Tag: Daniel Thomas

New Jags safety Rudy Ford discusses reunion with Daniel Thomas and more

One of the Jaguars’ latest free-agent additions, Rudy Ford, talked about what brought him to Jacksonville.

One of several free-agent signings in the secondary, former Eagles safety Rudy Ford comes to Jacksonville looking for a new beginning. After being selected in the sixth round by Philadelphia back in 2017, he’s totaled just 34 tackles in 41 appearances over the last four seasons, with most of his impact coming on special teams.

At his press conference on Monday, Ford said that he’ll play on the special teams unit with the Jags, as well as wherever else the team needs him to play. In deciding to sign with Jacksonville, he said he wanted to be a part of what the franchise is building.

“I feel like just the culture, you want to change the culture around here and [I’m] just happy to be a part of something different,” he said. “I got a great feel [for the team], just the energy and the vibes here. I feel like everything is going on the up so that’s why it was really like a no-brainer for me.”

An added benefit to coming to the Jaguars is a reunion with his college teammate Daniel Thomas, who Jacksonville drafted last season. Ford said the two were close while playing together at Auburn.

“Daniel [Thomas] was like my little brother at Auburn,” he said. “He was a freshman, I was a senior, so just being able to reconnect is always great. He just got into the league this past year so it’s awesome. I’ve been in the league for a few more years than him. I was able to be around older guys, so I know how it is sometimes when you’re around just some familiar faces and things.”

With the addition of Rayshawn Jenkins, as well, Ford likely won’t see significant playing time at safety next season. But he could see a lot of special teams action in 2021, and he’s another depth piece in an area where the team had very little margin for error in 2020.

All-Auburn Defensive Team during Gus Malzahn era

From Derrick Brown to Deshaun Davis to Carlton Davis, Auburn saw a lot of talent at all three levels of defense during the Gus Malzahn era.

Auburn has a historic reputation for putting out great, hard-nosed defensive players and that didn’t change during the Gus Malzahn era.

Derrick Brown and company were monsters in the trenches for the Tigers during the past eight seasons while Deshaun Davis and others controlled the middle of the field. When a team tried to pass on Auburn, defensive backs such as Carlton Davis and Daniel Thomas were there to shut the air game down.

Yet who was the best of the best during Malzahn’s eight-year span for the Tigers on defense under coordinators Ellis Johnson and Kevin Steele? We name our All-Auburn Defensive Team during the Malzahn era along with a second string for each position.

*We decided upon a 4-3 scheme for this team as Auburn has had so much talent upfront to leave anyone off.

All-Auburn Offensive Team during Gus Malzahn era

Josh Allen, Daniel Thomas, D.J. Hayden all placed on IR

The Jacksonville Jaguars placed several notable names from their defense on injured reserve Tuesday in defensive end Josh Allen (knee), nickleback D.J. Hayden (knee), and rookie safety Daniel Thomas (arm). All three decisions came after a Week 11 …

The Jacksonville Jaguars placed several notable names from their defense on injured reserve Tuesday in defensive end Josh Allen (knee), nickleback D.J. Hayden (knee), and rookie safety Daniel Thomas (arm). All three decisions came after a Week 11 battle with the Pittsburgh Steelers, which left the Jags severely wounded heading into Week 12.

For Hayden, his season will now end because it’s his second time on IR. With it being a contract year for him, Week 11’s game against the Steelers could be his last as a Jaguar. Hayden will exit this season with 18 tackles and a pass breakup.

Like Hayden, Allen also exited Sunday’s game early and had to be helped off the field by trainers with a knee injury. He received good news earlier in the week as it was revealed he had no ligament damage though he’ll miss three weeks or more.

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Thomas is a player who flashed on various occasions since the bye and started in two games against the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers. He also blocked a punt against the Los Angeles Chargers and snagged a interception Sunday against the Steelers. He currently has 18 total tackles (16 solo) and two pass deflections.

Allen and Thomas will be eligible to return after three games. That means it might not be until Week 15’s game against the Baltimore Ravens until we see both or either player take the field in 2020 — if at all.

How every former Tiger performed in NFL Week 11

Cam Newton had a good game and Daniel Jones recorded his first interception. Here’s how the rest of the former Tigers performed in Week 11.

For the first time in nearly a month, fans could watch the current Auburn stars on Saturday and former Tigers on Sunday.

