Top Jaguars free agents of the Dave Caldwell era: No. 4 Barry Church

We’re counting down the top Jacksonville Jaguars free agents of the Dave Caldwell era. In at No. 4 is Barry Church.

Anyone who’s watched so much as a minute of the Jaguars this year know that the team upgraded their strong safety position 10 or 20 times over with the signing of Barry Church at this time last year.

But it’s Church’s bravado and attitude that amplified what Jalen Ramsey was trying to do all by himself before he came to the team.

Let’s start in July when he was asked about the Dallas Cowboys, his former team:

“The culture is pretty much the same,” Church said. “We have a real close group like we did in Dallas. We have a real close group here. We had a real close group, but I was just a little bit younger when I was in Dallas. I feel like we have a lot more talent than we did over there. We just have to keep plugging away and get ready for Week 1.”

And then there was this early in the season against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The end, my word.

The physicality Church brought through the end of the season was something missing for years at the strong safety position.

Church’s talent and intelligence are obvious and it’ll be exciting to see him grow with this secondary over the next couple of seasons. He ended his first season playing in all 16 regular season games with 72 tackles, four interceptions, eight passes defended, and 1.5 sacks.