JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Aaron Colvin walked around the Jacksonville Jaguars locker room on Monday hugging nearly everyone he saw in the locker room.
Not as congratulations for finally picking up the team’s first victory -- though he certainly was happy about it -- but because he had been away for a month while serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy. He was just happy to see them again.
“It felt like a year,” said Colvin, who spent the month working out in Dallas. “I told everybody in here, ‘It felt like I haven’t seen y’all in a year.’ I’m in here hugging guys like I haven’t seen them in over a decade. It feels good just to be around. These are my brothers. There’s really no other feeling like that.”
Colvin’s return comes as the Jaguars are on a bye week, which gives the coaching staff extra time to figure out how they want to integrate him back into the defense. Colvin has started 16 games in his first two seasons at cornerback and nickelback and has 100 tackles, four sacks, nine pass breakups, and a fumble return for a touchdown.
“We’ll have a lot of competition taking place,” coach Gus Bradley said. “We had a good idea of what he can bring, seeing him in training camp. I know just visiting with him, he’s in great shape and ready to go. That’s another part of our conversation over the bye week, how that will play out.”
It looks like Colvin is headed for nickelback since outside corners Jalen Ramsey and Prince Amukamara have played so well. Ramsey, according to senior vice president of football administration and technology Tony Khan, has the most tackles of any cornerback in the NFL without missing a tackle (17) and he’s been the Jaguars’ best cover corner through four games.
Amukamara, who missed two games with an ankle injury, was very good in training camp and the preseason. He did not start against Indianapolis in his first game back from that injury but it’s likely that he will start opposite Ramsey going forward after what happened with Davon House against the Colts.
House committed three penalties -- a defensive holding call that was declined and two pass interference penalties for 44 yards that helped extend Colts drives that resulted in 10 points -- and was benched against the Colts.
“I think that with the three [penalties], sometimes when you see a guy and he’s going through a pass interference, another one and another one, that’s hard,” Bradley said. “I think when you pull him out and you talk to him and say, ‘Let’s see where you’re at. Is this shaking you? Is this that point where you’re like I’m really frustrated I feel like I didn’t do anything and it got called and maybe your wits aren’t with you right now?’”
So if the Jaguars do go with Ramsey and Amukamara as the starters and Colvin as the nickelback, that means House goes to the bench. The Jaguars signed him to a four-year deal worth $25 million ($10 million guaranteed) in March 2015 and he set a franchise record with 23 pass breakups last season, but he’s had a rough start to the season.
The Jaguars are scheduled to pay House $6 million annually in 2017 and 2018 but there’s no guaranteed money or dead money in the deal so the Jaguars could cut him after the season without negatively impacting their salary cap.
The development of cornerback Josh Johnson, who knocked away Andrew Luck's fourth-down pass to Dwayne Allen late in the Jaguars’ 30-27 victory, will have an impact on whether the Jaguars keep House, too.
The Jaguars were granted a roster extension by the NFL and don’t have to activate Colvin off the reserve/suspended list until next week. They’ll have to cut someone to make room, and that likely will be cornerback Dwayne Gratz. The third-round pick in 2013 has started 25 games but was inactive against the Colts.