Speaker 1: Welcome to jag Zamine Kay Nannie Stevens. The twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four draft is now behind us. Who get some new
Speaker 1: players headed to Jacksonville and a whole lot to talk about.
Speaker 1: Do have some breaking news off the top here though,
Speaker 1: as a list of unsigned free agents as well as
Speaker 1: some cuts to the team wide receivers. A Jones is
Speaker 1: being cut as well as kicker Joey Slide. So, Brian,
Speaker 1: that news coming out Brian Thomas Junior was their first
Speaker 1: draft picks. That means they mean to cut to the
Speaker 1: wide receiver room as well. Well, that made sense because
Speaker 1: you're going to need to keep Devereux and de borrow
Speaker 1: the Dune from Baltimore as a receiver because that's the
Speaker 1: position that he plays as well.
Speaker 2: And it's just a numbers game.
Speaker 3: The Jaguars will save about five million dollars against the
Speaker 3: cap in twenty twenty four, not that they needed to, John,
Speaker 3: they've got lots of room.
Speaker 4: Well it's yeah, it's uh. I don't love it. I mean,
Speaker 4: I like Zay and I like what he brought. I
Speaker 4: think it would have been good to have that option,
Speaker 4: but in the cap era, when you're trying to save money,
Speaker 4: roll out the future. It is a you know, it's
Speaker 4: not a sign of our times. We've been in this
Speaker 4: time forever. But it is a function of the salary cap.
Speaker 4: You know, I let's not forget before he leaves, big, big,
Speaker 4: big contributor to that twenty two teams a Jones. It
Speaker 4: sort of shows you how tough it is to stay
Speaker 4: in this league at the age that he's at flourishing
Speaker 4: member of this team twenty two, flourishing member in twenty three.
Speaker 4: Couple injuries, it's a tough leak.
Speaker 3: Well, he left his memories too, right the two point
Speaker 3: conversion against Baltimore in twenty twenty two that gave them
Speaker 3: that win, that started the winning streak, and he had
Speaker 3: a big one in Tennessee a couple of weeks later
Speaker 3: where he just tight roped that.
Speaker 2: Was caught by the pylon camp.
Speaker 3: He leaves a lot of great memories in the fans'
Speaker 3: minds if they think about what's a Joe might put
Speaker 3: that team?
Speaker 1: Good win, healthy, tough year last year, so roster casualty
Speaker 1: as of this point, we're going to bring our guests now, though.
Speaker 1: Trevor Sikhma from Pro Football Focus, of course, their lead
Speaker 1: draft analyst, Tart, Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 4: We got some news there.
Speaker 1: We do want to talk about our first round draft pick,
Speaker 1: Brian Thomas Junior, of course, and what that addition to
Speaker 1: the offense is going to mean for Trevor.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: You know, it's funny.
Speaker 6: When I saw this pick, I was like, Hey, this
Speaker 6: is a really good pick, and then I looked.
Speaker 5: Up, Oh, I think they're going to be more vertical
Speaker 5: on offense.
Speaker 6: And actually the checks were pretty dang vertical last year
Speaker 6: in their offense. When you look at you know, big
Speaker 6: time throws, total yards, total attempts, passing.
Speaker 5: Grade on throws that were twenty or more.
Speaker 6: Yards down the field, they were top ten in all
Speaker 6: of those categories. And so Brian Thomas Junior and the
Speaker 6: addition of Gabe Davison free agency, that just puts their
Speaker 6: foot on the gas even more for that being an
Speaker 6: identity of their offense, Trevor Lawrence ha said a couple
Speaker 6: of four thousand yard seasons, but I genuinely think that
Speaker 6: with their offense now, the skill set that they have
Speaker 6: at wide receiver and that mentality that we saw from
Speaker 6: twenty twenty two, this could be a potential five thousand
Speaker 6: yard passing season for Trevor Lawrence if he is fully healthy,
Speaker 6: because we already know that's what they.
Speaker 7: Want to do.
Speaker 6: Now they just have the pieces to do that even better.
Speaker 6: So like the draft pick, especially now that I went
Speaker 6: and look back and said, this is exactly where they
Speaker 6: were going, it's the type of player that allows them
Speaker 6: to do that even more and more successfully.
Speaker 2: Trevor has offensive line taken a step.
Speaker 3: Back in terms of value for wide receivers because it
Speaker 3: was a great offensive line draft and the Jaguars went receiver,
Speaker 3: which it didn't seem like they needed to fill as
Speaker 3: significantly as I thought offensive line. Or is Brian Thomas
Speaker 3: just that special that he couldn't pass on it?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 5: I think that it's a little bit of a combination
Speaker 5: of both.
