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What's one thing that the Jacksonville Jaguars defense has lacked ever since Gus Bradley took the reigns of the team?
Oh, crap, there are a lot of answers to this question actually.
However, the answer I was looking for was turnovers. The team forced only 18 turnovers in 2015, ranking 26th in the league, as well as only 20 in the 2014 season, ranking 24th.
In his four seasons/50 games in the NFL, Cleveland Browns free safety Tashaun Gipson has almost as many forced turnovers (15) as the Jaguars had as a team in 2015, including 14 interceptions.
Stout as he may be, the 5'11", 205-pound Gipson plays football like an animal. He is a ballhawk at heart, as seen by his 14 career interceptions, as well as a physical safety who never gives up on making a tackle and knocks other receivers around.
Undrafted out of the University of Wyoming in 2012, Gipson signed as an undrafted free agent to the Browns and started 3 games his rookie year. He tallied one interception in his rookie year and went onto win the starting job in 2013. Gipson intercepted five passes in 2013 and another six in 2014, followed by a modest two picks in 2015.
Although there was a dip in production this past season, Gipson has a lot of potential to continue developing his game. He's 25 and looking to get locked up, and the film below shows that he deserves exactly that. On this play, Gipson reads young quarterback Blake Bortles the entire play and intercepts the ball, easily.
This following play shows Gipson's athleticism, when he jumped to deflect a pass against Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kendall Wright.
Gipson goes up and fights for the ball on a pass that almost seems out of reach for him to defend, displaying how athletic he is. Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley has been looking for an athletic, rangy safety who can find ways to always make plays on the ball, and although Gipson isn't that rangy standing at 5'11", he almost always seems to be able to make plays on the ball.
This ability can also be seen in the clip below, where Gipson stretches out to intercept a pass off of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Finally, here is a more recent clip (via SBNation) and this time, Gipson is seen intercepting New York Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. He makes a great leap to pick the ball and reads the play perfectly. However, after the interception, Gipson has the ball stripped back by wide receiver Brandon Marshall.
All in all, Gipson has the athleticism and ball-hawking characteristics that fit into Gus Bradley's vision of an ideal free safety, which is something the Jaguars have been looking for for years.
If I'm general manager Dave Caldwell, I'm giving Gipson's agent a call next Monday when the NFL Legal Tampering Period begins. What about you? Is Gipson a guy you'd want to see the Jaguars target?