David Jones – Could He Be the Key?
By Luke Sims
The defense for the Jaguars isn’t bad. Really, it isn’t. But the secondary is so horrendous that no matter how good the front seven looks, the entire defense appears bad. So, how do we fix this defense with the people we have currently? I believe that this can be done almost purely with David Jones, our latest pick up from Cincinnati. He’s playing cornerback right now, but for some reason I feel that his skill set, and size (6 ft. 193 lbs), are better suited for safety.
When I see him play, I see a man with hands that can pluck a ball out of the air. When I see him tackling receivers, I see a man that should be able to play in the box. When I see him burned, I see a man that could probably do well sideline to sideline if he started farther back in the field. Those all sound like safety requirements to me. Besides, let’s face it, Courtney Greene isn’t all that good at safety anyway and David Jones isn’t all that good at cornerback. Would it really hurt anything to move Jones over and sit Greene? Maybe when Anthony Smith returns he’ll be better than he was before, but I doubt it. And even then, he isn’t that much better or bigger (a whole seven pounds and the same height). The only advantage, I can see, is that he has played the position longer. But Jones is new to the Jaguars system anyway, so getting him to learn the system from the safety position doesn’t seem to be that much harder than getting to learn it from the cornerback position. Perhaps if this move happens we can get Derek Cox back in the lineup and maybe, just maybe, he’ll be better for the rest he has received not playing thus far.
A quick history note: Remember when Brian Williams would play safety as a filler? He didn’t do so bad, and he wasn’t an exceptional corner either. But he had value because from further back in the field he could see the plays developing and come up big in clutch moments. I think David Jones could do the same thing.
What could it hurt? Honestly, we couldn’t get much worse back there.
– Luke N. Sims