Jaguars Place Rookie Corner Chris Claybrooks on IR
Another Jacksonville Jaguars defender has been placed on injured reserve, with rookie cornerback Chris Claybrooks being the latest to fall victim to the injury bug.
Claybrooks was placed on the team's reserve list with a core muscle injury. The seventh-round pick (No. 223 overall) is the third cornerback the Jaguars have placed on injured reserve in the last seven days, joining fellow rookie CJ Henderson and eighth-year veteran D.J. Hayden. Henderson was placed on injured reserve last Thursday while Hayden was placed on the list on Tuesday, just one game after he had been activated from the reserve list.
Claybrooks has appeared in 10 games this season, starting two at cornerback. He was originally selected to be a kick/punt returner, and did start the season in that role, but saw more playing time on defense as the year went on. He did develop into a high-caliber punt gunner in the last few games, a result of his speed.
In 10 games, Claybrooks recorded 28 tackles, one tackle for loss, and three pass breakups.
With Claybrooks, Henderson, and Hayden all on injured reserve, the Jaguars have limited bodies at cornerback. The cornerbacks on the active roster are Tre Herndon, Sidney Jones, Josiah Scott, Greg Mabin and Luq Barcoo, but Jones has been held out of practice with an Achilles injury the last two weeks.
"It will look like Tre Herndon at one corner and try to figure out who’s going to be in the other corner," Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone said on Wednesday.
"I mean that’s what it’s going to be, so I don’t have that answer right now. We have two players on the practice squad. We have Josiah Scott, [Luq] Barcoo, Tre Herndon, that’s it. There’s not a lot of things we can do so we’ll see who we’re going to put out there, see how it goes during the week, take a look at the matchups like we’ve been talking about, and then whoever probably plays the best will play.”
