Jaguars Sign Three Veterans For Defensive Depth
The Jacksonville Jaguars have signed three veterans, the club announced on Sunday evening, adding depth to areas that had been depleted the past week: 11th-year cornerback Tramaine Brock, fifth-year defensive tackle Carl Davis and fifth-year defensive tackle Caraun Reid. In addition, the Jaguars waived rookie cornerback Kobe Williams..
The Jaguars corner room consisted of three rookies and two third-year players after veteran Rashaan Melvin elected to opt out of the upcoming season due to concerns over COVID-19. In need of experience in the unit, Jacksonville signed Brock. As shared here on Jaguar Report, when examining options for a veteran corner:
Tramaine Brock has started just 16 games over the last three seasons, but 11 of those cames in 2019 during stints with the Titans and the Arizona Cardinals. He will be 32-years-old by the time the season begins, giving him plenty of experience throughout his career. He has also played in multiple schemes due to the fact he has bounced around teams from time to time, indicating he is a player with strong capabilities of adjusting to a new defense, which would be key for any cornerback the Jaguars could sign at this stage of the offseason.
Since 2010, Brock has appeared in 117 regular season games with 56 starts, along with six starts in 13 playoff apperances. He has recorded 11 interceptions and 55 pass deflections over his career, though his last productive season was in 2016. At the very least, Brock would give the Jaguars a backup with an abundance of experience, which would have value despite not being a starter role.
Brock signed with the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent out of college and stayed with the team through the 2016 season. Trent Baalke was Director of Player Personnel for the 49ers in 2010 and general manager the rest of Brock's career in San Francisco. Baalke is now back in a front office for the first time since 2016, as Director of Player Personnel for the Jaguars.
The Davis and Reid signings bring much needed depth to a unit that found itself early Sunday down five men that had began training came. The Jags announced they had placed third-year defensive tackle Brian Price (knee) and second-year defensive tackle Dontavius Russell (hip) on the team’s reserve/injured list.
Defensive tackle Al Woods and defensive end Lerentee McCray both opted out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19, last week. Defensive end Yannick Ngakoue is still not under contract as he has not signed his franchise tag tender.
On Aug. 2nd, the Jags signed fifth-year defensive end Adam Gotsis.
Reid was a fifth-round pick (No. 158 overall) by the Detroit Lions in 2014. He spent two seasons in Detroit before stints with the Chargers, Cowboys, Cardinals and Colts.
He has appeared in 47 games with 16 starts. He has 3.5 career sacks, 11 tackles for loss, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
Davis was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft and spent three seasons with the Ravens before being released. He spent time with the Cleveland Browns and Indianapolis Colts before signing with Jacksonville in November of 2019. He was released by the Jags in May of 2020. Carl will still have to serve a four game suspension at the beginning of the 2020 season. It was handed down by the NFL in February of this year for violating the league's performance-enhancing substance policy.
With all three now inked and the release of Williams, the Jaguars' roster sits at 80. Ngakoue currently doesn't count toward the roster number since he has yet to sign his franchise tag tender.
