Who Will Win Jacksonville Jaguars' Free Safety Battle?

There are various positional battles happening within the Jacksonville Jaguars' roster, and most of them deal with a veteran facing a rookie.

The free safety position is no different, as veteran Sergio Brown is taking on rookie James Sample for the starting spot.

Both Brown and Sample are new additions to the Jaguars. Sample is a fourth-round pick from this year's NFL draft, whereas Brown is a free-agent signing. Their age and experience are the major differences, but it goes deeper than that.

Brown went to Notre Dame for four years in college and slowly worked his way up to a starting spot for the Fighting Irish. He started a total of 18 games and tallied 78 tackles over those two years.

Sample initially went to Washington for his first two years, but after not seeing a lot of playing time with the Huskies, he transferred to American River College. After excelling in his junior year, he got his shot as an immediate starter for Louisville.

Brown and Sample took different routes in college, but overall, neither were four-year starters.

Brown has been in the NFL for five seasons now but only has 11 overall starts—three with the New England Patriots and eight with the Indianapolis Colts.

His lack of starting experience drops him to a level similar to Sample's, especially considering Sample has significantly improved throughout college.

Sample obviously wasn't at the level to compete with Washington's depth, but switching over to JUCO really sharpened him up—as it does to most players who make the change. Sample is great proof of the impact a year at a JUCO can have, as evidenced by his four interceptions, eight passes defended and 74 solo tackles.

So while Brown has experience with top NFL teams, Sample is up-and-coming—or at least appears to be. The Jaguars have to decide whether they want the player with a ceiling or the player with a floor.

When breaking down their skills, it's fair to say that Brown is currently the better overall player. He's improved his ball skills (six passes defended in 2014) and has consistently gotten more aware and intelligent each season.

However, it's obvious that Sample isn't far behind Brown in his skills. Despite being a strong safety last season, he showed that he's got great technical ability, can fight off receivers and even bring down interceptions with ease.

Sample and Brown are both experienced in the strong safety and free safety positions, and in terms of talent and ability at the moment, they're pretty similar.

And this similarity will ultimately boil their battle down to offseason performance.

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There are pros and cons to both Sample and Brown, but at this point, it will come down to how well they do against the same competition. With a young and talented receiver corps on hand, they will both receive a fair, tough test to help the Jaguars evaluate them.

This is when Sample needs to seize the job, and I think he will get it because of their equality in practice.

At the end of the day, stripping away the filters and finding who can perform as well as what they contribute as a team player is the best method.

Sample has the ability, and while he may not be as athletic as Brown—this is based on Brown's pro day and Sample's showing at the NFL Scouting Combine, so it's debatable how close their athleticism actually is—he's definitely ready for the physical demands of the NFL.

He's already been impressive in the rookie minicamp and showed that he's remained focused through the offseason coming up to the draft. Some players tend to get out of shape once they finish their college career and look to the draft, but Sample has not.

Sample has all the qualities needed to succeed in his first season. It's just a case of establishing his dominance. I expect Sample to win the job early.

Sample should become another young starter in an already-inexperienced secondary, but it should pay off in the long run. Getting these players to play and earn experience together will benefit all the players and the Jaguars as a whole.

There's no guarantee that Sample will get the job, but there's really no reason he shouldn't if he can perform in practice. At this point, it seems to be a matter of time before he claims the starting spot.

All stats were provided by ESPN.com unless otherwise stated. Predraft information courtesy of NFLDraftScout.com and NFL.com.

Evan Reier is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report covering the Jacksonville Jaguars. Follow Evan on Twitter at @evanreier.