JAGUARS CLAIM AUSTIN CALITRO, WAIVE JOE GILES-HARRIS

Scott Grau/Icon Sportswire

The Jaguars added quality depth at linebacker on Tuesday. 
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BY JORDAN DE LUGO

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The Jaguars made a change at the back of their linebacker room on Tuesday. The team claimed linebacker Austin Calitro (cuh-LEE-tro) off waivers, and in turn waived rookie linebacker Joe Giles-Harris.

Giles-Harris regularly flashed during training camp and preseason. He made the initial 53-man roster as the sixth linebacker on the team. But too often he wasn't able to come up with seemingly routine plays. If he goes unclaimed, the Jaguars may want to add him to their practice squad.

The Jaguars saw an opportunity to add better depth at linebacker and pounced. Austin Calitro was a fan and coaches favorite in Seattle this summer, but the Seahawks' depth at linebacker was too much for Calitro to overcome.

Calitro originally went undrafted out of Villanova in 2017. He was a team captain and all-conference player in college. He signed on with the Jets and then the 49ers, Seahawks, and Browns, before eventually finding a (somewhat) stable home in his second stint with the Seahawks.

In 2018 Calitro played in all 16 games for the Seahawks and earned five starts. When Seattle waived him on Monday, it came as a surprise to the local media and fans alike.

Seahawks’ head coach Pete Carroll has this to say about Calitro, upon his surprise release.

“It’s just numbers and we just couldn’t hold onto him. We wanted to, we love him, we love the way he played. He had a fantastic preseason for us. That was a real hard one.”

A quality special teams player with the versatility to play inside and outside linebacker for the Jaguars, Austin Calitro makes the Jaguars' better.

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