Speaker 6: Right, Trent balk there the general manager, I think throughout
Speaker 6: his general manager career, whether it's been in Jackson Mill
Speaker 6: or his time in San Francisco.
Speaker 5: Like he's going to gravitate towards athletes.
Speaker 6: I mean the Mason Smith pick in the second round
Speaker 6: is just more evidence to that. But when you look
Speaker 6: at Brian Thomas junior, the size man six or three
Speaker 6: two ten pounds, four three three speed, I mean that's
Speaker 6: just pretty rare for that size and speed combination, so
Speaker 6: you gravitate towards that. But I do think that we
Speaker 6: are in an age where picking wide receiver, even over
Speaker 6: something is what we thought is pivotal as offensive tackle
Speaker 6: or offensive line in general. It is more common because
Speaker 6: we are seeing such superstars come out from the receiver position,
Speaker 6: and I think that goes all the way down to
Speaker 6: the grassroots level, right You're seeing more seven on seven camps.
Speaker 6: You know, these guys are getting involved in skill position
Speaker 6: work way earlier in junior high, in high school, and
Speaker 6: you're just developing more wide receivers nowadays. So there's just
Speaker 6: a ton of these great skill position players that are
Speaker 6: coming through year after year. So it's a little bit
Speaker 6: of Okay, Brian Thomas and his unique athletic ability at
Speaker 6: his size couldn't really pass that up.
Speaker 5: But also it is just the fact that.
Speaker 6: Wide receiver more often, like you said, is getting valued
Speaker 6: as a premium position like pass protectors, like pass rushers.
Speaker 6: So we're seeing that more and more. And obviously this
Speaker 6: traf was a good state before.
Speaker 4: And the Jaguars obviously focused on special teams a lot
Speaker 4: late because of the new kickoff rules. Did you see
Speaker 4: that as a major trend around the NFL, and it
Speaker 4: seems to me like the league is really going to
Speaker 4: be at a point this year of trying to figure
Speaker 4: out what these new rules mean. They sort of think
Speaker 4: they know and they're going to experiment with it, but
Speaker 4: it might be a year or so before they really
Speaker 4: figure out how best to take advantage of them.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's gonna be fun to watch this year, And
Speaker 6: by fun, I mean some teams are maybe gonna be
Speaker 6: a little disastrous and other teams are absolutely.
Speaker 5: Going to hit a home run. And every team is
Speaker 5: trying to take that third phase.
Speaker 6: Of the game and make it into a plus for them, right,
Speaker 6: something that's going to be very important. We've heard over
Speaker 6: the years pass that old field position matters so much,
Speaker 6: and that's such an important part of the game. It's
Speaker 6: why kickers and punters and kick returners have been drafted
Speaker 6: decently highly over the last couple of years, at least
Speaker 6: every now and then.
Speaker 5: But this is totally different.
Speaker 6: Now you have an opportunity to pick a totally different
Speaker 6: type of kick returner that could really be advantageous to
Speaker 6: the game. I mean, you guys, know, everybody out there
Speaker 6: watches the games over the last couple of years, every
Speaker 6: single kickoff, they're just through in the back of the
Speaker 6: end zone. I mean, that's how every drive is going
Speaker 6: to start, right at the twenty five yard line.
Speaker 5: Now it's a little different.
Speaker 6: You have an opportunity to really make a difference and
Speaker 6: flip the field a little bit more in your favor
Speaker 6: with guys who can see the field.
Speaker 7: A little bit more.
Speaker 8: Right.
Speaker 6: Kick returners used to just be all right, let's put
Speaker 6: our fastest guy back there, have them receive the ball
Speaker 6: and run as fast as he can, and hopefully our
Speaker 6: blocking team will be able to get guys blocked up.
Speaker 6: Maybe we can get a rushing lane and hit something
Speaker 6: up the sideline. But now, with the contact window being
Speaker 6: much closer together, kick return is much more about.
Speaker 5: Seeing the field.
Speaker 6: Like it's almost about running back vision at this point,
Speaker 6: you know, what are you in space? So you're gonna
Speaker 6: look at a lot of these numbers, these one cut backs,
Speaker 6: these shifty wide receivers, these guys that make players miss
Speaker 6: in open space. That's actually going to be prioritized, in
Speaker 6: my opinion.