After the uninspiring win Saturday, Auburn fans had something to get excited about on Sunday when Daniel Thomas recorded his first career interception.

In addition to Thomas, Angelo Blackson and Carl Lawson both had big days along the defensive line for their respective teams.

Here’s a look at how every former Tiger performed in NFL Week 11 games.

More former College Wire players — NFL Week 11 Action:

Alabama / Auburn / Florida / LSU / Tenn. / UGA // Mich. / Mich St. / Ohio State / Wisc. // Okla. / Texas // ND // USC

How every former Tiger performed in NFL Week 10

Cam Newton put together one of his best performances of the season and Darius Slayton had another big game for the New York Giants.

After a quiet Week 9 several former Auburn players had better performances in Week 10.

Daniel Thomas made his first career start for the Jacksonville Jagurs and made the most of his opportunity. Darius Slayton and Daniel Jones were able to get back on the same page against the Eagles.

Here’s a look at how every former Tiger performed in NFL Week 10 action.

Jags to hold LB Dakota Allen, safety Daniel Thomas out of Tuesday’s practice for injuries

The Jags added to players to their list of players to sit out of practice Tuesday in LB Dakota Allen and safety Daniel Thomas.

The Jacksonville Jaguars announced that they would be having two additional players missing Tuesday’s practice session. Those two players were linebacker Dakota Allen and safety Daniel Thomas due to hip and hamstring injuries, respectively.

The Jags also announced that Taven Bryan (knee bruise), Dede Westbrook (shoulder), and Quincy Williams (core muscle) would continue to miss time, too.

Allen, 24, was a player who many expected to see more snaps with Williams out, however, it will be up to someone else to step up as a reserve weak-side linebacker behind Myles Jack. Some potential candidates to do that could be second-year linebacker Joe Giles-Harris or undrafted rookie Nate Evans.

Thomas, 22, was drafted by the Jags in the fifth-round of April’s draft out of Auburn. Some (including us) thought it was a possibility he could’ve pushed for a starting role, however, his injury is one that could hinder that. Still, even if he misses significant time, the Jags have depth at safety behind starters Ronnie Harrison and Jarrod Wilson as Andrew Wingard, Josh Jones, and J.R. Reed are behind them on the depth chart.

Podcast: Jags Wire chats with NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah

The Jags will need a lot of help from their 2020 draft class. To discuss the group, Jags Wire sat down with draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah.

If the Jacksonville Jaguars are to have a successful 2020 season, they are going to need a lot of help from their rookie class. While that may seem like a difficult feat to achieve, it’s worth noting the team had arguably 2019’s best class in terms of contributions with players like Gardner Minshew II, Jawaan Taylor, and Josh Allen aiding the team to six wins.

To discuss the potential of the Jags’ most recent class from April, we spoke to someone who covered it live on ESPN for NFL Network in draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah. The former scout of the Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, and Philadelphia Eagles joined us for our latest episode of the “Bleav in the Jags Podcast” and had plenty of takes the fans will definitely like.

Some of the specific topics we discussed outside of the Jags 12-man draft class was Jeremiah’s pick for the Jags’ top undrafted addition, his thoughts on how COVID-19 will affect college football, Gardner Minshew, being a general manager one day, and more.

After our conversation with Jeremiah, Jags Wire contributor Phil Smith and I continued to discuss Jimmy Smith’s recent resurgence on Twitter and the Jags’ value, according to Forbes.

Feel free to listen to the archived episodes of “Bleav in the Jags,”too, and subscribe via Apple podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify.

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Jaguars training camp primer: Everything you need to know about team’s new additions

The Jags made a lot of moves to get to the start of training camp with key additions like Joe Schobert, C.J. Henderson and more.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have reported for their first day of training camp. There were a lot of moves made this offseason to get to this point in addition to navigating through the issues coronavirus has caused.

To get you all prepared for what will be a unique training camp, we’ve decided to group all of the team’s new additions into one post. Here are all the new draft picks, free-agents, and coaches that Doug Marrone and company were able to add this offseason:

New additions

TE Tyler Eifert: Tight end has long been an area of concern for the Jags and 2019 was no exemption. The Jags were left almost bare at tight end last season when Geoff Swaim, Josh Oliver, and James O’Shaughnessy all had to go on injured reserve. With Swaim not showing much when he was healthy, the Jags released the veteran and picked up someone familiar with the scheme: Tyler Eifert. He’s a former Pro Bowler and will be TE1 but comes with injury concerns, missing over 50 career games.

