Erick Hallett II is making an early impact with the Jaguars. But he has higher goals in mind

Erick Hallett II has skills — ball skills to be precise, always handy for a defensive back, if the pun can be excused.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ sixth-round draft pick from Pittsburgh, Hallett has made a quick splash in training camp with his knack for getting his mitts on the football.

Playing both safety and nickel cornerback (he started his last 27 college games at safety and was a FWAA All-American and second-team All-ACC in 2022) Hallett has picked off two passes and knocked down four other balls through Saturday’s practice at EverBank Stadium.

He's intercepted Trevor Lawrence and C.J. Beathard and victimized all three Jaguars quarterbacks and five receivers for passes broken up.

“That’s the name of the game,” Hallett said after the Saturday practice when he tipped a Beathard pass at the goal line to prevent a touchdown. “When you’re the defensive back you want to change the game. You want to change numbers. There’s no better way to do that than get your hands on the ball.”

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Guiding lives after sports

But Hallett has other changes in mind. He wants to affect lives after he’s done affecting the flight of footballs and receiver’s patterns on the field. The Houston native who took somewhat of a roundabout path to Pitt already has one college degree in philosophy and political science and is working on a second degree in media and communications.

His next goal is law school but you might be surprised with what Hallett wants to do with a law degree in hand, in addition to his undergraduate sheepskins.

Hallett wants to become a college athletic director, and armed with multiple degrees, he thinks he can be a strong influence on student-athletes, especially the vast majority who will not play on a professional level.

“A lot of times a lot of kids don’t have a direction of where they want to go,” he said. “They want to play sports, football, basketball, run track but they don’t know what they want to do outside of that. Being in a leadership position like an AD I can help give them guidance, give the whole athletic department guidance: this is where our athletics side is going but also this is where we’re going academically, this is where we’re going life-skills wise so we can holistically navigate [after sports].”

Sounds like Hallett is versatile in all aspects of his life, not just football. But it’s that versatility, the ability to play either safety or corner, as well as special teams that attracted the Jaguars when their turn came in the sixth round.

“He's played some safety. He's played some nickel … where does he best fit?” Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said after the draft.

Young DBs making a splash

Hallett is among a group of young defensive backs who could make the final cutdown day interesting. Safety Antonio Johnson and cornerback Christian Braswell have also played well among the drafted rookies and second-year cornerbacks Buster Brown and Gregory Junior have made noticeable strides from last season.

Johnson was taken in the fifth round and Braswell was the 202nd selection in the sixth round, six picks ahead of Hallett.

Special-teams acumen may be the tie-breaker in some cases and Hallett has shown a willingness and progress in that regard.

“Erick’s Hallett’s done a good job,” said special teams coordinator Heath Farwell. “He’s most improved from what he did in the spring, which is a great sign of where he started, coming through to training camp.”

Hallett has the right attitude about the often thankless job of playing special teams.

“Anything to get on the field,” he said. “There are three phases to this game. You’ve got to win offense, defense and special teams in the NFL. I can help the team in two aspects.”

From Houston to Pitt

Hallett was a three-star defensive back at Houston Cy-Fair High School and was headed for Tulane until he heard from Pitt defensive coordinator Randy Bates, who had been the linebackers coach at Northwestern from 2006-2017 and recruited Hallett for the Wildcats.

Pittsburgh didn’t have much of a recruiting presence in Houston, but Bates made sure it did in at least one regard: luring Hallett to play for the Panthers.

“I took a recruiting visit there about a week before signing day and it was a leap of faith for me,” he said.

Hallett redshirted one season, then played mostly special teams in 2019 and 2020. But he started the last four games of the 2020 season and wound up starting his last 31 games in college.

As a senior, Hallett was all over the stat sheets, with three interceptions, 12 passes broken up, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. He was a Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist and ended his career with seven solo tackles against UCLA in the Sun Bowl.

Hallett fitting in

Displaying a similar nose for the ball as he did in college, Hallett said he’s feeling more comfortable in the defense as training camp goes on.

“That’s allowing me to open my vision,” he said. “Coming into OTAs, you’re a little timid, you don’t know the playbook, you don’t know the guys, you don’t know how you fit into the scheme. Now you see the vision the team has for you a little bit more and you’re more comfortable with the playbook and more comfortable on the field.”

There's more camp ahead for the team than behind, plus three preseason games for Hallett and the rest of the rookies and younger players to show their stuff. It’s possible that Hallett could be the answer to the Jaguars’ efforts to find a nickel cornerback to compete with veteran Tre Herndon, or he might be the team’s newest special-teams demon.

Hallett said it’s a challenge to learn multiple positions in the NFL. But if it increases his chances of playing, he’s embracing it.

The only issue is whether he’ll have more degrees or positions by the time he’s done.

“It’s hard to learn all three positions in the [defensive] backfield but at the same time, I’m not just learning one side – I'm learning the whole defense,” he said. “I see how it all works.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Erick Hallett II has a nose for the ball and clear goals for the future