Episode 115: 3 Players Flying Under-the-Radar After Minicamp

All right , ladies and gentlemen , welcome back to the Touchdown Jaguars podcast . It has been a while but nonetheless I am James Johnson here for episode 115 here and I am very excited to be back after a long hiatus . What has it been ?

At least a month since we've recorded and I think we have mentioned , you know , in the past that the spring we would kind of take some time to rejuvenate all that good stuff and then kind of pick things back up around the summer . So here we are in the summer and hopefully we will be able to pick things up . Now .

Phil will be working a lot on the Wait For it podcast and me and him talked about that and you know when football ramps up he'll be able to join me .

So I'll be doing probably a few solos , you know , at least for a month , maybe a little bit more , I may reach out and have a guest on , occasionally a guest co-host , and you know a guest in terms of a guest to the podcast as well .

We'll cross that bridge later down the road , but I wanted to really get out a episode , since it's been a while , and let you all know that we haven't forgotten about you all and we appreciate the love and support that you all have been giving us at the touchdown jaguars podcast for many , many years .

All of that said , as you all know if I haven't said it already , which I probably have I'm james johnson .

You can follow me at sports Grind underscore Dunn on Twitter , and you can follow my co-host , phil Barrera , at Phil the Filipino on Twitter as well , and you can also follow the Touchdown Jaguars podcast handle , which is touchdownjadwarscom , where we put a variety of content on there , whereas archived episodes of this podcast , written content , so on and so

forth . So , all of that said , we will get into today's episode , and I think it was only fair .

You know I got a list of topics that I wrote down , um , that we could talk about , but I think it was only fair for us to cover minicamp , because we didn't really talk about it others , aside from maybe some tweets and whatnot but we didn't really talk about that in terms of an audio format and getting that out and uh , by the way , while I'm at it and

while it's on my mind , um , feel free . We also have now moved into the Tik TOK realm and , uh , just the short video footage realm , um , so we'll also have stuff on YouTube shorts and , uh , instagram .

But feel free to follow our Tik TOK page as well , which I've put out at least about four videos on because we wanted to get a video format going as well .

That's kind of something that the podcast is lacked , right , a lot of our stuff is audio driven , so we want to get some video content out there and you know , a lot of people have shown the tiktok page some love and it's only growing by the day .

But , yeah , follow us at tdjagspod there and , um , you know , let us know what you think , check out the videos , send us your suggestions , all that good stuff .

But back to what I was saying um , I think it's only fair that we do an episode , being that we really haven't discussed the whole aspect of minicamp or OTAs really on the podcast , as opposed to , you know , on the TikTok page and on Twitter and on social media , that we , you know , discuss minicamp in some way shape or form for the podcast .

So that's what we're going to do here , and the topic that I settled on was three players flying under the radar for the Jacksonville Jaguars after minicamp .

I thought about doing an episode where we would predict the 53-man roster , but I want to do a little bit more research before I go into an episode um , that would have a lot of context to it , like that one .

So I settled on this topic of three under the radar players coming out of minicamp and heading into training camp and , um , yeah , we will go over a list of players here .

I settled on and you know , if you have been looking at a tick tock page , my hat has been tipped on two of these , right , but I said I settled on two players from the offensive side and one player on the defensive side ,

so we'll get right into it . I will not hold you all up too long for this episode , but the first player that I have on the list is Monteric Brown . So we'll start on the defensive side and then the other two players will be on the offensive side . So , monteric Brown he now he's a guy that I haven't mentioned on the TikTok page .

So this , this is a little bit of new content in terms of stuff that I haven't put out there already .

But yeah , monteric Brown is a guy that you know when you look at all of the reports and all of the you know beat writers who do a good job covering the Jacksonville Jaguars and those who were able to attend the practices and they weren't able to attend all of the practices , neither were the fans , and we'll get more of a look at the team in training camp

as well , and you know , of course , that's our plan to provide training camp content for you all too , when it arrives .

But you know when the reporters were able to go there , you know I've seen many reporters either speak or you know , put out there in a tweet or in articles highly of how Monteric Brown has looked , since you know he thinks that Monteric and I might just be paraphrasing him here , and please forgive me if I misquote him , that's not what I'm trying to do here

Shout-outs to John Shipley but he felt like Monteric was like the most active cornerback or DB in terms of getting his hands on , you know , passes . So that's a good sign and , if I can recall , I was listening to T-Wigs podcast to locked on Jaguar Shout outs to him . He mentioned how Monteric Brown has looked and that you know it's possible .