RB Chris Thompson: Like Eifert, Chris Thompson brings familiarity to the Jags’ new system because he was with coordinator Jay Gruden in Washington. With such a young running backs room, the Jags felt the need to bring in a veteran, and with seven years of experience, Thompson should be a very good role model and player for the group.

LB Joe Schobert: The Jags tried Myles Jack out at MIKE linebacker after locking him up to a long-term deal, and to put it lightly, it didn’t work out. That said, they added veteran Joe Schobert this offseason to man the spot and move Jack to WILL linebacker, an area where his skill-set could better thrive.

DL Rodney Gunter: With the Jags trading Calais Campbell, they needed to find a cheaper option to replace him and Rodney Gunter ended up joining the Jags as a result. He’ll play both on the interior and exterior of the Jags’ defense and could be a sleeper to have a solid season.

DT Al Woods: Nobody expected the Jags to pick up Marcell Dareus’ expensive contract option this offseason and they didn’t. With a hole left at nose tackle, the ended up signing veteran Al Woods, who brings nine years of experience to the table and will be the oldest player on the team (33).

DE/LB Cassius Marsh: The Jags wanted more help on the edge and at SAM linebacker. That sent them in the direction of Cassius Marsh, who will compete with rookie K’Lavon Chaisson to start at SAM on early downs.

CB Rashaan Melvin: Jalen Ramsey was traded before the 2019 season was over and A.J. Bouye was traded before the 2020 offseason could end. With that being the case, the Jags needed a veteran at corner and added Rashaan Melvin as a result. He’ll enter his career with the Jags with 40 starts to his name and will compete with Tre Herndon to start alongside rookie C.J. Henderson.

Notable departures

DL Calais Campbell: The Jags made the tough decision to trade Calais Campbell as a result of needing to reallocate money and get younger. It’s possible they would’ve kept him on a smaller cap hit, but the good thing about the trade is that he ended up with a great team.

CB A.J. Bouye: Bouye is another testament of the Jags needing to reallocate money. Like Campbell, the Jags added him in 2017 through an expensive “win now” free-agent class, but success didn’t come for the team. That put the Jags in a predicament where they wanted to keep the veteran but had to dump his salary on the Denver Broncos.

DT Marcell Dareus: As previously stated, the option to pick up Dareus would’ve been costly to retain at about $20 million on the season. Sure, he was arguably their best run defender, but that’s not worth the price that would’ve c0me with him. The Jags were able to find a significantly cheaper veteran option in Woods and got a sleeper in third-round pick DaVon Hamilton, who could be the future at nose tackle.

QB Nick Foles: The Jags took a costly swing on the Super Bowl MVP in 2019 and he ended up with a collarbone injury that allowed them to see some impressive things out of Gardner Minshew II. Understanding they may have caught lightning in a bottle, they moved on from Foles by trading him to the Chicago Bears to give Minshew a clear path to the QB1 spot.

WR Marqise Lee: The longtime veteran was another expected cut for the Jags. His career, unfortunately, was plagued with injuries and the Jags simply saw an opportunity to upgrade the spot with a strong receivers class that highlighted the 2020 NFL Draft.

Draft selections (12)

Round 1 (No. 9): CB CJ Henderson, Florida (More about Henderson)

Round 1 (No. 20): Edge K’Lavon Chaisson, Louisiana State (More about Chaisson)

Round 2 (No. 42): WR Laviska Shenault, Colorado (More about Shenault)

Round 3 (No. 73): DT DaVon Hamilton, Ohio State (More about Hamilton)

Round 4 (No. 116): OL Ben Bartch, St. Johns (More about Bartch)

Round 4 (No. 137): CB Josiah Scott, Michigan State (More about Scott)

Round 4 (No. 140): LB Shaquille Quarterman, Miami (More about Quarterman)

Round 5 (No. 157): Safety Daniel Thomas, Auburn (More about Thomas)

Round 5 (No. 165): WR Collin Johnson, Texas (More about Johnson)

Round 6 (No. 189): QB Jake Luton, Oregon State (More about Luton)