Speaker 5: More than just straight line speed.
Speaker 6: You want to be able to hit the home run,
Speaker 6: but shoot if you can get an extra ten, five,
Speaker 6: even five yards on a kickoff return because you just
Speaker 6: see the field very well, you see the blocking very well.
Speaker 6: That is incredible advantageous at a consistent level. So it's
Speaker 6: going to be very interesting to see how these teams
Speaker 6: kind of navigate those new kickoff roles.
Speaker 1: Trevor, when we look at this class as a whole
Speaker 1: for the Jaguars, Trent Balky definitely went for some size,
Speaker 1: some physicality. That's something he talked about at the end
Speaker 1: of last season. They weren't big enough, they weren't strong enough.
Speaker 1: You see a lot of six to six guys. You
Speaker 1: see a lot of three hundred plus pounders, maybe not
Speaker 1: developed yet. But he definitely went for that, Let's get
Speaker 1: these big people in here and try to train them up.
Speaker 1: Is that advantageous by the numbers or is this kind
Speaker 1: of a boomer bust with some of these guys.
Speaker 5: Well, I think it's hell boom or bust.
Speaker 6: Anytime you're talking about a draft pick, right, I think
Speaker 6: sometimes that's a little unfair when you talk about general
Speaker 6: managers or making selections, you just go, oh, this guy's
Speaker 6: a boomer bust. There's no such thing as a guarantee
Speaker 6: at the NFL level when you're talking about college kids
Speaker 6: going to the pros. So everything's got a little bit
Speaker 6: of a risk to it. But certainly when you look
Speaker 6: at this draft for the Jaguars, at least for the
Speaker 6: first couple of picks. Gil Brian Thomas Junior, very good
Speaker 6: vertical threat, and I mentioned that unique size and speed
Speaker 6: combination there from him. But you know, can he develop
Speaker 6: and do a full, overall, well rounded wide receiver.
Speaker 5: I think that is a question.
Speaker 6: Now he's a younger guy, so you expect that he's
Speaker 6: gonna get better, but really good off of a vertical plane,
Speaker 6: but can he developed more nuanced in his route running
Speaker 6: canny diversify his routree more than just those vertical routes
Speaker 6: and things off of a vertical stem.
Speaker 5: That's what you're looking to see.
Speaker 6: So there's a little bit of risk there if he's
Speaker 6: just a vertical wide receiver.
Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, it was picked a little bit high, but
Speaker 5: even for.
Speaker 6: Just that, I like I said, the size, speed combinations incredible.
Speaker 6: Mason Smith total projection, right, I mean, five star, number
Speaker 6: one overall recruit at one point is able to play
Speaker 6: as a true directman at LSU gets injured, Tears' his
Speaker 6: acl which is a couple of plays into twenty twenty two,
Speaker 6: and then this past year in twenty twenty three, you
Speaker 6: could just tell there was a combination of he had
Speaker 6: not played a lot of football and he's still trust
Speaker 6: in that knee. Now he was able to play and
Speaker 6: be fully healthy, which is good, but he's definitely a
Speaker 6: projection there Jerry and Jones. I like from him because
Speaker 6: over the last couple of years he sort of struggled
Speaker 6: as an outside receiver, but then Florida State moved him
Speaker 6: into the slot and he was excellent elite coverage grade
Speaker 6: in our metric system. He was a top tier Select
Speaker 6: grou slot receiver that we had in this class. And
Speaker 6: I also like the addition to Jordan Jefferson and Javon
Speaker 6: Foster as well. Those guys I think have a lot
Speaker 6: of experience to them good depth players, and so that's
Speaker 6: sort of how I saw those first couple of pictures
Speaker 6: for the Jags.
Speaker 1: Every second'm a Pro Football Focus lead draft analyst. Thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us. You appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Guys.
Speaker 1: All right, stay with us here on jagsam coming back.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go over some superlatives for the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four NFL Draft class. After the break, Move the.
Speaker 5: Freight, Move the Freight.
Speaker 1: Magellan Transportation voted the coolest office space in Jacksonville. You
Speaker 1: can apply on line at Mageo Logistics dot com.
Speaker 2: Hey, Jerry, how you doing, man?
Speaker 6: Good?
Speaker 4: Hey, congratulations, We're just gonna bring you right down the road.
Speaker 9: Let's play bowl there.
Speaker 7: Let's go.
Speaker 10: Congratulations man, Here's here's here's our gimp Okay, congratulations.
Speaker 6: That a couple of party.