You know you will see Monterrey Brown as a starter . Maybe you know and again I'm just paraphrasing here , so you know a lot of people speak highly of him . Anthony Campanile has spoke highly of him too , just kind of .

You know basically in a post game or a post practice presser kind of mentioned that you know he's shown up consistently , if I can recall , and you know he's kind of been one of those guys that kind of fit the mold of Tyson Campbell , a veteran player who just has been consistent throughout the process , right , and shout outs to Tyson Campbell too .

But all of that said , the emergence of Monteric Brown is an interesting development because at one point in time I was very high of Monteric Brown is an interesting development because at one point in time I was very high on Monteric Brown .

And then you know we suffered through terrible defense with our last regime and we suffered through terrible decisions in general with our last regime , whether that was on Doug Peterson's part or Trent Baalke's part . It was just hard to watch the organization in general . But somehow we made it through it .

And you know , throughout that process , especially last year under the previous in the , you know , one time one year defensive coordinator in Ryan Nilsen , you know it looked like a lot of the guys , first and foremost , didn't want to be there and at times it looks like the effort wasn't there .

So you know that applied to a lot of players and not necessarily all of them , but a lot of players .

And one thing that I'm noticing , at least in the early stages and it's always this way in the early stages because you're just getting introduced to the new defensive coordinator , but I think this is something that will be long term too is that the players really like Anthony Campanile , you know , and the big one of the big things culturally about this team right ,

that we've discussed is they've come into the situation saying like , hey , we want our players to be nothing more than themselves and we're going to allow them to do that , and you know that's kind of on the coaches to allow them to do that , especially when it comes to things on the field , and do what they do best , and everything will fit basically like a

puzzle .

And when everything fits like a puzzle , you have a complete puzzle , you have a complete team where you know you'll have this mixture of people that contributes or does something well in every aspect of what you need on defense and what you need on offense and what you need on special teams , and what you have is a fully functional team because you have these

different pieces who are focusing on what they do best , which may make up for the weakness of another player . So you have all these pieces that basically complement each other and for the players who are lacking in some aspect of their game , that's okay because there could be another player on the team who thrives with that specific ability .

And again , it makes a complete puzzle .

And it sounds like to me that , defensively , in terms of this scheme , and especially when you hear the players talk about Anthony Campanile and you hear them the personnel talk , you know , in terms of you know Campanile himself and James Gladstone and Tony Bocelli and Liam Cohen , when you hear them talk , it's all about , you know , putting the players in position

to do what they do best and thrive at it .

And you could tell that a lot of that is going on in the early stages of the game or the early stages of this new regime change , because coming out of OTAs , especially when you look at the skilled players , which OTAs is designed to kind of make the skilled players stand out more than you know the players in the trenches .

You have a lot of people coming out of OTAs feeling a little bit more than you know the players in the trenches . You have a lot of people coming out of OTAs feeling a little bit more comfortable , at least again , I'm talking about skilled players here coming out of OTAs more comfortable than we've maybe seen in the last few years .

And again , that's because you know the staff is putting them in position to go on the field and do what they do best and do what they feel most comfortable with doing . So I think that applies to Monterrey Brown , and not just Monterrey , though . You hear and you hear a lot about you know how the cornerbacks in general didn't look bad at all .

Right , tyson Campbell you know that was one of the guys I mentioned in my TikTok as a player who is coming out of OTAs on fire . Basically , you know you hear a lot about how the impact of Anthony Campanile has helped Tyson Campbell . Right , and Anthony Campanile has said it himself as well .

Right , that you know Tyson is now more focused on something that we've complained about for a very long time as fans and media members and all this stuff . But he's more focused on the technical aspect and I think I heard Liam Cohen say this too the technical aspect of his game .

In that same post practice presser that I mentioned earlier , you knowanile and I put a tweet out about this was saying that he's really fired up about Tyson Campbell quote unquote and he says that he's really worked on the key details , which to me , rita , is the technical aspect of your game and things that Tyson has kind of struggled with in the past , right

like um reacting to receivers out of the top of their routes , right and um reacting to them the right way in terms of coming off of the line of scrimmage and so on and so forth , locating the ball , things like that . That's , that's what that read to me , and I'm mentioning that because Campanile's effect looks to be not just one

that's impacting people on the top of the depth chart like Tyson Campbell , but it also seems to be impacting guys like Monterey Brown .

