The cornerback market – because teams have three on the field an estimated 70 percent of the time these days – has become more robust in recent years and March 2016 was no exception.

Signing big contracts last off-season were the Giants’ Janoris Jenkins (five years, $62.5 million), Oakland’s Sean Smith (four years, $38 million), Cincinnati’s Adam Jones (four years, $24 million), Tampa Bay’s Brent Grimes (two years, $13.5 million), Seattle’s Jeremy Lane (four years, $23 million) and San Diego’s Casey Hayward (three years, $15.3 million).

A month later, Carolina removed the franchise tag from Josh Norman and he signed with the Redskins (five years, $75 million).

This year’s free-agent class includes the Rams’ Trumaine Johnson, Houston’s A.J. Boyue, New England’s Logan Ryan, Buffalo’s Stephon Gilmore, Dallas’ Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne and the Jaguars’ Prince Amukamara.

Last year, Amukamara left the Giants and was among the second wave of signings, joining the Jaguars on a one-year deal, a bet on himself that he could earn a multi-year deal this off-season.

Amukamara played 14 games (871 snaps) last year.

Asked if he feels better about his 2017 market than his 2016 market, Amukamara said: "Of course, yes, because of the number of games I played. And I think I showed teams some versatility because I can play nickel and that’s another tool in my tool box."

I had Amukamara on the books for only two allowed touchdowns. He had no interceptions and six pass break-ups. Quarterbacks had a 93.3 rating when targeting him in man coverage.

The guess is Amukamara thinks he should be paid No. 1-1A cornerback money or an average of $8-9 million per year. The Jaguars have a No. 1 cornerback (Jalen Ramsey). Do they think Amukamara is a reliable No. 2? If so, they have the resources to offer him big money. If not, they may look elsewhere.

New Jaguars football boss Tom Coughlin and defensive backs coach Perry Fewell have significant knowledge of what Amukamara can do.

Coughlin’s last five years with the Giants were Amukamara’s first five NFL seasons.

Amukamara’s reaction to Coughlin re-joining the Jaguars?

"It was just, ‘Wow. Just great,’" Amukamara said. "A football guy. A successful guy. And a great person. Whatever reasons you have for wanting the organization to be successful, it’s a great start to hire T.C. And I said that before he was hired so it’s nothing new."

One of Coughlin and coach Doug Marrone’s first hires was Fewell, who was the Giants’ defensive coordinator for Amukamara’s first four years.

"I had a great time with [Fewell] in New York and he’s one of the reasons we went on that Super Bowl run [in 2011]," Amukamara said. "I think it would be great to be personally coached by him full-time."

If the Jaguars feel Amukamara is a priority, they should work to re-sign him before the market opens March 9.

Jaguars interview helped Manuel

Former Florida player/current Atlanta secondary coach Marquand Manuel was named the Falcons’ new defensive coordinator on Friday.

Manuel’s promotion comes a year after he interviewed for the Jaguars’ coordinator vacancy.

"It was great from the standpoint of it being the first time I interviewed for a coordinator position," Manuel said during Super Bowl Week. "It went almost eight hours. I felt I was really close to getting it, but it didn’t happen. But it was a really cool learning experience to talk about my philosophy, what I believe in defensively and what I believe it takes to win a championship."

I had always heard that Gus Bradley’s interviews with coordinator/position coach candidates were marathon sessions. But eight hours?!?!

"And I had to run out of there to make my flight," Manuel said. "It was awesome. I never stopped to think, ‘This has lasted eight years.’ It got me prepared for the future."

Manuel most remembered how involved Monte Kiffin was during the interview.

"Monte put me at the board and they wanted to see my [practice] drill work, what I would do on first and second downs – run and pass and how I would adjust," Manuel said.

The Jaguars ultimately promoted defensive line coach Todd Wash. A few months later, Manuel came under fire for asking Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple about his sexual orientation during a Combine interview. He quickly apologized.

Improving the flow

The NFL is expected to examine ways to improve the flow of games although it doesn’t seem so bad compared to the unwatchable college game.