Speaker 10: Hey, remember we talked about the mall.
Speaker 1: Congratulations man, Man, never get sick of hearing those calls.
Speaker 1: That's third round pick Jarry and Jenkins out of Florida State.
Speaker 1: Kind of left Trent Bok on Red.
Speaker 7: Bear as well.
Speaker 1: We didn't get a little excited at the party. But
Speaker 1: we love those calls. We love you know, dreams coming
Speaker 1: true for all of these draft picks, and it's exciting
Speaker 1: to get the new players in.
Speaker 4: Here, you guys. Yeah, And he's an intriguing guy. I
Speaker 4: talked to h the four state secondary coach yesterday. Played
Speaker 4: at a very high level out side. They moved him
Speaker 4: inside last year because they felt like his experience and
Speaker 4: his awareness inside, which you have to have to play
Speaker 4: the nickel. Really took him to a different level. It's
Speaker 4: what they need. I mean, he has the skill to
Speaker 4: eventually move outside. It certainly sounds to me like he
Speaker 4: will be the guy to beat in terms of the nickel.
Speaker 4: It's a tough thing to move inside as a rookie
Speaker 4: in the NFL and play the nickel. But you know
Speaker 4: everything you hear about the kid. Great kid overcame a
Speaker 4: lot of adversity early, which leads you to believe that
Speaker 4: he can overcome what he needs to overcome to get
Speaker 4: into the lineup. Great second day draft store.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they spent a lot of time with him
Speaker 3: when he was at the local pro day because he
Speaker 3: didn't work out. He stood on his combine in his
Speaker 3: Florida State Pro day. And I talked to Doug yesterday
Speaker 3: about him, and he sees his immediate contributor on special teams.
Speaker 3: I mean, steps right in and it's a guy who
Speaker 3: can be one of your better special teams coverage guys
Speaker 3: right out at the gate.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some of our guys. We're going to
Speaker 1: do some superlatives, like we're in high school once again.
Speaker 1: We'll go over this twenty twenty four draft class with
Speaker 1: start out with the first round pick, because why not,
Speaker 1: Ryan Thomas, you and you're most likely to succeed because
Speaker 1: the first round pick, so you better succeed.
Speaker 4: But as we.
Speaker 1: Mentioned, I mean, this is a great threat for Trevor,
Speaker 1: and I think it's nice to mention as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: a young player that can grow with Trevor, right, Like
Speaker 1: there's they brought in some veteran receivers when they for
Speaker 1: you know, when Doug came in and kind of overhauled
Speaker 1: everything for Trevor to work with. But now it's someone
Speaker 1: that you have locked up for the next couple of
Speaker 1: years to grow with Trevor.
Speaker 3: Really long arms and big hands. I mean you see
Speaker 3: that when you see him reaching for it, which allows
Speaker 3: him to go out and get that fifty to fifty ball. Clearly,
Speaker 3: Johnny also has great body control because you see him
Speaker 3: in the corner of the end zone or down the
Speaker 3: sideline with a guy in coverage and still making the catch,
Speaker 3: which will be great on third downs.
Speaker 2: Right to be able to keep this team on the field, be.
Speaker 3: Able to have to throw to a guy and know
Speaker 3: that he can elevate and go get it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he has every tool. The thing that you hear
Speaker 4: about him needs to develop or out running. Trevor talked
Speaker 4: about it. That's big in the NFL. I mean it's
Speaker 4: hard in the NFL to just be great based on
Speaker 4: physical tools, which he has, so his task to reach.
Speaker 4: You know, the thing said about him was outside the
Speaker 4: top three. He had the skill set to be a one.
Speaker 4: The development part will be the key for him bare
Speaker 4: minimum this year. He comes in and strains the defense
Speaker 4: and gives them, you know that magic for the thing
Speaker 4: that I like, You've got Christian, You've got gave Davis,
Speaker 4: who here's a great kid, and Evan Ingram. He doesn't
Speaker 4: have to be the guy. I think a lot of
Speaker 4: Jaguars and first round receivers in the past have failed
Speaker 4: because they had to be the guy. Day one gives.
Speaker 1: Him a little leeway to learn as he comes in.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about Mason Smith Knacks. I actually got
Speaker 1: to talk to Ethan Wad during this process when we
Speaker 1: were doing draft picks and told me a little bit
Speaker 1: about I'm gonna project here and call him the best
Speaker 1: comeback story because if they hit, which is what they're
Speaker 1: hoping for, he's dealt with an acl tair and then
Speaker 1: last year said he didn't really feel that comfortable, but
Speaker 1: ethan waan on the front office is hoping that when
Speaker 1: they get him in the building can work with them.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 11: I think as you watch the tape from this past season.
