NFL Draft: One Thing To Know About Each of the Jaguars’ Undrafted Free Agents
If the NFL Draft is truly the lifeblood of professional football that many proclaim it is, then undrafted free agency is far more important than some may realize. Every year we see immensely talented players go undrafted, somehow falling through the cracks; James Robinson was the best example last season, but it happens every year to some extent.
The Jacksonville Jaguars reaped the benefits of finding a diamond in the rough in Robinson in 2020, just as they used the draft's eighth round to find gems throughout the years in Jarrod Wilson, Tre Herndon, Allen Hurns, Doug Costin, and Corey Grant.
Could any of the team's six additions this year live up to the lofty precedent set in Jacksonville? We take a look at each player and one thing to know about what they bring to the table to find the answer.
CB DJ Daniel
When one thinks of cornerbacks with length, they don't typically imagine players who measure below six feet. But that is exactly what DJ Daniel brings to the cornerback position, with the former four-star JUCO recruit bringing rare length and overall wingspan to the Jaguars' cornerback room even at 5-foot-11.
Daniel measured with 33 3/8-inch arms and a wingspan of 80 1/2. The only cornerback in the draft among The Athletic's Dane Brugler's top-54 cornerbacks with a bigger wingspan is South Carolina's Israel Mukuamu, and he is 6-foot-4. Mukuamu and Caleb Farley are the only cornerbacks in this class with equal or greater arm length to Daniel as well. According to MockDraftable, Daniel ranks in the 98th percentile among cornerbacks in wingspan and in the 96th percentile in arm length.
WR Josh Imatorbhebhe
There is no player in the last 20 years who has done at the NFL Scouting Combine what Josh Imatorbhebhe did at his pro day; according to Pro Football Reference, Imatorbhebhe's 46.5-inch vertical jump would be a combine record, breaking the previous record of 46 inches recorded by set by then-North Carolina safety Gerald Sensabaugh in 2005. He is truly a rare athlete in terms of his ability to leap and climb the ladder.
Funny enough, three of the top-five vertical jumpers in the NFL since 2000 have now been Jaguars. Imatorbhehe signed with the Jaguars on Saturday, while Sensabaugh was a fifth-round pick by the Jaguars and spent the first four years of his career with the team. Chris Conley, whose 45-inch vertical jump is tied for fourth all-time, spent two years with the Jaguars from 2019-2020.
WR Tim Jones
Few programs were in flux as much as Southern Mississippi in 2020. The Golden Eagles football team saw head coach Jay Hopson resign after one game, then replacement Scotty Walden resigned after four games to take a job elsewhere, leading to a third head coach in one year with Tim Billings. Despite all of this turnover, Tim Jones still produced before a hamstring injury sidelined him.
Jones started the season with consecutive 100-yard receiving games, catching 14 passes for 299 yards (21.35 yards per catch) and two touchdowns in the first two games of the year. He then ended the season with 11 catches for 130 yards (11.81 yards per catch) and two touchdowns in the final two games of the season. Things went wrong for the Southern Miss. program in 2020, but Jones was able to start the year off hot and then end it with a fee productive games.
LB Dylan Moses
Dylan Moses has been regarded as a talented linebacker in football circles for so long that he was getting big-time SEC programs offering him scholarships before he was able to get his learner's permit. LSU made him the youngest scholarship offer in program history, with LSU and Alabama both offering Moses scholarships when he was in just eighth grade, which is a bit jarring when you consider what each program has put into the NFL in terms of linebacker talent in recent seasons.
Moses would wind up a top-15 overall recruit, committing to Alabama and Saban as a five-star recruit. He was an SEC All-Freshman selection in 2017 and then led the team in tackles in 2019, but he missed all of 2019 with a knee injury. He returned in 2020 to lead the defense in tackles. His going undrafted has much more to do with his season-ending knee injury than it does with his talent, but the fact he has been a heralded linebacker for so long is notable when it comes to his potential.
DT Kenny Randall
A high-ceiling player with impressive athletic traits (4.97 40-yard dash, 7.45 three-cone), Kenny Randall is one of the most interesting stories among the Jaguars' entire rookie class. He is the oldest of the bunch at 25-years-old due to his dismissal from Charleston following his arrival in 2015; he spent some time away from football and worked at Sam's Club before returning to the program.
Randall started 21 games for Charleston in 2018-2019, recording nine sacks, 30 tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles in that span. He also was named both first- and second-team All-MEC and led the entire program in tackles for loss and sacks in 2019.
CB Corey Straughter
Whole Corey Straughter may not have any rare athletic traits, he had some of the best production of any player on this list. For starters, just look at some of the cornerbacks below that Straughter's name could be associated with: Al Blades Jr., Luq Barcoo, Caleb Farley, and Derion Kendrick. All talented corners who finished behind Straughter in terms of lowest passer rating when targeted in 2019.
According to ULM, Straughter allowed the nation's lowest completion percentage (28.6) in 2019 to go along with the lowest passer rating. Had he tested better during the offseason, it is hard to think a cornerback with his track record isn't selected sometime on Day 3.
