Meyer Provides Updates on Henderson and Campbell as Secondary Takes Shape
If there is one unit the Jacksonville Jaguars are banking on the most to improve in 2021, it is the secondary. Head coach Urban Meyer has made this clear from day one. The investments have been made.
The Jaguars have brought in their fair share of veterans to ensure that improvement happens, but they are also looking to a pair of young cornerbacks in CJ Henderson and Tyson Campbell to be ready to defend the likes of Julio Jones, A.J. Brown and more.
But while the Jaguars' new-look secondary flew around and snagged interception after interception on Tuesday, it was those same two young building blocks who were mostly watching from the sideline as each works back to 100% health. Luckily for the Jaguars, Meyer gave a positive update on Tuesday.
"Yeah, CJ is nothing live, he’s on the field individual and same with Tyson," Meyer said. "Tyson, you know, first day of working minicamp tugged his hamstring and we’re being cautious once again."
While each young cornerback was mostly limited during Tuesday's voluntary organized activity, Meyer suggested Campbell will be returning sooner than later. Meyer noted the week before that he envisioned Henderson as close to being fully available as well, meaning the Jaguars will soon have two of their most important secondary pieces in the field.
"We’d like to get him some Thursday and then let him go next week, so we at least have an idea of what we’ve got," Meyer said about Campbell on Tuesday.
"I see a rebuilt secondary, even though CJ [Henderson] isn’t full speed yet, he’s getting close, but we have [Rayshawn] Jenkins and Shaquill [Griffin] added to the guys that were already there," Meyer said last Thursday.
"So, I’m anticipating our secondary to be one of the strengths of our team. We worked in free agency to help it, we worked in the draft to help it and I feel we have some good core players there."
Henderson was drafted No. 9 overall by the previous regime a season ago, but he played in just eight games and recorded one interception as a rookie due to injuries, which later required labrum surgery. Henderson finished his rookie season with 36 tackles, six passes defended, one forced fumble and one interception, albeit while giving up four touchdowns in eight games.
Meanwhile, Campbell, the No. 33 overall pick in this year's draft, is set to be leaned on as a rookie to round out the Jaguars' cornerback room. The long and athletic rookie from Georgia is most likely going to start the season as the Jaguars' nickel cornerback, which will give the team to deploy him and Henderson together along with free agent addition Shaquill Griffin.
Once Henderson and Campbell are operating at full speed, the Jaguars and Meyer will be able to see their complete vision in work. Upgrading secondary has been one of Meyer's greatest ambitions of his early Jaguars' tenure, but we won't know just how much better the unit is until its best young players are on the field.
With this in mind, the Jaguars' secondary has still impressed in voluntary organized team activities over the last several weeks -- even without two of their most potentially impactful players. The unit recorded three interceptions against the Jaguars' quarterbacks during Tuesday's practice, a reflection of how far the group has come over the first month of their practices together.
"Yeah, they had a very good day. I was talking about it on the way in. Offense looked good yesterday, today defense had the upper hand," Meyer said.
"But that happens and even when we’re not really live through the balls, it tells you they did a really good job. But who stood out? Josh Jones, I know [he] had a couple good plays, but I don’t know. I’ll watch the film, but I saw what you saw, the guys looked pretty good today.”
The Jaguars' secondary is inching closer and closer to full strength. Henderson and Campbell will soon join Griffin, Sidney Jones, Rayshawn Jenkins, and the rest of the team's ascending unit. Until then, the Jaguars will continue to rely on their vision of the future.
