Jacksonville v Indianapolis Part Deux & Trade Stuff

JT: But first let’s speculate on some speculation

The NFL trade deadline is quickly approaching like the hoards of pre-teen sugar hounds in search of the cool house on the block with the full size Snickers. You know the one. Kids would go to it, grab them a big bar, do a quick costume change that would make Mrs. Congeniality proud, and head back up to the door for another shot at the Whatchamacallit hiding at the bottom of the bowl. Two things, if you don’t know what a Whatchamacallit is then just throw in the towel now, there is no hope for you. Secondly, my computer actually corrected the spelling of this candy bar to the correct spelling when I misspelled it. Why does it know this candy bar? Apple, you amaze and scare me to death all at the same time. Now that I’ve had my Snickers, because I’m not myself when I’m hungry (marketing works), I can get on with the point of this column. It’s trade time.

Last year at roughly this same time-ish, I was sitting in a tree, with my bow, waiting for a deer to innocently meander past. In actuality, I was sitting in a tree on my phone waiting for Trent Baalke to make a move. Any move to improve the Jaguars chances in 2022. Alas, he did not. What he did do, at the very last second, was make a stunning trade that would have a tremendous effect on what the Jaguars would be able to do in 2023. Well, we are here now, in 2023, and it seems the Ridley deal has paid off. What I do not want our GM to do now is make a trade that will help us in 2024. He needs to make a trade that will help us right now, down the stretch. We can make a case for a deep playoff run if Baalke can pull off another amazing trade that puts an actual edge rusher on the Jaguars team this year. And folks, there are options out there that can seriously help our already stout and dominating defense.

The Broncos are releasing defensive edge Frank Clark. Clark is 30 years old and has two Super Bowl rings. He’s got the ability to help the Jaguars, who already have a difficult defense with which to contend. While he has 59.5 career sacks, the “what have you done for me lately” crowd is looking at the old man’s sack totals this year, and they are coming up empty. The Michigan grad has two solo tackles through 5 games in 2023, and that’s it. We will draw two conclusions from this, and keep in mind, both can be true at the same time. The first, he ain’t that good anymore. I mean he is 30 which isn’t young for this game, but it also isn’t over the hill. Maybe he hasn’t produced because the rest of his defense is, well, offensive (as in, they are so bad they offend people). If he were in a better situation with a better defense he might be able to pick up his game and produce more. The second conclusion we can draw from his horrifically bad stats thus far is that he will be cheap. If he is released I’m sure we could try to sign him for pennies on the dollar and if he doesn’t want to come to Jacksonville then what really do the Jags lose? He hasn’t been that good this year anyway. In conclusion, we here at JagsTalk can justify signing Clark and also losing Clark. A bonus is the fact that we can possibly sign Clark for depth and still go after a better producing edge rusher before the deadline.

There does exist an edge rusher who already plays in a Base 3-4 D all the way up in the land of 10,000 lakes. Mr. Danielle Hunter is a 28 year old sack master out of LSU. He’s been the rumored apple of Trent Baalke’s eye, the sunshine of JAX’s life, the butter to my morning croissant, the underlying cause of my penchant for exaggeration. He could very well be the answer the Jags have been searching for, lo these many years. This season alone he has 16 solo tackles, 6 sacks and a forced fumble. Hunter plays on a Vikings team that can’t win for losing. Minnesota’s skiff is taking on water and not even Floki can repair the damage (if you don’t get this reference I’m jealous because you get to watch the show bright eyed, and I’ve already seen it). I’m trying desperately to garner additional imagery from The HISTORY channel’s television show Vikings, but I’m coming up short. I shall blood eagle myself later for this troublesome failure. I don’t know about you fine folks, but if the Vikings (the football ones) are willing to trade away Danielle Hunter before the deadline then I feel it incumbent upon Baalke to make this ish happen. If we let Hunter slip away to another team, for a price that the Jaguars were capable of paying, then some serious questions will need to be asked of Shad Khan pertaining to the future of one Jaguars GM. This trade, if at all humanly possible, is a no brainer.