When you hear and talk about how he's been very active in breaking up passes , it sounds to me like they have put him in the best position to thrive and put him in position to do what he does best , and a lot of people would say that's to be in a position where he can kind of keep his eyes on the quarterback , right .

So you know he'll be one of those guys I want to watch in person when you know I go to training camp and what have you .

But he is one of those names that's going under the radar in a sense that , of course , all eyes are on Tyson Campbell , because he's the number one cornerback on the team and he got paid a lot of money last year and he's shining , you know , and he's in the battle .

He's basically on the the big stage , basically because he's battling with Brian Thomas Jr every day in practice , going back and forth with him , which is a good thing . But all eyes have been on Tyson Campbell , right , all eyes have been on Jordan Lewis , who is an acquisition that we got in free agency this year and , you know , paid a lot of money to .

All eyes have been on Travis Hunter , who , you know All eyes have been on Travis Hunter who , you know , probably is one of the most talked about players in the league in general , right , although he's been playing mostly offense more so than defense .

He's still been a big topic of discussion when mentioning the defensive side of the ball and playing defensive back and playing cornerback . So you know he's overshadowing what Monteric Brown is doing as well .

So there aren't a lot of eyes on Monteric when you mention those three cornerbacks , right , there isn't a lot of people outside of the reporters , the local reporters , talking about Monteric Brown and how he's looking .

But he very well can find himself taking a significant amount of starter reps and that's good because I feel like he's coming off a decline last year , as are multiple people on this defense , and here you have Anthony Campanile being able to get the best out of him and some of those players who stopped decline last year .

So that's a positive sign and we'll see if it translates in training camp . It's hard to feel like that . It won't translate because in training camp you can only be more physical than you previously were . I don't think you know they're going to get less physical , right ?

So you have to feel like Monteric's momentum will continue and he'll end up making this team .

You know , at the rate that he's going , as you know , maybe the cornerback four or five , whatever the case may be , and , you know , depending on the usage of Travis Hunter , and also something to consider is just kind of depending on the health of Tyson Campbell , who hasn't been able to stay healthy for the Jacksonville Jaguars , his role on this team is going

to be very important , which is why it's very good that he's showing out right now and it'll be good that he continues to show out when training camp arrives .

All right , so the next person on the list who we will discuss is one of my favorite draft picks that we made this year and he's a guy I mentioned in the t TikTok video , so you all might know where I'm going with this . But it's LaQuint Allen , who we drafted two running backs in this draft and he wasn't even the first one we drafted .

We actually drafted Basial Tootin before him and we got Allen in the seventh round . We got Tootin in the fourth round , fourth round . But I think we did discuss in the post-draft podcast , um , that I wasn't like as as big on tooting as some people are , and it may be because I did read that at one point in time in the year .

Um , he was playing with a knee brace and I'll have to see if this is accurate and true , but he was playing with a knee brace and it kind of hampered him a little bit , and then when he came out of that knee brace , that's when he kind of took off , and maybe a lot of the games that I watched were early for him when he was in that stage of wearing

the knee brace . But I have to , you know , research , but I mean , I saw some good things out of him , but I just wasn't super high on him like some others were .

All of that said , though , when I watched LaQuint Allen on film , I was more so high on him than Tootin' and you know , when you look at the reports coming out of OTAs for him and minicamp for him , a lot of that checks out with what I saw , and a lot of that makes me excited about what the future holds for him .

Now , when you look at many of the scouting reports on him , on Allen , you know they mentioned his ability as a pass catcher , but when you watch the film of him , like he made some tough runs in between the tackles too , and I think that's significant because we're coming up on a time where you know Travis ETN , there's a lot of talk about him and you know

if he'll be traded , which I don't think he will be , I think the Jaguars , or you know , probably start him this year and play him as the starter this year and then let him go next year .

And if that's the case you're going to need somebody to replace him , and to me I could see that being Allen in some way shape or form , because he does offer the pass catching ability that ETN offers . But he

may even have more upside , at least in the eyes of the coaches , as a runner . Between the tackles . He made some physical runs out there for Syracuse man and you know , when you look at the scouting reports , he was one of the players that I did something rare with . I looked at the scouting reports first before I watched him .

Normally it's the other way around , because I like to watch the player and see if what I saw on film is being put in the scouting reports and see if it checks out , and then , you know , I go from there .

