Jacksonville Jaguars Re-Sign Jeremy Mincey: Deal Analysis and Grade

Defensive end Jeremy Mincey re-signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars Tuesday night. 

While Mincey was drawing interest from several teams around the NFL, including the Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns, the Jaguars were ironing out the final details of a four-year, $27.2 million contract that will keep Mincey in Jackonsville for the foreseeable future.

Aaron Wilson of Scout.com was the first to report the agreement, and Tania Ganuli of the Florida Times-Union confirmed the deal, adding that Mincey's contract has $9 million in guaranteed money.

Few have a solid knowledge base on Mincey's talent outside Jacksonville, but the 28-year-old defensive end broke into the starting lineup in Week 10 of the 2010 season and has been one of the NFL's better edge-rushers since. 

In the 24 games following his promotion, Mincey has tallied 13 sacks and four forced fumbles. He finished with a career-high eight sacks during 2011, but five came against the offensively-challenged Colts.

Still, a four-year deal with just $9 million in guarantees for an up-and-coming player looks like a good deal for the Jags. There is certainly value in keeping Mincey in Jacksonville. 

According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Mincey was the 12th-best 4-3 defensive end for a top-10 NFL defense last season. His final stat line also included 11 quarterback hits, 38 pressures and 35 "stops," which PFF counts as a tackle that constitutes a negative play for the offense.

The site gave Mincey a positive grade both as a pass-rusher and against the run.  

The one interesting subplot of this agreement is that the Jaguars are now unlikely to pursue free-agent DE-LB Mario Williams, who many considered a target for Jacksonville on the open market. They may still look into the former No. 1 overall pick, but it appears more and more likely that any serious pursuit of Williams has been put to the backburner.

Still, since we don't know if getting Williams to Jacksonville was ever a real possibility, we can't speculate on whether the Jaguars should have focused their attention on free agency's top pass-rusher.

What we do know is that keeping Mincey, an emerging pass-rusher in his own right, was an important agreement for the Jaguars to make before the rest of the NFL sharks smelt blood in the water. If he continues to improve at the rate he has the past two seasons, Mincey's deal will look like a genius move.

Grade: A-