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Quentin Jammer

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Quentin Jammer
refer to caption
Jammer with the San Diego Chargers in 2011
No. 23
Position:Cornerback
Personal information
Born: (1979-06-19) June 19, 1979 (age 45)
Angleton, Texas, U.S.
Height:6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight:204 lb (93 kg)
Career information
High school:Angleton (TX)
College:Texas (1997–2001)
NFL draft:2002 / round: 1 / pick: 5
Career history
Career highlights and awards
Career NFL statistics
Total tackles:733
Forced fumbles:7
Pass deflections:130
Interceptions:21
Defensive touchdowns:1
Stats at Pro Football Reference

Quentin Tremaine Jammer (born June 19, 1979) is an American former professional football player who played twelve seasons in the National Football League (NFL) as a cornerback for the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos, with whom he went to Super Bowl XLVIII. He played college football for the University of Texas where he earned unanimous All-American honors and became a first round draft pick of the San Diego Chargers in the 2002 NFL draft.

Early life

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Jammer was born in Bay City, Texas, and attended Angleton High School. In high school football, he was a two-time all-district safety, cornerback, linebacker, wide receiver, and quarterback as a senior, and was the district's defensive most valuable player. He also won three letters in track and field, and participated in the long jump, 100-meter dash, and the 200-meter dash. In 1997, he was selected for the state all-star football team, which included future San Diego Chargers teammates LaDainian Tomlinson and Drew Brees.[1]

College career

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Jammer attended the University of Texas at Austin, and played for coach Mack Brown's Texas Longhorns football team from 1997 to 2001, though he sat out the 1999 season after suffering a shoulder injury in the first game. As a freshman, he played in every game and was a starter by the start of his sophomore year. He was a first-team All-Big 12 Conference selection following his junior and senior seasons, and was recognized as a unanimous first-team All-American as a senior in 2001.[2] He was named team co-MVP his senior year and recorded seven interceptions as well as 195 tackles throughout his collegiate career. He set the school record for pass breakups with 57 and helped the team win the 1999 Cotton Bowl Classic, the 1999 and 2001 Big 12 South Championships and the 2001 Holiday Bowl.

Professional career

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Pre-draft measurables
Height Weight Arm length Hand span 40-yard dash Vertical jump Broad jump Bench press
5 ft 11+78 in
(1.83 m)
204 lb
(93 kg)
32 in
(0.81 m)
9+12 in
(0.24 m)
4.49 s 36 in
(0.91 m)
10 ft 4 in
(3.15 m)
18 reps
All values from NFL Combine[3][4]

San Diego Chargers

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Jammer was selected by the San Diego Chargers with the fifth overall pick in the first round of the 2002 NFL draft.[5] Due to a holdout to start the 2002 season, he was not ready to make an impact his rookie year and started only four games. The following year, in 2003, Jammer started at the cornerback position. Coming into the NFL, Jammer was touted as being a physical player rather than a finesse cover cornerback. The transition to the NFL was difficult because the physical style of play that brought him so much success in college often resulted in pass interference calls. Jammer led the NFL in pass interference calls in 2004 with eight. Jammer suffered another setback in his development when the NFL made an officiating point of emphasis in 2004 that penalized defensive players for touching receivers further than five yards past the line of scrimmage. In an interview with Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News, Jammer said, "All the rule changes for the offense have altered the game. It's turned football into track with pads. Before you know it, the receivers are going to have a free run at you. You can't touch them at all. The rules got me away from my game," Jammer said. "When physical corners start finessing it, that's not their style."[6]

Jammer was criticized for his lack of interceptions, though he was still considered a valuable part of the team.[7] In 62 career games leading up to the 2006 season, Jammer had only recorded six interceptions, including just two total in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. When the Chargers extended Jammer's contract during the 2006 offseason, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune wrote that "... he is widely considered by Chargers fans to be among the team's weak links, mostly for the fact he has just six career interceptions."[8] Acee later wrote of Jammer: "In recent seasons Jammer has been without a doubt the most vilified Charger. It was difficult to tell whether he was disliked (perhaps too mild a term) more for what he did (get called for a lot of penalties) or what he didn't do (make interceptions). It's possible in the past decade there has been only one other Charger (do we really need to say his name?) who drew more wrath from the faithful."[9]

During Jammer's first four years with the Chargers, the team regularly finished at or near the bottom of the league in terms of pass defense. Except for the 2003 season, the team was in the bottom five in terms of pass defense every year from 2002 to 2005. This led many Charger fans to become frustrated with Jammer, as due to his high draft position he became a symbol for the Chargers' failure to assemble a solid secondary. In turn, Jammer was often at odds with fans over their criticisms. In a September 2005 interview, Jammer said of the fans: "Those people are idiots. (They) don't know anything about football...They're not going to bother me."[10] Many fans could often be heard chanting, "Lito, Lito" every time Jammer was beaten by a receiver, a reference to Lito Sheppard, the two-time Pro-Bowl cornerback of the Philadelphia Eagles who was taken after Jammer in the 2002 draft.

In his later years with the team, supporters of Jammer noted that the Chargers had a poor pass defense not because of Jammer, but because of their anemic pass rush. But in 2005, the Chargers had one of the top front 7s in the NFL, featuring Pro Bowler and NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award winner Shawne Merriman and Pro Bowler Jamal Williams. Despite this fearsome pass rush, the Chargers still finished 28th in the league in pass defense.[11] A reason for this may be that the 3-4 defense, which the Chargers used under Ted Cottrell, typically has larger, slower players in the front seven than in the respective positions in the 4–3, leaving more pressure on the defensive backs.