But for some reason I took a backwards approach with him and just kind of reading the scouting reports and just you know what people were saying about him in general . When I watched him on film , you know , dare I say he kind of shocked me a little bit in terms of what he could do between the tackles and the physicality he brings in that regard .

But you know , he was mentioned in , I think , one of Shipley's reports on Jad or SI , and Tootin as well . I don't want to discredit Tootin as well , but just about how you know they really both shine in the passing game I think maybe it was pass protection or with catching the ball either . Or Trevor Lawrence praised both of them as well .

But I think Allen is a guy that we're just seeing the beginning with him Because , again , after this point it only gets more physical right . And now we're going to get to see what he offers between the tackles .

And you know , while and again they might be ready to go and roll with etn and tank bigs me atop the depth , atop the depth chart in terms of um , you know , getting those hard yards between the tackles , and you know , if we're going to talk about that topic , you probably would think Tank Biggs be more . So is the guy for that .

But I think that the staff will be able to get a lot out of ETN between the tackles . But even with that being the case , I think they'll be comfortable enough with what they've seen , with everybody else behind him , to where they'll let him go next year .

So I think , like he's basically on a one-year plan , not a plan where they plan on trading him this year , but more so on a one-year plan with this regime , and I mean , like you know , with running backs .

Anyway , typically executives don't like to pay them a lot of crazy money unless they're like super special , like Christian McCaffrey or something like that , which kind of correlates to what I was saying earlier , why they drafted a guy like Allen , so they can have a succession plan in place for when Etienne goes next year .

They'll have some cheaper way , cheaper a seventh round pick option as opposed to a first round pick option to succeed him as well as to and you know , you'll have Tank Bixby still here as well , hopefully at that point in time .

But all of that said , there were good things said about Allen again , more so in the passing game , which , again , that makes sense because you can't be as physical as you want in the minicamp and OTA stages .

But I think , like that his stock is only going to grow in terms of when they put the pads on , because I think he might shock some people in terms of what he could do between the tackles . And I think , you know , also in training camp he'll get a lot of opportunities .

You know , also in training camp he'll get a lot of opportunities , whether that's practice reps or in-game reps , because you know , obviously you don't want people at the top of your depth chart getting hurt when you're in those preseason games and that opens up a wide window for , you know , guys like Allen , like Tootin , to get a lot of carries in terms of

maybe playing for a full half or maybe even more than that in most of these training camp or most of these preseason games . So I think that'll give him more of an opportunity to shine and impress people even more and I really , really like what I've seen out of that young man on film , all right .

And then the last player I'll mention is another one I mentioned on TikTok . Uh , so you all might know where I'm going with this , but Joshua Cephas , the wide receiver from the University of San Antonio , texas , that we um grabbed last year as an undrafted free agent .

You know , he's a guy that I thought should have been drafted in the fifth round but the Jaguars got him in undrafted free agent . He's a guy that I thought should have been drafted in the fifth round but the Jaguars got him in the undrafted free agency and they kept him on the practice squad .

He didn't make the team , but there are some good things that are being said about him coming out of OTAs and minicamp .

I remember hearing Liam Cohen speak about him and it was in May , I think in the early stages about the , what he's seeing out of Cephas , and then , you know , also later down the road in minicamp I think it was day one of minicamp there were reports I think John Shipley was one of them Go back and reference my TikTok video , just to be sure , but John

Shipley was one of them mentioning how you know know , cephas stood out in day one of minicamp .

And to me , what that says , you know , it kind of also goes hand in hand with what I mentioned , with this present regime being able to get more out of the players , not just on the top of the depth chart , but on the top of the depth chart , but on the back of the depth chart way more than the previous regime was .

That's part of it , but also , too , what that says too to me is that , like many late round picks or undrafted picks . You know Cephas just needed to get a year of NFL practices under his belt .

He didn't play in any games , if I can recall , so really all he could really take advantage of was the practices , you know , and just getting not just the speed down and getting the element of practicing with NFL players down , but just getting the NFL grind down over the span of a year .

Because you know people say this all the time that rookie season is tough on rookies because not only are they getting prepared to be an NFL player , but the pre-NFL process is also rigorous on them as well . Right , you got to get ready for the combine . Right , right after your season . This is how it goes .

You start training for the combine , you know , and if you are somebody who's going to participate in one of the all-star games , you know you get about what three , four weeks off , depending on how quick your season ended in college in December , and then in January you spend a block . You're back on the field for the all-star games .

