Gus Bradley to make decision on starting cornerback today

On Wednesday, the Jaguars held their first padded practice since their bye-week. As most of the team worked to get tightened up for their upcoming match-up against the Jets, the cornerback position remained wide open.

Head coach Gus Bradley spoke about the situation after today's practice.

"Hopefully we can decide today -- kind of have a better idea. There were some good things yesterday, but I don't think we wanted to make a decision after a day. So, (we) kind of let it play out again today and see."

In Wednesday's practice, Davon House, Dwayne Gratz, and Demetrius McCray all saw time in the starting role opposite of the only established cornerback piece -- Aaron Colvin.

"Gratz did pretty good (and) House did pretty good," Bradley offered on Thursday. "I think ‘D-Mac' (Demetrius McCray) showed up better today than he did yesterday."

House started the first six games of the season before landing himself on the bench by allowing two touchdowns to Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. Dwayne Gratz got the nod against the Bills in London two weeks ago but struggled to play consistently, leaving the door wide open once again.

Many fans were puzzled with Bradley's initial decision to bench Davon House, seeing as House had accumulated the most pass break-ups on the team by far and had played pretty well overall. Bradley spoke on this point briefly in his Thursday press conference.

"We need to turn those PBU's into interceptions and a guy like House has more than anybody so I think it's really the challenge for all of the group is to take advantage of those opportunities," Bradley stated.

It's obvious that Bradley is favoring aggression over technical skills in his search for the most effective cornerback group. The Jaguars pass rushers have been fundamentally ineffective so far this season, and Bradley is grasping for any change that might provide a boost to the secondary behind them. Gus was asked this afternoon, straight-up, if his cornerbacks needed to be more aggressive.

"Yeah, more aggressive in going for the ball without giving up the principles," Bradley said. "That takes some time but they understand (it) enough, now we should see it."

Gus should make his starting cornerback decision shortly. Judging by Bradley's comments, I wouldn't be surprised if Gratz got the nod over Davon House once again.