Countdown to Training Camp '18: Barry Church

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Last July, then newly signed safety Barry Church turned some heads by declaring that the Jaguars were more talented than his former team the Dallas Cowboys. Fast forward a year later and it’s clear that Church’s prediction was accurate.  

Position: Strong Safety

2017 Stats: 74 tackles and 4 interceptions

2018 Projection: Stability is what Church brings to the Jaguars secondary. At 30-years-old he’s the ‘Old Soul’ in the back end of the defense. Church has a very cool, calm demeanor and is the glue guy of the most talented secondary in the NFL. 

Technically speaking Church plays strong safety but the Jaguars view him and free safety Tashaun Gipson as interchangeable. On some plays Church will line up in the box and Gipson 20-yards off the ball in the middle of the field and vice-versa. 

Jacksonville added former Alabama safety Ronnie Harrison in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft. Don’t be surprised to see Harrison glued to Church’s hip all throughout training camp to get the rookie up to speed. 

Jaguars secondary coach Perry Fewell on the leadership Barry Church provides:

“When you have a secondary, people don’t think in terms of ‘quarterback.’ Barry Church is our ‘quarterback’ in the secondary. He is our quarterback on the defense. He makes a lot of calls, checks, the motions and adjustments that we have. He is kind of the voice of reason. He is a very mature individual, and he is a very humble individual. To deal with our personalities that we have in our back row and to deal with our communication system with [defensive coordinator] Coach [Todd] Wash and relaying that information and getting everybody on the same page, Barry is invaluable from that standpoint. You have to have somebody like that to make our system or a system work. He is that kind of man.”