Tashaun Gipson Sr. let out a long sigh Tuesday when a reporter asked about the jersey number he has sported practicing with Jacksonville this week.
“This right here, you all are not used to this. I’m not used to this, and don’t get used to this, alright?” Gipson conveyed while periodically looking down at his uniform. “47, I don’t know, man.”
Gipson’s preferred digit was unavailable when he signed with the Jaguars for the second time in his career on Sunday. Jacksonville’s rookie kicker, Cam Little, currently occupies the number.
“39 always has a special place in my heart,” Gipson said.
For good reason, especially in Duval.
The five-year, $36 million contract Gipson signed with the Jaguars in 2016 was the longest and most lucrative of his nine deals over 12 years with five NFL teams.
It was with Jacksonville when Gipson first reached the postseason, during the Jaguars’ miraculous run to the 2017-18 AFC Championship.
After beating the odds as an undrafted rookie with Cleveland in 2012 and intercepting 14 passes in four seasons with the Browns, Gipson stacked six interceptions and defended 16 in three years and 48 starts with the Jaguars, before his March 2019 release for salary cap purposes.
“Just the way that the league works, obviously it’s hard to kind of circle back to where you’ve come from,” Gipson expressed. “But this was always one of my most favorite places that I’ve played in.
“I have nothing but the most respect and love for the city. It was just a place that helped me turn into a man. Coming off of Cleveland, the city welcomed me. So it’s always fun to come back to a familiar place and I’m excited to be back.”
The Jaguars reunited with Gipson after five seasons apart this week. But on terms that are much different than last time.
Only three of Gipson’s former Jacksonville teammates remain with the squad, punter Logan Cooke and offensive linemen Cam Robinson and Tyler Shatley.
Gipson is now the most experienced player on the team, ahead of Shatley in that regard by two seasons. He has been in the NFL for at least twice as long as 86.8% of the players on Jacksonville’s 91-player preseason roster.
“The guys have welcomed me in … I’m old enough to be some of these guys’ dads, man,” said Gipson. “Some of these guys, I remember [rookie cornerback] Jarrian [Jones] was just like, ‘I used to watch you in seventh grade.’ And I was just like, ‘Man, don’t tell me that anymore.’ ”
The general manager who signed and cut Gipson, Dave Caldwell, is long gone, replaced by Trent Baalke. So is Tom Coughlin, Jacksonville’s top decision-maker as executive vice president of football operations from 2017-19.
The Jaguars are also three head coaches removed from Gipson’s first in Jacksonville, Gus Bradley, and two from Doug Marrone, who led the 2017 team.
Doug Pederson holds that position now, and while he wasn’t in town for Gipson’s first stint with the Jaguars, he cited the safety’s familiarity with the franchise as a benefit of his signing, paired with his extensive playing experience given the team’s need for quality depth at his position.
The Jaguars have eyed seasoned safety help following a training camp injury to Andrew Wingard, leading to Gipson and Adrian Amos‘ acquisitions.
However, Gipson faces a six-game suspension to begin the 2024 campaign for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy this offseason, after starting 75 games for three different teams in his five years removed from Jacksonville.
“[Gipson and Wingard are] very similar because they’ll probably miss about the same time,” Pederson explained Monday. “And I’m saying that to say, you know, obviously [under the premise of] Tashaun making the 53 and things of that nature at the end of camp.
“But for us too, it’s a veteran player that we’re familiar with who gives us more depth, you know, gives us an opportunity at safety that, you know, right now kind of fills a spot.”
Whether it is only for two weeks before the NFL’s Aug. 27 roster cut-down day or into the season, Gipson believes he can be hugely influential on Jacksonville’s young talent.
Beyond the nostalgia factor drawn from his time on one of Jacksonville’s best teams, Gipson has started seven playoff games since leaving the Jaguars, including six with the 49ers over the last two seasons, most recently in San Francisco’s Super Bowl LVIII loss to Kansas City in February.
“They’re all physically talented or else they wouldn’t be here, but a lot of the things are above the shoulders. Some things talent can’t do: age and wisdom, and I’m a little long in the tooth,” Gipson remarked.
“I try to spread wisdom as much as I can to these young guys and hopefully, it sticks to them. It could just be that extra play that might be a game changer that could get us to where we need to go.”
He remembered how impactful it was for Jacksonville’s 2017 roster — “a collection of some of the best football players I played with,” Gipson proclaimed — to be loaded with players who had been there and done that.
The Jaguars added defensive lineman Calais Campbell and defensive backs A.J. Bouye and Barry Church that offseason, for example. The trio had combined for nine playoff starts before signing with Jacksonville. Lineman Malik Jackson had seven postseason starts of his own upon signing with the club the year before.
“I look back at the time when I was a young guy here and we had that push in 2017, they brought guys in like Calais Campbell. You think about [it], those guys were huge for this team,” Gipson recalled. “You bring in guys like Calais and guys like Malik who had that playoff experience. That was huge for us.
“We were young guys. I was the oldest guy in the room at 25 years old at the time. Looking back on that, [Gipson can offer] just the knowledge of the game. Everybody’s physically gifted, but the thing about it, mentally it’s just the understanding … just little tidbits that you can give these young guys.”
Gipson’s Jaguars fell one game short of their ultimate goal when they won the AFC South in 2017, losing the conference championship to the Patriots despite Jacksonville holding a 20-10 lead over New England early in the fourth quarter.
Things have changed around EverBank Stadium since that game and Jacksonville’s 5-11 collapse in the season to follow, greatly.
For one, Gipson had never seen Jacksonville’s Miller Electric Center in person, the Jaguars’ practice facility that opened last year.
And when Gipson last wore black and teal, the highest-paid players in Jaguars’ history in average annual value were Campbell, Jackson and Bouye. Including Gipson, all four signed with Jacksonville via free agency.
Now, three of Jacksonville’s four historical top-earners were drafted by the Jaguars and remain cornerstones of the club’s roster: Quarterback Trevor Lawrence, edge rusher Joshua Hines-Allen and cornerback Tyson Campbell.
Although 2023 ended in heartbreak with Jacksonville eliminated from playoff contention in Week 18, Lawrence, Hines-Allen and Campbell each played crucial parts in the team’s first consecutive winning seasons since 2004-05 over the last two years.
“You can see that things are turning around here,” Gipson said. “Obviously on the field and off the field.”
The Jaguars released Gipson, Jackson and others to make free-agent quarterback Nick Foles the franchise’s highest-paid player in 2019, a series of moves that backfired tremendously.
Holding no ill will, Gipson is happy to be back with the Jaguars. Considering their new-look core of homegrown starters and facility upgrades either completed or approved by Jacksonville’s City Council, he might have struggled at first to recognize them.
