replace veteran corner A.J. Bouye, who could be a cap casualty (would save the Jags $11.4 million if released), or Tre Herndon, who replaced Jalen Ramsey and played well down the stretch.
20. Jaguars (from Rams) — Kristian Fulton, CB, LSU: It’s hard for a first-round cornerback to be overlooked in his own secondary, but Fulton might not have received his due this year after playing alongside the Thorpe Award winner Delpit and the freshman star Stingley. At some point in the draft, Jacksonville needs to find a replacement for Jalen Ramsey.
When considering Yannick Ngakoue is due for a new deal, the best option may be to release Bouye and convert the saved money into a multi-year deal for Ngakoue. That also would give the Jags two young corners to develop together as Herndon and Fulton have great upside.