Speaker 11: Early in the season, he was still kind of recovering
Speaker 11: from that knee injury, but each week the tape got
Speaker 11: better and better. And it also helps that we have
Speaker 11: his defensive coordinator from college, Matthouse here in the staff
Speaker 11: room as well, that I can really speak to his
Speaker 11: ability and his character.
Speaker 1: John that Matt House connection, the new inside linebackers coach,
Speaker 1: was the defensive coordinator at LSU last year, and he
Speaker 1: got a couple of his guys in the building for sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm sure that helps when you're investing in a
Speaker 4: player to be able to turn into a guy. So
Speaker 4: what kind of kid is this? You know, beyond everything
Speaker 4: they're telling me, you got somebody in the building they
Speaker 4: can tell you, Yeah, I'm not BS and you. This
Speaker 4: kid's x y Z. You know, Brian said it all weekend.
Speaker 4: This kid has every trait. You're taking a guy later
Speaker 4: in the second round who has a first round pick potential.
Speaker 4: If everything goes right, is it boom or bust I guess,
Speaker 4: but I completely agree with what Trevor said. I've never
Speaker 4: seen a draft pick in the NFL. He's not boom
Speaker 4: or bus so crystal bold business you take traits. He
Speaker 4: certainly looks like he can be that tall, long, dominant
Speaker 4: defensive tackle that when those guys hit, they have the
Speaker 4: potential to be core defensive players and impact in a
Speaker 4: lot of ways.
Speaker 2: So the first thought that I had when they drafted.
Speaker 3: Him was that the Titans took Jeffrey Simmons out of
Speaker 3: Mississippi State a few years back and he had torn
Speaker 3: his ACL and he knew he wasn't going to be
Speaker 3: ready until his second year, and that has paid off
Speaker 3: in spades for them. This guy has the same physical
Speaker 3: profile as Jeffrey Simmons as Chris Jones terms of height
Speaker 3: and length and strength. If the Jaguars can get some
Speaker 3: sort of super production from this kid, if he can
Speaker 3: reach his potential, what a great pick.
Speaker 2: This could be.
Speaker 3: Because when you watch the Titans play, Jeffrey Simmons is
Speaker 3: the best player on their defense.
Speaker 2: Sometimes he's the best player on the field.
Speaker 3: So you're going for that lightning in a bottle with
Speaker 3: a guy like this and hoping it pays.
Speaker 1: Off big time six five and three hundred plus pounds.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously he'll also get to like that exactly,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna get to work with, you know, and
Speaker 1: Eric Armstead who's long and tall as well. So I
Speaker 1: hope they can pick up some pointers on that line
Speaker 1: there and develop as things go along. Let's go a
Speaker 1: little later in the rounds. Let's go to Cam a little.
Speaker 1: I think this is our most confident player, John, you
Speaker 1: were you were hearing some of that zoom he had.
Speaker 1: He thinks he's the number one guy in the class,
Speaker 1: and when he spoke to me, he said he's excited
Speaker 1: to get into camp and compete.
Speaker 4: Yeah, look, why not. I mean, if if you have
Speaker 4: a choice between a kid who comes in and really
Speaker 4: thinks highly of himself and really doesn't at kicker, you
Speaker 4: may as well think you're good and then not worry
Speaker 4: about what happens if you show it. So you know,
Speaker 4: it's the old cliche kickers. You sort of put him
Speaker 4: in the corner and whatever they want to do, it's
Speaker 4: okay because they're a weird ad bunch.
Speaker 3: Until you need him to kick a game winning field goal.
Speaker 3: That takes you to the next round of the playoffs,
Speaker 3: like Roley Patterson. I mean, you couldn't have been in
Speaker 3: the stadium that day, sure against.
Speaker 2: The Chargers a year ago and not have thought, I
Speaker 2: wonder what's going through his head?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Sure, so you want this kid to come and be
Speaker 3: willing to swing his leg and give it his all.
Speaker 3: He's got the leg strength to kick from sixty right.
Speaker 3: Whether he's accurate from there or not in the National
Speaker 3: Football League remains to be seen. But I think the
Speaker 3: interesting part is they really like and both Doug and
Speaker 3: Trent told me this yesterday, they really like his ability
Speaker 3: to control the ball and drop it into that zone
Speaker 3: because if it goes into the end zone, that's a penalty,
Speaker 3: not a foul, but it costs you yards. So you
Speaker 3: want to put the ball in a position where your
Speaker 3: team can get underneath it in this new kickoff, and
Speaker 3: they think he's got that kind of control.
