Jacksonville’s secondary is staring at another complete corner shuffle vs. the Texans, and the timing couldn’t be worse.
Montaric Brown missed Wednesday’s practice with a lingering hamstring issue—the same injury that sidelined him against Cincinnati and limited him to just six snaps last week.
With Jarrian Jones, Jaylon Jones, and Jourdan Lewis all playing through injuries of their own, losing their top boundary corner leaves Anthony Campanile’s defense threadbare right as Houston unleashes Marvin Harrison Jr.
Montaric Brown Injury Entirely Shifts Load on Travis Hunter
If Brown isn’t cleared for Sunday, the Jaguars have no choice but to throw Travis Hunter out there for every single defensive snap, like the last two weeks.
He logged 76 snaps against the Bengals and stayed on the field for all 62 defensive reps against the Eagles—plus six snaps on offense. Asking a two-way talent to anchor the secondary full-time week in and week out is playing with fire. It simply isn’t a sustainable game plan, leaving him dangerously exposed to wear and tear.
What’s worse, there is virtually no safety net behind Hunter. With Christian Braswell out and Jourdan Lewis playing through his own ailments, the Jaguars are essentially one injury away from putting practice squad guys on the boundary against C.J. Stroud.
Jaguars Winning, But Injuries a Big Growing Concern
At 4–1, the Jags are racking up wins, but Wednesday’s injury report shows a locker room that’s taking a beating. Injuries are standard NFL tax, but seeing a wall of red flags is a massive concern for a secondary trying to maintain a division lead.
Long snapper Ross Matiscik also didn’t practice Wednesday, besides Brown, as expected. Matiscik left Week 5 with a shoulder injury. Though he is not being placed on IR, the Pro Bowler is expected to miss time, and the Jaguars have signed Jacob Bobenmoyer to the practice squad and will elevate him on a game-by-game basis until Matiscik returns.
Safety Eric Murray (concussion), right tackle Cole Van Lanen (knee), left guard Emmanuel Pregnon (toe), cornerback Jourdan Lewis (hamstring), cornerback Jaylon Jones (hamstring), cornerback Jarrian Jones (elbow), and rookie tight end Nate Boerkircher (back) did get some work Wednesday, but remained limited in practice.
The Jaguars will already be without starting left tackle Anton Harrison, who was placed on IR on Tuesday as he awaits arthroscopic knee surgery, which will reveal the extent of his injury after being carted off in last week’s dramatic win over Philly.
Harrison will have to miss at least four games, but may be out for the rest of the regular season. His timeline will be determined after the surgery.
Jaguars’ $33 Million CB Injury Update Most Concerning Among Week 6 Injury Report