Jacksonville Jaguars CB Montaric Brown catching attention of Liam Coen, Anthony Campanile

USA Today

a day ago

Jacksonville Jaguars CB Montaric Brown catching attention of Liam Coen, Anthony Campanile Jacksonville Jaguars' cornerback Montaric Brown has certainly made the most of his on-field opportunities during OTAs and minicamp.
Jacksonville Jaguars' cornerback Montaric 'Buster' Brown has certainly made the most of his on-field opportunities during OTAs and minicamp over the last several weeks.
It seemingly felt like every practice, there was a play or two where Brown was getting his hands on the football while in coverage to help force an incompletion.
"That's who he's been every day that I've been here," Anthony Campanile said of Brown's ball production. "And I can only go by what I see every day that I'm out here, he competes. He loves to compete. Same thing like Tyson, whether it's on the line of scrimmage, he's not afraid to challenge people. To challenge people at the top of the route and play with technique, but whatever he's gotta do to strain and make the play, he's been doing that, which is awesome. That's what we've been preaching and he's doing that every day."
Brown would play 855 defensive snaps last season for the Jaguars, allowing a completion rate of 69% and 11.3 yards per catch with an interception and five pass breakups, per PFF.
As Campanile notes, helping Brown be sticky in coverage and in a position to make plays on the ball during these practices is his willingness to challenge wide receivers, both at the line of scrimmage and within the route.
But in addition to that, Campanile's defensive scheme seems to be playing a factor as well. In this new-look Jaguars' defense, we are going to see a more vision-based approach in the secondary, which means all eyes are on the quarterback, which hopefully leads to more ball production. This also means seeing a lot more zone coverage from the Jaguars this season.
The secondary as a whole, including Tyson Campbell, has acclimated well to this new play style, and it seems to fit very well with Brown's skill set.
"He's got strong FBI (football intelligence), man," Liam Coen said of Brown, via Jaguars on SI. "The game makes sense to him. I think him playing in this little bit more vision on the quarterback zone is a strength of his, where he understands some concepts, he understands splits, recognition, what type of concepts are going to start to occur when 2 goes vertical or 2 goes under. He has a feel."
What we know right now is that Campbell will be at one of the outside cornerback positions, and Jourdan Lewis will primarily handle the nickel responsibilities. That leaves Brown, Jarrian Jones, and Travis Hunter as options for the outside cornerback role opposite of Campbell.
Come Week 1, there will, of course, be a starter on paper at that position. But in Campanile's malleable defensive scheme, where versatility is a key component, the playing time amongst those three cornerbacks could vary week-to-week depending on who the opponent is and what the matchup dictates.