If you were good enough to go to an all-star game , which I felt like C Cephas probably was , I have to go back and research it . You , you go through the all-star game , you start practicing for the combine , go to the combine itself , you do , you know , workouts for these teams before the draft and then comes the draft .

So before the draft even gets here , you know , for rookies it's a whole year process that they're going through with getting prepared before they're in the NFL and then when they get into the NFL , that's a grind in itself and adapting to it in itself .

So you know , after a year of all that , what that says to me is that Cephas has adjusted to it well and he's coming to year two with something to prove , and he's also coming into year two with just familiarity and , um , you know , just less of a rigorous process on his body . Uh , because of course he had a true off season this year .

So you know , that says to me that he is in the beginning stages of being able to take that next step of what it takes to be a pro in the NFL . And again , kind of like what I said for Allen , right , he's going to get ample opportunities in the preseason too . You know , and I know they do cuts during the preseason as well too .

You know and I know they do cuts during the preseason as well , but I think he's good enough to stick through the whole preseason process , at least for all of the games , right ? I think he's good enough to stick to this roster to the very end , to final cuts , and I even think he can make the roster . I think what may hold him from making a roster ?

We have to see what he offers as a special teamer , because when you're talking about that fifth or sixth wide receiver , that's the kicker , right , that's the deal breaker . Can you help us on special teams in a significant way ?

We'll cross that bridge when we get there , though , but he's going to get ample opportunities in the preseason , just for the simple fact that you know Liam Cohen and company , if they're smart , they're going to want to protect the guys atop the depth chart , right ?

So you're looking at a guy like Allen and I'm talking about Cephas here who's going to , you know , see a half worth of snaps in many of these preseason games , maybe even more . You know , maybe you even see some of these real young guys enter the game in the second quarter .

You know , in some of these games We'll see in time We'll tell what kind of plan Liam Cohen has for the starters , but I think there'll be ample opportunities for Seaford's to get snaps on the field and you know it won't shock me if you know him and guys like Allen and guys on the back of the depth chart young guys and you know guys that are in year one

or year two are leading the team , which is normally the case . Um are leading the team in snaps in the preseason . Right , it's just on him to make the most of them . But he has stood out in minicamp and uh , that makes me think he has some more in him in terms of highlight plays that he can make and uh , yeah , we'll see in time we'll tell .

But yeah , he's a guy I'm excited about because in the first place , as I mentioned , first and foremost , he's already kind of showing that he should have been drafted at some capacity .

Whether that was , you know , I think it was a fifth round pick , but whether that was as a fifth , sixth or seventh round pick , he's kind of flashing that he should have been drafted and I think more flashes could be on the horizon for him this summer , now that he has familiarity with the league and now that he'll be in a position where he'll get probably a

decent amount of looks during training camp and during the games , all right .

So , all of that said , we will go ahead and wrap this one up .

You know , I just wanted to make this one a little bit brief but at the same time , give a decent amount of my thoughts and put a decent amount of my thoughts out there in terms of what happened in minicamp and some guys that I'm kind of eyeing , that I'm excited to watch heading forward , that I'm kind of eyeing , that I'm excited to watch heading forward .

And , yeah , hopefully , within you know , the next week or two , I'll come out with another episode . Again , I'm kind of working on getting a co-host to kind of ride it through with me until Phil gets back . We'll see how that goes .

But if not a co-host , you know we'll work on getting some guests , whatever the case may be , to join me and we'll continue to make this thing do what it do until you know Phil is back . So , all of that said , again , you can follow me at Sportsground underscore Don , on Twitter .

You can follow Phil at Phil Barrera on Twitter or , excuse me , at phil the filipino . His name is phil barrera , but at phil the filipino on twitter . You can follow the podcast handle at tdjadwarspod . Then , lastly , you can follow our website or check out our website .

It is touchdownjadwarscom , as we'll have content , uh , set to show up on there eventually , but it was good to get back in the booth and speak with you all . Feel free to rate , comment , subscribe . I forgot to mention that .

You know , feel free to do all of that good stuff and find us on whatever platform that you prefer to listen to a podcast on , and if we're not there , let us know , We'll get there . But we are on the most notable platforms for sure Apple or Apple podcasts , spotify , you name it again . If we aren't there , let us know .

We'll do our best to get on whatever platform that is your preference . But until next time , you all take care of each other and have a good rest of your day as I am signing out .