Speaker 4: And look, since Doug got here, they've sort of been
Speaker 4: looking to solidify that kicker to get their six seven
Speaker 4: year guy, whatever that is. So they took a draft
Speaker 4: pick in what otherwise was not considered a great six
Speaker 4: seventh round drafts. So you take that year and do
Speaker 4: you have to kicker.
Speaker 3: And you see, if you saw it, well, they said
Speaker 3: he'th farwell out to work out all three of the kickers,
Speaker 3: and this is the guy he came back raving about,
Speaker 3: and he was the second kicker taking in that round.
Speaker 2: So they got the guy that they wanted without having
Speaker 2: to move up to get him.
Speaker 1: You're that confident at twenty years old, the youngest kicker
Speaker 1: to be drafted. So that's a good sign.
Speaker 4: I can't even remember twenty much less if I was
Speaker 4: confident that so long.
Speaker 1: Ago, so long ago. Let's go back to some of
Speaker 1: the big linemen. Jordan Jefferson. I'm gonna give him most
Speaker 1: competitive because he got a little bit of an attitude.
Speaker 1: I think we've all seen this video of him at
Speaker 1: the Shrine Bowl tossing a helmet around football.
Speaker 2: Is not a nice kid, but sometimes.
Speaker 1: And that's what we need sometimes, right because how many
Speaker 1: times would we say maybe a little attitude wouldn't help once,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't hurt once in a while for this team.
Speaker 1: And if you can have that on the line, maybe
Speaker 1: you know him and Cam can. I think Brent from
Speaker 1: Action News was saying that they should have a helmet
Speaker 1: talks in competition.
Speaker 7: Think they're they're so.
Speaker 4: Adept at that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've seen through the years around here with some
Speaker 3: guys it's gotten him cut.
Speaker 2: You hope he doesn't do that here, but you do
Speaker 2: like the attitude.
Speaker 3: And look, if you're in the trenches all day, you
Speaker 3: got to keep that attitude alive.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he's a straight nose tackle. Now, I mean, like,
Speaker 4: so you've brought in a guy who is sort of
Speaker 4: your athletic guy. Next to him his nose tackle, You're
Speaker 4: starting to see a little bit about what Ryan Nielsen
Speaker 4: wants from his defense. Fourth round, right, so you can
Speaker 4: get big. That's where you're supposed to get your big
Speaker 4: run stuffer. If he's that, he was the strongest guy
Speaker 4: at the Yeah. So combined again, it all goes back
Speaker 4: to we talked all weekend about traits, and I'm more
Speaker 4: and more considering the draft is such speculation. If you
Speaker 4: draft guys with traits and they work out, they have
Speaker 4: a chance to be high end. A lot of your
Speaker 4: guys don't work out anyway, so you may as well
Speaker 4: have the traits.
Speaker 1: All right, We're gonna close things out with mister congeniality,
Speaker 1: Jarion Jones, my personal favorite personality. He's gonna be a
Speaker 1: team favorite for sure, I can just tell. And he's
Speaker 1: also a huge Jag fan growing up. He talked about
Speaker 1: that when we got him on the media call.
Speaker 10: So when I was growing up, you know, I was
Speaker 10: a big Maye Jones Drew guy like I was a
Speaker 10: big Maurice Jones Drew guy like. I was a super
Speaker 10: fan of him, you know, I was. I watched just
Speaker 10: about I think every game that he played, you know,
Speaker 10: And when Jalen went there from Florida State, like I
Speaker 10: was tuning into every game, him playing inside outside, just
Speaker 10: the way he brought.
Speaker 2: Like what he brought to the game.
Speaker 7: You know, I kind of fell in love with.
Speaker 10: Jack watch Jalen was there, and especially while Mary's Jones
Speaker 10: drewers they you know.
Speaker 2: So just now me being.
Speaker 10: Able to continue that Florida State pipeline and come in
Speaker 10: and make plays and do what I do best, you know,
Speaker 10: it's it's a blessing.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 4: You have the number one thing he has in common
Speaker 4: with Moys Shins. He's a big fan of Moys. I
Speaker 4: love yeah, he h Yeah, that's the kind of kid
Speaker 4: that gravitates to Morys.
Speaker 2: In the third round, You're hoping to get a guy
Speaker 2: that can come in.
Speaker 3: And play, but you're also hoping to get a guy
Speaker 3: that loves football because it's going to take a lot
Speaker 3: of work to get him ready to go.
Speaker 2: And it looks like he's willing to put that in.
Speaker 1: And you heard him on that call earlier, emotional, obviously
Speaker 1: excited to be picked, but he also said I'm ready
Speaker 1: to go.
Speaker 4: I'm a dog, let's go. Well, it was neat about
Speaker 4: that quote. Is you really heard what's in it? For
Speaker 4: a lot of guys draft weekend, all of said he
Speaker 4: gets drafted and he realized he's going to get to
Speaker 4: continue living his dream for X number of years, and
Speaker 4: so many guys on draft weekend, you know, you know
Speaker 4: it's ending at that point, so clearly he savors it.
Speaker 4: You know, he's sitting there telling Doug, I love football.
Speaker 4: Well that holy heck, I get to go play it
Speaker 4: some more. Pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Absolutely stay with us here, We're going to do some
Speaker 1: ozone mail bag questions for you after the break here
Speaker 1: on Jack's I am Jags Fans. You can get up
Speaker 1: at fanatics dot com with all the latest Jags styles.
Speaker 1: Shop now get today's special offer fanatics dot com officially
Speaker 1: licensed everything.
Speaker 7: Family.
Speaker 8: Okay, then we've got ozone mailbag presented by fanatics, And
Speaker 8: there's so many questions, John, and sometimes only you have
Speaker 8: the answers.
Speaker 4: Sometimes only I get the questions.
Speaker 1: Oh, fair enough, you try to give us the answers,
Speaker 1: and we do appreciate that. So our first question today
Speaker 1: comes from Bradford from Orange Park.
Speaker 4: And Uh, it was does Lawrence's fifth year option, uh,
Speaker 4: which he and Travis etn got on Monday? Does that
Speaker 4: preclude them from signing long term contracts? And I kind
Speaker 4: of get the question. If you don't go into real
Speaker 4: detail in a story, you said say, well, okay, well
Speaker 4: they got the fifth year option. Well that means there's no.
Speaker 4: The answer is no. You give the fifth year option
Speaker 4: to basically secure the player. The team has the right
Speaker 4: they can sign Trevor, Lawrence or a traves Et in
Speaker 4: the long term deals whenever they so choose. I expect,
Speaker 4: I've been saying for a few weeks. I expect the
Speaker 4: Trevor deal at some point this off season to be done.
Speaker 4: Travis is in a different situation because he's a running back.
Speaker 4: It's a little more of a at this point in
Speaker 4: the contract, fourth year year to year and then sort
Speaker 4: of see what kind of a shorter term deal at
Speaker 4: the end of that contract, what the numbers look like. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: it's a different terrain for running back and quarterback.
Speaker 3: Just thought, Trevor's fifth year number is twenty five million
Speaker 3: dollars and that's a big number, and a lot of
Speaker 3: times in the first year of a new deal they
Speaker 3: want to get that number lower so they have more
Speaker 3: cap flexibility. So you'd probably like to see him get
Speaker 3: a new deal done so that you can manage the
Speaker 3: first year of that number.
Speaker 1: It is something we see with quarterbacks a little closer
Speaker 1: to training camp, ray a little later in the summer.
Speaker 1: Things usually seem to come through before training camp.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the mahomes Borough, like a lot of them have
Speaker 4: been July, say, closer, much much closer the week before. Yep.
Speaker 1: Our second question is a little bit about draft dogs. Right,
Speaker 1: These guys all are great off the bus, but I
Speaker 1: don't see any dogs I help them wrong. Do you
Speaker 1: see any dogs?
Speaker 4: Dog?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of self proclaimed dogs, for sure.
Speaker 4: I was a little intrigued by the question because I
Speaker 4: got you know, I listened to three minutes of zoom
Speaker 4: calls with these guys and watched the b roll, you know,
Speaker 4: for five seconds of highlights. I I'm not good enough
Speaker 4: to know that that means their dogs or not, because
Speaker 4: dogs means you're yelling at people a lot or beating you.
Speaker 4: I don't know. It's it sure seems like there's some confidence.
Speaker 4: H But we'll find out if they're dogs once the
Speaker 4: pads goals, you know. So, uh, it's great to yell
Speaker 4: in the locker room with your teammate if you can't play,
Speaker 4: your teammate's going all right.
