3 Observations on the Jaguars Drafting Arkansas Cornerback Montaric Brown

After entering the draft with 12 picks, the Jacksonville Jaguars ended last week by making seven selections -- with the final one being an addition to the cornerback room.

25 picks after the Jaguars made an addition to their secondary in Ouachita Baptist cornerback Gregory Junior, the team double-dipped at the position and took Arkansas cornerback Montaric Brown at No. 222 to wrap up their draft class.

"The two corners at the end, you look at the best player available on the board, need, the ability to come in, both of them are talented young guys that have a chance to make the team and compete," Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said after the draft. "They’re both fast enough to compete on special teams, so there’s a lot of upside to both of them we felt.”

With Brown on board, the Jaguars have made it clear they want to overturn the depth of their cornerback room. But what do we make of the selection of Brown and what could it mean moving forward? 

Brown's production, play-style make it obvious why he was selected

There were not many SEC cornerbacks who had the production Brown had last season. While he recorded all but one of his career interceptions in 2021, last year did show that Brown has the ball skills to create turnovers and big plays at the next level. Brown led Arkansas in pass deflections with seven in 2020 before leading the team with 11 in 2021 and leading the entire SEC in interceptions with five, an impressive feat considering the number of cornerbacks the SEC puts into the NFL each season. 

There is a lot of value in adding a cornerback with ball skills to a defense that couldn't buy a turnover last year. But even aside from that, Brown's instinctive and physical play-style make him a fit for the Jaguars' defense. Brown isn't an ideal man-coverage cornerback, but the Jaguars appear to be shifting away from that model of cornerback and more towards instinctive cornerbacks who can read the eyes of passers and disrupt passing windows. That fits Brown to a tee.

Brown makes sense as a potential safety convert if he can't win the No. 5 or No. 6 cornerback job

A former safety recruit, Brown said after he was drafted that he is comfortable playing the position. While Brown was clearly drafted as a cornerback after finding success at that spot with Arkansas, especially over the last two seasons, his potential versatility still gives him a good bump in value. Any time a player toward the bottom of the roster can present flexibility and special teams value, it gives them a much better chance of making the roster. Due to Jacksonville's cornerback depth, that may be exactly what Brown needs.

Brown shouldn't be expected to be moved to safety anytime soon, but it does make sense to give him a look there if he fails to win one of the backup cornerback spots. The Jaguars have their first three cornerback positions locked in with Darious Williams, Shaquill Griffin and Tyson Campbell, but Brown will have to compete with Junior, Xavier Crawford, Chris Claybrooks, and Tre Herndon for a backup spot. If he can't win one of those, it makes sense to give him a look at safety to give him a chance to stick on the roster.

The two offensive prospects the Jaguars could have considered at No. 222

It ultimately would be too harsh to blame the Jaguars for not drafting an offensive player at No. 222. It is much fairer to wonder why they didn't take one in the top-100, but by pick No. 222 the offensive playmakers are basically off the board and had been for some time. Still, if you want to debate about the Jaguars taking Brown over an offensive player, I think there are only two names to really look at, especially after the Jaguars signed Notre Dame wide receiver Kevin Austin.

Rutgers wide receiver Bo Melton went to the Seahawks at pick No. 229 and he would have been a really solid value add for the Jaguars at that point. He should have been picked closer to the start of the fifth round and presents value on special teams and after the catch, so I think he would have been a fine pick. Penn State left tackle Rasheed Walker went No. 249 to the Green Bay Packers and also would have been a good pick at that stage in the draft. Walker's tape had legit flashes of starting left tackle potential, which is a pretty dang good bet to take in round seven.