Round 6 (No. 206): TE Tyler Davis, Georgia Tech (More about Davis)

Round 7 (No. 223:) CB Chris Claybrooks, Memphis (More about Claybrooks)

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Undrafted rookies (18)

Connor Slomka, FB, Army

Amari Henderson, CB, Wake Forest (Highlights) (Scouting report)

Steven Nielsen, OT, Eastern Michigan

Brandon Wright, kicker/Punter, Georgia State

Marvelle Ross, WR, Notre Dame College (Highlights)

James Robinson, RB, Illinois State University (Highlights) (Scouting report by NFL.com)

Kobe Williams, CB, Arizona State (Highlights)

Ross Matiscik, LS, Baylor (Highlights)

Josh Hammond, WR, Florida (Highlights)

Luqman Barcoo, CB, San Diego State (Highlights) (Scouting report by Mountain West Wire)

Nate Evans, LB, Central Florida (Highlights) (Scouting report by Black and Gold Banneret)

Tre’Vour Wallace Simms, OL, Missouri (Highlights) (Scouting report PFN)

Ben Ellefson, TE, North Dakota State (Highlights)

Nate Cottrell, RB, Georgia Tech (Highlights)

Tavien Feaster, RB, South Carolina (Highlights) (Scouting report by TDN)

Austen Pleasants, OL, Ohio (Highlights) (Scouting report by PFN)

J.R. Reed, Safety, Georgia (Highlights) (Scouting report by TDN)

New additions to the coaching staff

OC Jay Gruden: The Jags decided to mutually part ways with former offensive coordinator John DeFilippo this offseason, putting them on the market for a new offensive coordinator. They eventually ended up with former Washington Football Team head coach Jay Gruden to replace DeFilippo.

Gruden has had success with young quarterbacks in the past like Andy Dalton ad Kirk Cousins, which probably was a big reason Marrone wanted him on the team.

QB coach Ben McAdoo: Ben McAdoo, a former head coach for the New York Giants, will bring 16 years of coaching experience to the Jags’ quarterbacks room. His most notable run coaching the position came back in 2012-13, when he was with the Green Bay Packers and coached Aaron Rodgers.

Quality controls coach Dennard Robinson: Dennard Robinson is a familiar face to Jags fans as he was their No. 135th overall pick of the 2013 draft. As a quality controls coach on offense, the former multi-purpose weapon will be learning under guys like McAdoo and Gruden while also researching opponents in advance.

Assistant LB coach Tony Gilbert: Tony Gilbert is another former Jags player who will be joining the coaching staff as a newcomer. He spent time with the team during the Jack Del Rio era and will work alongside head linebackers coach Mark Collins.

Winners, losers after Jags’ 2020 NFL Draft haul

While Gardner Minshew didn’t get any immediate starters on the offensive line, he did get some threats at receiver to help him in 2020.

With every draft class comes the potential of veterans being replaced by younger and cheaper options. That applies for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the class they brought in last month, which consisted of a whopping 12 draft picks. Add in the fact that the team added 18 undrafted players, and it appears Dave Caldwell could be looking to make the team super young.

That being said, there were some players on the roster who benefitted from the moves made in the draft while others, unfortunately, didn’t.

Here’s our list of winners and losers from the annual event:

Winners

(Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)

OT Cam Robinson

Many fans were hoping the Jags drafted an offensive tackle or guard early to help upgrade the line, but that did not happen. In fact, with the offensive tackle class being talented at the top, the Jags elected to pass on names like Mekhi Becton, Tristan Wirfs, and Jedrick Wills, all of whom were thought to be top-15 prospects grade-wise.

This is huge for Cam Robinson as he will now get to return to the starting lineup and protect Minshew’s blindside. While his play has been sporadic, there is a chance he’ll improve in 2020, especially when considering he’ll be further removed from his ACL tear from 2018. That said, like Minshew, 2020 is a year for Robinson to be a permanent starter as he’ll be playing on the last year of his rookie contract.

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Official uniform numbers for the Jaguars’ 2020 draft class

The Jags’ 2020 rookie class uniform numbers have been made official!

The Jacksonville Jaguars used all 12 of their draft selections during the 2020 NFL Draft, bringing in seven players on defense and five on offense.

Here are the uniform numbers each player will wear as they begin their journey in the NFL: