The Offseason Officially Begins
The Jacksonville Jaguars started making moves. The talking heads are covering everything to try and guess how much cap space the Jaguars have created in order to sign Evan Engram, Jawaan Taylor and maybe, just maybe Arden Key. Unfortunately, Key is such a long shot to stay in Jacksonville. He’ll test the market to see what he can garner, as he should. He played extremely well and deserves to make bank. Do the Jags need him? Yep. Do the Jags want him? Yep. Can they keep him? That is the multi-million dollar question. Can Jags owner, Shad Khan stroke a big enough check to make Key cash flush and low cap thus keeping him in JAX? Taylor is yet another question mark. Does he get the franchise tag? Will he be a cap casualty? Did Walker Little bring enough to the field last season to make Dougie P. and Trent B. comfortable with letting J.T. walk?
Somewhere deep in the bowels of TIAA Bank, in a dark windowless room, sits a board filled with scribbles and push pins connected by red strings like some FBI crime board on a bad network TV show. For you Jersey Shore fans out there, it looks a lot like Mike the Situation’s crime fighting doppelgänger, Mike the Investigation’s, board that he used to decipher Angeliners cheating ways. For those of you that are not Jersey Shore fans, that’s a minute of your life you will never get back. The bottom line is that Shad, Trent and Doug have it covered. But it’s still fun to guess at stuff, because in reality, what in the hell else do Jacksonville sportswriters have to do right now. I mean there is the “will the Bears trade the first pick or not” debate. If we’re being honest Chicago was always going to trade away the first pick, and probably trade down a couple of times if they’re smart (and big fans of the movie Draft Day). Everyone wants to pull a Kevin Costner on the big day. I’m super sick of the Chicago debate. If you know anything about anything, then you know Da Bears were always sticking with Fields and trading down for picks necessary to build around their QB1. This story that has captivated so many has always been a non-starter in our book. So that leaves us Jags fans with our main story, can we clear cap space?
Even the question about cap space has been addressed and answered if you read between the lines. In fact, you just needed to read exactly what Trent Baalke said. I’ll paraphrase due to the fact that my Beautiful Mind isn’t quite up to Good Will Hunting standards, but Baalke basically said, cap space is NOT an issue. The Jags have an owner who isn’t scared to throw cash at players in order to clear the necessary space to keep and sign who they need in order to win. So then what in the hell do we talk about? Well maybe we talk about the draft. The Jags have some definite needs in order to make a solid run next season. We need a D-Lineman. But wait, the Jags just extended Roy Robertson Harris. He was a stud during the second half of the season. Corey Peters stepped up and played really well. Hopefully Dawuane Smoot heals nicely and can get back in the rotation. The biggest question mark on this defensive line is Arden Key (see above). Because of the Key question mark, D-lineman is still a bit of a need. But not the biggest. The biggest need continues to be cornerback. Someone to compliment #32, Tyson Campbell. Whether that means Darious Williams plays inside or out, I don’t care. Take the best corner available at #24. That’s really the Jags only draft job. After that, grab a D-lineman, maybe a safety who can also play corner, maybe an O-lineman (you can never have too many linemen), or grab best availables. The Jags are happy with ETN and just brought back JaMycal Hasty, so unless some amazing, game changing running back drops precipitously, JAX ain’t takin’ a toter. Maybe grab a WR in the later rounds. Who knows? All they need to do is make sure to grab the best corner, at #24, and a D-lineman at some point. So what is there to talk about right now? Really, what? Well, really nothing. We’re just going to jabber on in circles guessing cap space savings until the actual numbers come out. All of this to say, these are the beautiful offseason days of a winning team with a low draft pick. #IWATJ.
Bring on the NFL combine and let us know what you think in the comment section below.