As the NFL's year-round calendar marches on, we have a brief stretch before the combine in Indianapolis, the start of free agency, and this year's NFL draft to take a closer look at what has become of the Jacksonville Jaguars' selections from the 2025 draft.

 The Jags drafted nine players last year. Cornerback/receiver and Heisman Trophy-winner Travis Hunter was the No. 2 overall pick, and the Jaguars traded up to get him.  

The team's next two selections were back-to-back picks from the Round 3 -- defensive back Caleb Ransaw out of Tulane at No. 88 overall and offensive lineman Wyatt Milum from West Virginia at 89th.

We continue our Class of 2025 retrospective with Ransaw, who didn't see any playing time in his rookie season, but who brings real promise to the Jaguars' defensive schemes for 2026.

Jacksonville had no second-round selections, after trading the one the team had to the Cleveland Browns as part of the blockbuster deal that allowed the Jags to move up to No. 2 from No. 5 overall to select Hunter.

Caleb Ransaw landed in the Jaguars' lap at No. 88 overall after they made another trade earlier in Round 3. (Such draft-days wrangling isn't unusual, however much it blows up even the most prudent and slaved-over mock drafts.) The Jags dealt two 2025 picks (No. 70 in the third round and 182nd in the fourth) and a sixth-round pick in 2026 to the Detroit Lions, who picked up the 102nd selection in Round 3 in 2025 as well as two third-round picks in 2026. 

Ransaw seemed like a gamble as the Jaguars' second selection in last year's draft -- then-new general manager James Gladstone called him a "draft crush." With his college play, showing at the 2024 Senior Bowl, and his results at the 2025 combine, NFL prospect analysts saw the raw, but athletic DB as a fourth-round pick -- as a likely backup with the potential to become a starter.

From the small town of Harvest, Alabama, halfway between Nashville to the north and Huntsville to the south, Ransaw played for Troy for three seasons before transferring to Tulane for the 2024 season, following Troy coach Jon Sumrall to New Orleans after Sumrall accepted the head coach job with the Green Wave. (Sumrall is now the head coach at Florida.) He was a work-in-progress throughout college, becoming a full-time starter in his final season with the Trojans and also with Tulane, where he earned third-team All-American Athletic Conference honors.

"He was somebody that really sparked my interest once I got on the job here," Gladstone told reporters. "One of the things that really jumps out more than anything is  (his) versatility."

Once Ransaw was in the fold in Jacksonville, the Jags shifted the 5-foot-11, 197-pounder from cornerback to safety. In Anthony Campanile's defense, Ransaw's athleticism, speed and versatility was seen as a good fit for what the Jags' then-new defensive coordinator called "a 4-3 with some 3-4 spacing" and "a lot of multiplicity."

That plan, which sometimes included packages of five defensive backs, resulted in a complete 180 for the team's defense from 2024, when it ranked 31st in yards allowed (389.9 per game) and 28th in points allowed (25.6 per game) under coach Doug Pederson and defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen. Both were let go after the 2024 Jags finished 4-13.

In Campanile's first year in Jacksonville, the Jaguars fielded one with the NFL's best run defenses, setting franchise records with 85.6 rushing yards allowed per game.

The Jaguars' pass rush has room for improvement heading into free agency and the 2026 draft. But Jacksonville's secondary was a menace to NFL offenses throughout Campanile's first season at its helm. Minus the team's new blood, with Ransaw out and Hunter done after seven games, the defense tallied 31 takeaways -- 22 of them interceptions -- during the regular season, ranking second behind the Chicago Bears for the most takeaways in the league.

Jacksonville became the first team in NFL history to produce 30-plus takeaways after totaling 10-or-fewer the season prior. (The Jags totaled just nine takeaways -- six of them fumble recoveries -- in 2024.) Campanile's unit ranked eighth in the league in scoring defense (19.8 points per game).

How Ransaw might eventually fit in to one of the league's best ball-hawking teams remains to be seen. 

Ransaw had foot surgery for an injury he suffered in training camp and was placed on injured reserve for the entirety of the 2025 season.

While recovering and rehabbing from surgery, Ransaw was on injured reserve rather than the Jags' depth chart for 2025, and it remains a mystery at this early stage what plans Jacksonville has for their untested young safety.

Gladstone was sanguine with regard to his hobbled rookie class.

"Injuries are something that take place over the course of a natural season," he said after the team's first-round exit from the playoffs. "And for it to happen to a few of our rookies over the course of this first year is, on a level, disappointing. Would have loved to see more."

The Jaguars' secondary is studded with players headed for free agency, significantly cornerbacks Greg Newsome II and Montaric Brown, safety Andrew Wingard, and linebacker Devin Lloyd.

The team's safety unit, already without Ransaw, underwent major changes to begin and throughout this past season. Darnell Savage was released after the Jags' Week 2 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Veteran Eric Murray, signed in March 2025, was placed on IR along with Hunter on Oct. 31 with a neck injury; he returned to limited action in Week 14 and got his first sack of the season against the New York Jets in Week 15.

Antonio Johnson, who was not expected to start going into the season, turned out to be the Jags' standout safety, intercepting five passes -- one a pick-six against the Tennessee Titans in Week 18. A fifth-round pick in 2023, Johnson also had two sacks last season on a defensive squad that ranked 27th in the league with an average 1.8 sacks per game. Though he started just seven games, Johnson's stellar play kept him on the field all season as a necessary part of the Jags' secondary.

Wingard, in the final season of a three-year extension signed in 2023, had a solid season, with a career-high nine passes defensed, 84 tackles, 45 solo -- both the second-most of his seven-year career -- along with one interception and one fumble recovery, despite missing time mid-season to a concussion. It's unclear ahead of free agency, which opens March 11, the 29-year-old, who signed with Jacksonville as an undrafted free agent in 2019 out of Wyoming, will return to the Jaguars' fold under a new contract.

Rayuan Lane, a sixth-round pick in last year's draft, saw action in 12 games his rookie season, shoring up Jacksonville's unpredictable safety ranks.

What the thinking and planning are at One Shipyard Way as the Jaguars' front office prepares for free agency, the draft, and the season ahead, one thing seems certain: the Jaguars are looking forward to both Hunter and Ransaw returning to the field.

"With Caleb, obviously the fact that he never got a chance to even step on the grass for a regular season game was not ideal, but both of those guys are attacking their rehab process in the way that you would expect," Gladstone said in the team's end-of-season press conference on Jan. 14. "[We're] really looking forward to what their future holds for us and their place on the football team into 2026 and beyond."

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Next in our "What Ever Happened to Jaguars' Class of 2025" series, we'll look at Jacksonville's other third-round draft pick, No. 89 overall Wyatt Milum.

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