Josh Evans Contract Set – All Rookies are Ready

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Sixth round pick Josh Evans came to terms on Thursday with the Jaguars on his rookie contract. Evans is expected to sign by Monday and his signing means the Jaguars will have all of their draft picks available for the beginning of training camp.

Evans was considered one of David Caldwell’s best “value” picks in the draft. Evans was considered by many to be a mid-round draft pick – even Caldwell admitted to considering Evans in the third round if they didn’t snag Johnathan Cyprien in the second round.

"“If we didn’t get [Cyprien] as early as we did, he was our next guy that we were really targeting. We probably would have ended up drafting him higher than we did.”-David Caldwell"

Evans is a rangy, quick safety who can cover the whole field and played well in a really good Florida defense. Unlike his backfield counterpart Matt Elam, Evans has ideal size for a safety and he did a good job of playing within himself in Gainesville. While I rarely saw him make a play on the ball, I can’t remember many times where Evans was out of position or flat-out was beat on a play. He’ll start out contributing on special teams, but Evans has the tools to start at free safety next to Johnathan Cyprien.

For once in what seems like a while, the Jaguars will enter training camp with all of their players under contract. The new collective bargaining agreement has made negotiating rookie contracts much more straightforward, which is why the following facts were somewhat startling when delivered by Mark Long on Twitter.

All of Gene Smith’s first round picks, including Gabbert and Blackmon who were drafted after the establishment of the new CBA, were holdouts going into training camp. Blackmon’s negotiations were slowed by legal issues, but it’s nice to see that David Caldwell is prioritizing the “little things” like having all the players present at training camp.

– Daniel Lago

Yell at me on Twitter @dlago89