Jacksonville Jaguars need to retain Prince Amukamara

The Jacksonville Jaguars rarely need to re-sign their own guys, but they should reach out and bring back Prince Amukamara.

The Jacksonville Jaguars made a handful of big signings last offseason, highlighted by the huge contracted handed out to Malik Jackson. The Jaguars received a bit of criticism for other moves (namely signing Chris Ivory to a rather large deal), but by and large they were praised for their entire offseason.

Of course that ended up being for naught as the Jaguars finished 3-13 under the historically inept leadership of former head coach Gus Bradley.

Of the signings, perhaps the most successful in terms of production-to-cost was Prince Amukamara. Before being fortunate enough to draft Jalen Ramsey, the Jaguars signed Amukamara to a one-year “prove it” deal. Amukamara was a solid player for the New York Giants, but he was hampered by injuries and subsequently replaced by free agent signing Janoris Jenkins.

Amukamara was solid if unspectacular in 2016, but you’d be hard pressed to say he was a problem. It would behoove the Jaguars to try and sign Amukamara to a reasonable deal.

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Bill Barnwell noted that the Jaguars should prioritize signing Amukamara to a contract:

"2. Re-sign Prince Amukamara. The former Giants corner benefited from playing across from Ramsey, who was a star from Week 1, but Amukamara rebuilt his value with a useful 2016 campaign and is in line for a raise on the $5.5 million he made last year. The Jags don’t have much at cornerback after Ramsey and Amukamara if they release House, and while they can address the position by adding a different free agent or hitting it during the draft, they certainly have the cap space to retain Amukamara. In fact, given that the Jags would have $81 million in space after making those releases, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Jacksonville to franchise Amukamara at the $14.3 million figure as leverage to negotiate a longer-term deal. The Jags have no other notable free agents they should try to retain, as both Luke Joeckel and Jonathan Cyprien were highly disappointing during their time in Jacksonville."

I absolutely do not think the Jaguars should franchise Prince Amukamara, but I do think they should offer him a slight raise on a multi-year deal. Even if the Jaguars do sign Amukamara, I don’t think they would back off signing another corner. I’m skeptical the Jaguars will shell out the monstrous amount of money that will be necessary to sign A.J. Bouye, so keeping Prince and signing a second tier free agent corner (maybe Morris Claiborne?) seems like a solid strategy to reinforce the secondary.