During training camp Jammer signed a new five-year contract extension that ran through the 2012 season. The 2006 offseason saw an overhaul of the Chargers' secondary after many disappointing years. The team signed former Carolina Panthers safety Marlon McCree as a free agent, and they spent a first-round draft choice on cornerback Antonio Cromartie. McCree's veteran presence had an immediate impact on the secondary, including Jammer, who surpassed his 2005 interception total in only the third game of the season. Although Jammer only recorded one more interception in the remaining 13 games, the 2006 season was his best and most consistent as a pro. Towards the middle of the season, Jammer showed signs of turning into a shutdown cornerback, and QBs rarely threw at him. He closed out the Chargers 21–14 win over Oakland on November 26 with an interception on the first play after the two-minute warning. He finished the season leading the team in interceptions with 4 and with a career-high in tackles helping the Chargers finished 13th in the league in pass defense.

Jammer critics point to the 3rd and 10, long bomb Reche Caldwell caught in the divisional playoff game against the New England Patriots as a sign that Jammer was still not meeting expectations. Jammer, in blitz-scheme, short area press coverage, was not able to help the defense recover from an ineffective jailhouse blitz and Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady comfortably stepped up in the pocket to loft a deep strike to Caldwell. Despite Brady's completion to Caldwell, Jammer had a strong day limiting Patriot receivers, in the 2007 AFC Championship game against the Patriots, he had an outstanding performance, limiting Randy Moss to 1 reception for 12 yards, and intercepting Tom Brady once.

In week 6 of the 2012 season, Jammer recorded his first interception returned for a touchdown in his career on a pass from Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.[12]

Denver Broncos

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On May 29, 2013, Jammer signed with the Denver Broncos.[13] The Broncos went to Super Bowl XLVIII that year, but Jammer was inactive for that game - a game they lost. The Broncos chose to keep Marquice Cole active instead as Jammer had "struggled down the stretch."[14] Following the season, he became a free agent and, during the following training camp time, Jammer returned to San Diego where he worked out on a full-time basis in the hopes of landing an NFL job for at least one more year, but he wasn't signed by anyone.[15] His last NFL game was the AFC Championship win against New England.

NFL career statistics

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Year Team GP Tackles Fumbles Interceptions
Cmb Solo Ast Sck FF FR Yds Int Yds Avg Lng TD PD
2002 SD 14 67 58 9 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10
2003 SD 16 71 57 14 0.0 0 1 0 4 6 2 6 0 13
2004 SD 16 62 53 9 0.0 0 0 0 1 12 12 12 0 10
2005 SD 16 72 61 11 0.0 1 0 0 1 14 14 14 0 18
2006 SD 16 78 71 7 0.0 0 0 0 4 57 14 35 0 18
2007 SD 15 61 54 7 0.0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 10
2008 SD 16 88 75 13 0.0 3 2 0 2 2 1 2 0 19
2009 SD 16 58 47 11 0.0 1 0 0 3 25 8 21 0 11
2010 SD 16 45 42 3 0.0 1 0 0 2 5 3 5 0 11
2011 SD 15 53 44 9 0.0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 8
2012 SD 16 64 55 9 0.0 1 3 0 3 89 30 80 1 9
2013 DEN 11 14 13 1 0.0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
Career[16] 183 733 630 103 0.0 7 10 0 21 210 10 80 1 140

Personal life

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Jammer golfing

Jammer has three sons.[17] His cousins are former NFL players Johnnie Lee Higgins, Cedric Woodard and Darren Woodard.[citation needed] His half-brother is NFL player Quandre Diggs.[18]

Jammer made an appearance on an episode of "E! True Hollywood Story" in 2009. Jammer appeared as himself in Season 13 episode 20, which originally aired on November 18, 2009.[19]

He later went into Jiu-Jitsu and made it to the quarterfinals of the World Master IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship in 2018.[20] He also started his own clothing company.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Football All-Stars" (PDF). Texas High School Coaches Association.
  2. ^ 2011 NCAA Football Records Book, Award Winners, National Collegiate Athletic Association, Indianapolis, Indiana, p. 11 (2011). Retrieved June 24, 2012.
  3. ^ "Quentin Jammer, Texas, CB, 2002 NFL Draft Scout, NCAA College Football". DraftScout.com. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  4. ^ "Quentin Jammer, Combine Results, CB - Texas". nflcombineresults.com. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
  5. ^ "2002 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  6. ^ Quentin Jammer Official Website - San Diego Chargers - News
  7. ^ Chargers.com - News » Headlines » Chargers realize Jammer’s value
  8. ^ SignOnSanDiego.com > San Diego Chargers - Chargers' Jammer extended five years
  9. ^ SignOnSanDiego.com > San Diego Chargers - Quentin Jammer Part II
  10. ^ Chargers' Jammer isn't big on change | The San Diego Union-Tribune
  11. ^ NFL - Statistics by Team - Yahoo! Sports
  12. ^ "Quentin Jammer pick six off Peyton Manning - NFL Videos". National Football League. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
  13. ^ Jammer Signs with Broncos
  14. ^ Gantt, Darin. "Quentin Jammer inactive for Broncos in Super Bowl". Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  15. ^ Florio, Mike (August 26, 2014). "Quentin Jammer hopes to return to NFL". Retrieved May 24, 2023.
  16. ^ "Quentin Jammer Stats". ESPN Internet Ventures. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
  17. ^ Chargers.com - Team » Roster » #23 Quentin Jammer | CB
  18. ^ Rogers, Justin (May 25, 2017). "Lions' Diggs not sweating heated competition". The Detroit News. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  19. ^ "E! True Hollywood Story".
  20. ^ "Ex-NFL star Quentin Jammer makes quarterfinals at World Master IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship". Retrieved July 11, 2023.
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