Montaric Brown: ‘My number gets called, I gotta step up’

When the Jacksonville Jaguars’ top cornerback Tyson Campbell pulled up grabbing his hamstring on an Indianapolis Colts punt in Week 6, it was second-year cornerback Montaric “Buster” Brown who was thrust into the lineup for the rest of the game.

Now Campbell is expected to miss Week 7 and potentially more time after that. On Tuesday, Jaguars defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell made it clear that it’ll be Brown starting in his place against the New Orleans Saints, and said that the team won’t be doing much else to compensate for the loss of Campbell.

“If you move too many people around, you’re moving too many people around,” Caldwell said. “Just put one guy in and that’s what they’re here for. We saw what [Brown] did in the offseason and what he did in training camp. He deserves to be here and gets the opportunity to go out there and play.”

Brown, a seventh round pick in the 2022 NFL draft, played 63 defensive snaps during his rookie season. After playing only one snap through the first five weeks of the 2023 season, Brown was on the field for 54 snaps Sunday against the Colts.

“I feel like it went alright,” Brown said of his performance in relief of Campbell in the locker room after the win. “I could’ve did some things better, but my number gets called, I gotta step up. Unexpected that Tyson went down so when my number got called, I had to step up and do what I had to do.”

Caldwell gave a similar assessment of Brown’s showing against the Colts, although he thought communication in the secondary, as a whole, was lacking at times Sunday.

“I thought he did good. He tackled well, he was in coverage, and communication is something that’s not just him, it’s everybody that we have to get better at,” Caldwell said. “It’s just an area where we’ll get the calls to him and let him understand the technique he’s playing. He did a decent job.”

With just a few days to prepare for his first start of the season, Brown is feeling confident that a year’s worth of development in Caldwell’s defense has him ready to go Thursday.

“I’m very much a different player [than last year],” Brown said. “I’m playing faster, I’m seeing what the offense is trying to do and I took a lot in last year, so it’s definitely helped me and I’m better this year.”