Jacksonville Jaguars: 30 greatest players in franchise history

• 241 tackles, 37 assists, 15 interceptions in Jaguars career.
• Led NFL in interception yards (200) and interception touchdowns (2) in 1999
• Team leader in interceptions in 1999 (6)

Aaron Beasley was a savvy ball hawk in the old Big East, starring for the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Jaguars used their third-round pick in the 1996 NFL Draft to help bolster their secondary during the peak Tom Coughlin years.

Jacksonville would shock many during Beasley’s rookie season by making it all the way to the 1996 AFC Championship Game after a 9-7 regular season campaign. Beasley was a decent player in the Jaguars secondary early in his career, but took it to another level in the late 1990s.

His best season as a professional would coincide with the Jaguars’ best season to date. The 1999 Jaguars went 14-2, won the AFC Central and made it all the way to the AFC Championship. They would sadly fall to the rival Tennessee Titans for a third time that year, but Beasley was terrific that year.

He led Jacksonville in interceptions with six. Beasley took two of those picks to the house to lead the NFL. On those six interceptions, Beasley led the league in defensive return yardage with a ridiculous 200. That’s two football fields worth of picks! Unbelievable.

Beasley played his first six NFL seasons with the Jaguars before leaving for the New York Jets in 2002. After two years with the Jets, Beasley played his final NFL season with the Atlanta Falcons in 2004 before retiring. While he played in a combined three conference championship games (one in Atlanta), Beasley never got to play in a Super Bowl in his NFL career.

In six years with the Jaguars, he accumulated 241 tackles, 37 assists and 15 interceptions. The Jaguars might have been a dominant offensive force during the Coughlin era, but underrated playmakers on the other side of the ball like Beasley gave Jacksonville the defense it needed to be a relevant football team early in its history.