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Can Quinten Rollins Solve the Jaguars’ Safety Woes?

By Luke Sims

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Quinten Rollins is a basketball player. He’s transitioning his game to be a defensive back in the NFL, but for now he’s a basketball player.

As a basketball player, he logged seven interceptions, nine passes defensed, and a defensive touchdown in one season on the football field.

Quinten Rollins is raw. That’s what comes with only playing football for one year.

Rollins has played on the basketball court for four years with Miami University (Ohio) but with a semester of eligibility left he thought he’d give football another shot. He ended up the MAC defensive player of the year for 2014.

That kind of talent can’t be taught. It can, however, be coached. It can be built on.

Rollins is going to come in and play defensive back in the NFL and the Jacksonville Jaguars would be wise to think of bringing him in to play free safety. He’s a fluid player with plenty of upside, though he currently makes gambles that may not pay off. In my mind it is worth it to take a shot on a player who is a gambler, especially at a position like free safety that can turn the tide of a game by jumping a route or batting a ball away.

While I’m not certain Rollins is a year one Pro Bowl player, he certainly has the potential to build into something special. Right now, the Jaguars really just need someone more special than Josh Evans and Sergio Brown, though. Rollins looks to be that.

Picking up a bit of gamble at free safety could hurt the Jags by wasting that pick when it could be used on a player who could be a sure thing at a different position. In the 2015 NFL Draft, though, there really isn’t a sure thing at free safety. The hole is immense as well.

To make this gamble worth it, Rollins would have to be a third round pick or later. I think he’ll fall into that third round sweet spot where the gamble would pay off for the Jags. Right now a lot of the safeties seem like reaches in the second round, but a converted basketball player in the third round may just be perfect.

Let’s see the Jacksonville Jaguars turn Quinten Rollins into a football player.

Next: Jags Focus on Defensive Line in 2-Round Mock

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