The Jacksonville Jaguars once again spent a whole lot of money this offseason in an effort to upgrade their defense. One of the pillars of that spending spree was cornerback A.J. Bouye, who came from over from the Texans on a five-year, $67.5 million contract that contains $26 million in guarantees.
Moving to Jacksonville means Bouye is now paired with second-year corner Jalen Ramsey, who excelled during his first season after being chosen with the No. 5 overall pick by the Jags a year ago. The duo is already being touted as one of the best cornerback tandems in the league, and Bouye is excited to get on the field and prove they belong in that conversation.
Here are his thoughts, via an interview with NFL.com:
[Jalen Ramsey] is an outgoing guy,
but he's very athletic and a hard worker. We've been working out together a lot, and when we worked out together before OTAs, we just did extra stuff after workouts. And you can see that he wants to be great and we were just pushing each other.
It's an honor, especially coming from Ike [Taylor].
I watched Ike growing up with the Steelers, and we worked out together in Orlando with Tom Shaw. I learned a lot from him coming out and just to hear him recognize how good we can be, I'm excited to try to live up to the hype. We know there's going to be a lot of people watching, but we're very excited.
It's tough to say right now, because we haven't been in games together yet. We're physical corners and we like to tackle. We like to play aggressive. We're going to be in your face. We're going to play tight coverage. We're going to come hit, talk trash, all that. There's a lot of great corners in the league, and it's an honor to be considered a top tandem. We just want to go out there and prove that we can be.
Bouye and Ramsey are a new, young tandem and one that hasn't played together yet. If they both play up to their full capabilities, they should be right in the "best cornerback duo" mix alongside Chris Harris and Aqib Talib of the Broncos, Janoris Jenkins and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie of the Giants, Malcolm Butler and Stephon Gilmore of the Patriots and Casey Hayward and Jason Verrett of the Chargers.
If the Jags get that level of cornerback play and Calais Campbell fortifies the defensive front, they could actually make a leap into the upper echelon of defenses this coming season. That would take a lot of pressure off Blake Bortles and the offense to carry the team, and maybe, finally, lead the Jaguars back to respectability.