There may exist some other opportunities for quality edge rushers to be had, but the two above have reared their ugly heads pretty prominently. We here at JagsTalk have always been partial to Washington’s Chase Young. He’s only 24 and has been injured for a lot of his professional career. But here comes the “but”. He has 8 solos this season and has amassed 3 sacks thus far. Washington is a sub par 2-3 this season with no real clear vision or direction. Essentially how they had been for the entirety of the Snyder reign. The new owners may want to clean a little house and get some of their own choices on the field. They may also want a new QB, even though I think Sam Howell will be pretty damn good if given the chance. Chase Young could fetch some nice draft capital for Washington in 2024-2025. As I said, Young has often been injured so his sack total for his four year career is only 12 with a high of 7.5 in 2020 (his rookie season when he played 15 games). He’s only played a total of 16 games in the past three years combined. If the Jaguars can keep him healthy, at only 24 he could wreak havoc on the edge opposite Josh Allen for quite some time. As I type, I’m seeing flashbacks of watching him absolutely destroy the hopes and dreams of many a college athlete when he dominated at Ohio State. If Chase Young can get back to his rookie year form, he is definitely worth an inquiry or two from Trent Baalke. And he would be less expensive than Danielle Hunter, above.

Frankly, I don’t care what Trent Baalke does as long as he does something. If Baalke makes a stunning trade for an impactful offensive lineman, that would be a good move as well. JAX needs O-line help in a big way. In actuality that might be the smarter move to make at the trade deadline considering that the O-line protects the entire franchise. As Trevor goes, so go the Jags. Who’s to say that we can’t have our cake and eat it too though? Baalke has shown over the past couple of years that he is not the best drafter. He gave away DE Aidan Hutchinson and DB Brian Branch to the Detroit Lions and drafted Travon Walker and Brenton Strange instead. Wow, even typing that sentence hurt…A lot. When I see it on the screen I just want to shake Trent and yell at him profusely. Is that wrong? I have a case of shaking Trent syndrome. All of the Jags problems would quite simply not exist if he had drafted correctly. Jacksonville had the answers in the palm of their collective hand and let them slip through their fingers because Walker’s arms were an inch longer (I just threw up in my mouth a little bit). Okay, now I’m tearing up. It’s just too sad. I have to change the subject. Whatever your thoughts about Baalke and his moves in the past, one thing is for sure, he isn’t the best at drafting and so why not trade some of those draft picks for solid, proven, NFL players like Danielle Hunter and/or the others above. Hell, if he really is Trent Masterclass Baalke, then he should be able to sign Denver’s Frank Clark AND trade the Vikings for Danielle Hunter. Then, come November we can all kick back in the great halls of Valhalla with our horns of mead and watch our Jacksonville Jaguars actually put pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Not to take anything away from Josh Allen, as he is the only front seven Jag that seems to be able to get anywhere near a QB. If Josh had a Dexter Manley to his Charles Mann (if you know you know) the Jags would win it all, just saying.

Oh, and as for the Jags/Colts game this Sunday at Everbank, I wrote a couple months ago that the Jags would be 6-2 at their bye week. I also thought the two games they were going to lose were going to be this game against the Colts and Thursday night’s game against the Saints. In sticking with my 6-2 at the bye storyline, let me revisit the outcome of this weeks game against Indy. There exist two real reasons why I now believe the Jags will handily win, running away, on Sunday.

Anthony Richardson is not playing, and while Gardner Minshew does have more NFL experience, I feel that the Jags are better equipped to contain MInshew. This will allow the front seven to more easily stop the two headed run game of Jonathan Taylor (didn’t play in the first meeting) and Zack Moss (stupid Bills). This game plan will force Mr. Mustache (he may even be clean shaven now, I have no idea) to beat the Jags through the air, throwing to the likes of Michael Pittman Jr., Josh Downs, and Alec Pierce. While these gentlemen may be decent, Pittman is the only real formidable threat. Frankly, I don’t care if the Colts roster Pittman Jr., Pittman III, Pittman IV and have Taylor Swift cheering them on in the owner’s box. The way the JAX DBs are playing right now, I’m filled with nothing but complete confidence. I think this Sunday is going to be turnover city for the boys and hopefully D. Will gets his third in a row. My only worry is the health of the offensive line. I think that the Jags D will be leaned on (Bill Withers style) heavily in this game, as they have been all season.

The second reason why I believe the Jags win this Sunday is because of the devastating nature of their loss to the Houston Texans and the subsequent beating of the Buffalo Bills. This early season emotional roller coaster has caused JAX to grow up more quickly than expected. The agony of defeat felt after the Texans thrashing was so real that the bounce back win over the Bills was equally as unexpected and intensely emotional. They now know what they are capable of achieving. The Indianapolis Colts, helmed by the mustachioed Minshew (again, he’s probably clean shaven at this point. Literally nobody knows.) will not stand in their way. The only thing I’m worried about this Sunday is keeping everyone healthy. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.