Why Campanile Sees This Veteran as ‘Glue’ of Jaguars Defense

Right place at the right time. Protecting a touchdown lead with 21 seconds left in the first half, Eric Murray sat in his zone, picked off Justin Herbert’s pass intended for Ladd McConkey and raced 38 yards for a killer Texans score. A home underdog against the Chargers, Houston rode Murray’s momentum shift to a 32-12 victory in last year’s wild-card playoffs.

The play was a prime example of why new defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile wanted Murray as the veteran centerpiece of his new Jacksonville secondary. While Tyson Campbell figures to benefit most from Campanile’s new playbook, Murray will oil the engine.

“That position can always kind of be like a glue guy,” Campanile said Wednesday following the Jaguars’ second day of mandatory minicamp, “because he's a great communicator. It's the quarterback of the defense and he's really done a great job with that. He's played really physical, and he just really understands concepts and the concepts of the defense really, really well.”

The primary concept of Campanile’s defense is called vision zone. As the moniker implies, it asks safeties like Murray to allow their eyes to dictate the actions of their feet, hands and “violent finish,” Campanile summarized.                                            

“If my eyes are right, my feet are going to be right,” Campanile said. “My hands are going to buy me time, whether that's on the line of scrimmage, so if my eyes aren't great on the line of scrimmage, I could have poor footwork. It starts there and that's really just the detail in your technique.”

Murray’s eyes were right when he intercepted Herbert in January, and as he enters Year 10 in the NFL, Campanile sees him as an excellent fit for the coordinator’s vision of his vision-zone defense. The safety’s work ethic stands out most.

“If he was in any line of work, he'd be a competitor,” Campanile explained. “He's the guy, like he ain't missing a day of work. He doesn't get sick. He's one of those people, whatever job he's doing, he's going to go 1,000 miles an hour and it's going to be done well.

“You just get that vibe from him as a person. He's a very prideful guy, takes pride in his work. A guy with that many years in doing it that way, that's more a credit to his personality than anything.”

Murray, who signed a three-year, $19.5-million contract as an unrestricted free agent, has played in 130 games, including six playoff contests. He has three career interceptions, 24 passes defensed, five sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

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