Jaguars Secure Free-Agent Defenders Brown, Gardeck

The Jacksonville Jaguars are keeping Montaric Brown in their secondary, re-signing the cornerback on Monday to a three-year, $33 million, according to multiple ESPN reporters.

The team also announced the re-signing of linebacker Dennis Gardeck, who'd signed with Jacksonville last year after spending his first seven season with the Arizona Cardinals. An undrafted free agent out of Sioux Falls in 2018, Gardeck initially signed a one-year deal with Jacksonville in June 2025 for a reported $2 million.

Gardeck agreed on Monday to two-year contract worth $12 million, according to Spotrac.

A seventh-round draft pick in 2022, Brown has worked his way into a significant role in what has become, under defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile, one of the league's elite ball-hawking defenses. Moving into a starting position in 2025, "Buster" Brown led the Jags with 12 pass breakups and added two picks to the team's 22 interceptions -- second only to the Chicago Bears' 13 for the season. Brown also finished the season with 51 tackles.

General manager James Gladstone gave Brown a vote of confidence in the team's end-of-season meeting with reporters on Jan. 14, noting how the fourth-year defensive back was a good fit for Campanile's zone-coverage defense.

"[H]e's very comfortable operating in it -- he's very effective in it. I think that certainly gave us the confidence," Gladstone said. "I think that gives a coaching staff certainly a willingness to give it an attempt even if walking into the season or looking outward in you may not have identified Buster as being a starting cornerback."

Gladstone said it made the team proud  "to see his output continue to climb over the course of the season and make a real dent in our result."

Ahead of signing Brown to a new deal, the Jaguars made several moves to work their way into salary-cap compliancy ahead of the new league year, which begins Wednesday. Jacksonville was roughly between $9 million and $11.5 million above 2025's NFL-mandated salary cap; while the salary-cap ceiling increased by $22 million or so to an estimated $303 million for 2026, that wiggle room didn't mean Jacksonville was free of its cap overages.

To meet salary-cap strictures and to create cap availability in order to to negotiate with their own free agents and possibly free agents they may target in free agency, the Jags on Friday released news they had restructured the contracts of offensive lineman Patrick Mekari and safety Eric Murray, closing their cap overage by an estimated $10.7 million.

The team also reworked the 2025 contract of cornerback Jourdan Lewis to free up another $6 million, a move that put the Jags in the black just days ahead of the new league year.

Lewis' new three-year contract with the Jaguars is worth $30 million, with $20 million guaranteed at signing, including a $10 million signing bonus.

The Jags converted $7.7 million of Lewis' salary into a signing bonus and added three void years to the contract for salary cap purposes, according to Over the Cap, which first reported on the Lewis restructure. 

In the coming days of free agency, as the Jags look for more ways to free up cap money, news of revamps is expected for several other player contracts, including those of defensive linemen Arik Armstead, DaVon Hamilton, and Josh Hines-Allen, linebacker Foye Oluokun, and offensive linemen Walker Little and Ezra Cleveland.

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