JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Cornerback A.J. Bouye has picked off passes in each of the Jacksonville Jaguars' last two games, which makes safety Tashaun Gipson both happy and sad.
Happy because a turnover helps the offense and keeps the Jaguars atop the NFL in that category. Sad because it means Bouye won't be putting any money into the fund for the postseason trip the defensive backs plan to take.
And Gipson loves it when Bouye -- who signed a five-year, $67.5 million contract with $26 million guaranteed with the Jaguars in March -- is contributing to the DB fund.
"He probably has contributed the most, but it's not a bad thing," Gipson said. "Look at that guy. He's rich. He's dripping money. He smells like money."
The DB fund is stocked with fine money from all the defensive backs. They're hit for things such as dropping interceptions, mental errors and missed tackles. It's on a sliding scale, too. A dropped interception in a game costs a player $200 but one in practice is only $20. Mental errors and missed tackles are $100 apiece.
No one would reveal how much is currently in the fund, but it's going to be pretty hefty by the end of the season because the defensive backs make every practice a competition. For example, the DBs might have to catch the ball with their left hand only during the warmup drills they run before practice. Dropping one costs $20.
It's the first year the Jaguars have done this, though Bouye said he did something similar in Houston. Defensive coordinator Todd Wash has no problem with it.
"They're getting paid in that room," Wash said. "It's them holding each other accountable. It's important they come up with picks and that kind of stuff and ops. I think the whole defense gets ticked when we have missed ops.
"The situation is good that they're holding each other accountable, and it's a little razzing for them also."
Assessing the fines is a democratic process. The players vote on whether a ball was catchable. Secondary coach Perry Fewell is involved, too, because the coaches track mental errors and missed tackles. Disagreements are rare.
"Every once in a while it might be one or two but for the most part you know if you dropped a ball or not," cornerback Aaron Colvin said. "Everybody's pretty honest."
Bouye disputes Gipson's claim that the majority of the money after 11 weeks has come from him.
"I don't know why Gip would tell y'all I owe the most," he said. "I really haven't been dropping much, if anything."
The Jaguars are third in the NFL with 13 interceptions so they're not dropping many. The defensive backs have accounted for 10 of those (linebacker Telvin Smith has the other three): Gipson has three, cornerback Jalen Ramsey has two, and safety Barry Church has one to go along with Bouye's four.
Several players said the defensive backs have surprisingly good hands because as a general rule "most dudes on defense can't catch," receiver Marqise Lee said. He also said that Gipson, who has 18 interceptions in six seasons, has the best hands in the secondary.
Gipson, naturally, agreed, but he also extended his good-handedness beyond just the Jaguars' defensive back room.
"I don't think there's a DB in the national football league that can purely catch the football better than me," he boasted. "But definitely for sure on this team, maybe A-Rob [receiver Allen Robinson], it'll be a tight [competition]. Not just the defense. I don't want y'all to limit me to just the defense. If I'm a betting man, if you line me and A-Rob up on the JUGS [machine] I will probably say you should bet the house on 3-9 (his jersey number). That's just me. And that's no disrespect.
"… If this is Madden, the DBs would probably have 85 [rating] catching. I would probably have a 95. It's that big of a difference."
Even if that were true -- and Colvin disputes Gipson's self-evaluation -- some of Gipson's money will eventually make its way into the DB fund for the postseason excursion. The players were kicking around potential destinations this week -- Toronto, Los Angeles and New York -- but they're hoping to make another trip first.
"We're trying to push our plans back and see what's going to happen at the end of February because we're not really trying to travel until after the Super Bowl, if y'all know what we're saying," Bouye said.
That would potentially mean four extra weeks of practice and four additional games to pad the fund, which is something nobody would mind.
"We hold ourselves to a standard," Gipson explained. "We feel like if the ball is in our vicinity and if it's a catchable ball you've got to catch it. If not then we're going to tax your pocketbook a little bit."