But here are three things the NFL can look at:

1. No commercials after a point-after attempt or kickoff. The game slows to a crawl when it goes point-after/commercial/kickoff/commercial. Eliminate one of those commercial breaks.

2. No commercials during replay review. It was a common occurrence during Jaguars games – the review was over, the referee was back on the field … and he just stood there until the commercial was over. The NFL should use a split-screen.

3. Bring tablets onto the field for review. More time could be saved if the referee didn’t have to run off the field and "get under the hood." Have a designated person bring out the tablet so the referee can review the play and confer with the league office on the field.

Draft chatter

During Super Bowl Week, while joining "Jaguars Today" on 1010XL, we talked to draft analyst Tony Pauline. Three takeaways:

*A popular mock draft pick for the Jaguars at No. 4 is LSU safety Jamal Adams. But Pauline has Ohio State’s Malik Hooker as his top-rated safety.

"Terrific against the run, phenomenal against the pass," Pauline said. "Sideline to sideline [range], does a good job over the slot – he is the complete safety and has a tremendous amount of upside. As a player on film, there’s really not too many holes you can punch in his game."

*Mid-round tailback depth. If the Jaguars feel they need to add a running back but wait until Day 3, there are several good options, including Clemson’s Wayne Gallman (6-0, 210 – 1,133 yards/17 touchdowns), Wisconsin’s Corey Clement (5-11, 227 – 1,375 yards/15 touchdowns) and Wyoming’s Brian Hill (6-1, 219 – 1,860 yards/22 touchdowns).

"I tend to like the running back position," Pauline said. "You’ll be able to find guys late on the second day and early part of Day 3 that will be able to help you in certain situations."

*Iowa cornerback Desmond King, who had 14 interceptions his last college seasons, looked stiff at the Senior Bowl.

"Basically off the board as far as the first round goes," Pauline said. "More and more teams have taken him off the corner board and put him just at safety. You can’t play him bump and run – he’ll get beat down the field. His game has leveled off."

Final drive

*Coughlin’s imprint on the Jaguars is already evident behind the scenes. Per multiple sources, nobody can wear a hat inside the team’s offices (including players) and staff members are required to wear slacks instead of shorts. Also, the coaches are on a six-days-a-week work schedule (Monday-Saturday) for most of the off-season instead of the usual five days.

*There was some buzz that part of Jaguars tight end Julius Thomas’ contract became guaranteed Friday. But a league source said there was no money due Thomas this week and won’t be until a $3 million guarantee on March 9, the first day of the league year. The Jaguars have the cap space to keep Thomas, but does the new regime think he’s a fit?

*Green Bay could have as much as $43 million in available cap space. The Packers figure to allocate most of that to their own free agents – guard T.J. Lang, linebacker Nick Perry and tight end Jared Cook. General manager Ted Thompson needs to go out of character and be active in free agency, not so much spending big money but signing multiple veterans to help a defense that looked overmatched in the NFC title-game loss to Atlanta.

*How To React After Going 1-15: The Cleveland Browns announced lower ticket prices for the upcoming season. Ninety percent of the upper-bowl seats will decrease $5-$15 per game and select premium seats will also be less expensive. The lower-bowl seat prices will remain the same. The team said they expect to rank 31st or 32nd in per-game season ticket prices.

*How Not To React After Going 3-13: Despite their worst record since the league went to a 16-game season in 1978, the Chicago Bears told season-ticket holders all sections will have higher prices, from 1-4 percent for most seats. Club seats will go up two percent and non-club seats 2.9 percent. The Bears had 21,663 empty seats for the Dec. 24 home finale against Washington.

*John Benton, who was the Jaguars’ assistant offensive line coach last year, has joined the Denver Broncos in the same role to work with offensive coordinator Mike McCoy and offensive line coach Jeff Davidson. "Having Jeff and John, we’re going to have the best of both worlds," Broncos coach Vance Joseph said. "Jeff is a great gap-scheme [coach] … John was the best at zone-blocking schemes so having both of those guys should allow us to do both."