Speaker 3: Dog, You can't possibly know until you get them into
Speaker 3: the fourth part of a game and you need to
Speaker 3: make a play and they do where they don't.
Speaker 4: Right, So you got to be a dog. You can't
Speaker 4: just look and act like one.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, we'll see when they get into game action.
Speaker 1: Let's round things out with a little bit of an
Speaker 1: hour later. Do you think most fans think of the
Speaker 1: draft in terms of what can help the team win
Speaker 1: this year, while most gms are thinking about what can
Speaker 1: help the team win more so the following year.
Speaker 4: Well, I think most fans are thinking absolutely about what
Speaker 4: can help them win this year. The GM has to
Speaker 4: have an eye on that. But as I wrote in
Speaker 4: the text answer to this question, if the GM's not
Speaker 4: looking past the year that he's drafting in, he's doing
Speaker 4: a disservice to the team. You can't just draft for
Speaker 4: that year. So yes, I think there's a huge disconnect
Speaker 4: between that. I've said more and more in recent years
Speaker 4: there's a been disconnected what fans because we build these
Speaker 4: guys up so much in April and then talk about
Speaker 4: them so much. There's this, oh, if they don't play
Speaker 4: well Week one, they're terrible. The draft is really about
Speaker 4: the second and fifth year of those guys career. I
Speaker 4: don't say anything you get from rookies as gravy, but
Speaker 4: in some cases it's as hard to come in and contribute.
Speaker 3: This is why you have a coach who coaches the
Speaker 3: team and a general manager who manages the roster, because
Speaker 3: somebody has to have that macro view and to be
Speaker 3: able to see three and five years down the road.
Speaker 3: We have seen it where coaches make short term decisions
Speaker 3: to win now because their jobs are so year to year,
Speaker 3: and those aren't often the best long term decisions. The
Speaker 3: best in recent memory here is the decision of twenty
Speaker 3: seventeen to take Leonard Fournette instead of Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 2: How might that have been different.
Speaker 4: Right, because Leonard Fournette was a very good player to
Speaker 4: one playoff front. Yep, you sort of even knew then
Speaker 4: that it was short term gain, long term pay.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent, And it's so easy to look back
Speaker 3: and have hindsight twenty twenty. But that is such a
Speaker 3: glaring short term solution for the Jaguars. They knew that
Speaker 3: they needed the running game to make Blake Bortles more
Speaker 3: effective to play to the defense which they had built
Speaker 3: and bolstered through free agency. And it was a good
Speaker 3: decision because it got in the AFC title game, but
Speaker 3: that only lasted a year if they'd taken Mahomes.
Speaker 2: Who knows what might have been.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of might there because you don't know
Speaker 3: how things work out. But you have to have a
Speaker 3: big picture of you with draft choices, because few and
Speaker 3: far between are those guys that come in and just
Speaker 3: light the place up as.
Speaker 4: A rookie time.
Speaker 1: We'll tell on this hard to judge a draft right away,
Speaker 1: of course, that's what we've been doing all day, but
Speaker 1: it'll take a while to see where these draft picks
Speaker 1: end up. Stay with us for a little bit longer.
Speaker 1: We talk about what's coming up, including rookie minicap.
Speaker 7: Yoh, it was good, Bro, it was good.
Speaker 9: Welcome to Jacksoville.
Speaker 7: Man, appreciate it. Appreciate it. Excited to be there.
Speaker 9: You can't wait beating it down here. Bro, it's gonna
Speaker 9: be It's gonna be awesome. You love the guys. Can't
Speaker 9: wait to have you brothers.
Speaker 7: Yep, appreciate you.
Speaker 2: How's the how's the knife and everything?
Speaker 7: Good? Yeah, it's been going good so far. Excited families
Speaker 7: in sight of everybody's here.
Speaker 9: Man, I'm happy for I don't want to take too
Speaker 9: what's your time? But yeah, I'm sure you got some
Speaker 9: media stuff all that.
Speaker 7: Yep, appreciate it though, bro.
Speaker 9: Yeah, bro, all right, man, I'll see you soon. Enjoy
Speaker 9: I know your probably can come down here tomorrow. Enjoy it, man,
Speaker 9: soak it up. Congratulations, Tell your family, I said, what's up?
Speaker 7: Yeah, wait to meet you, bro, got you appreciate your
Speaker 7: fair them all right?
Speaker 1: Roy Ever, long's talkings, new Target.
Speaker 4: How's it going well? I just slayed twenty nine? Pretty good,
Speaker 4: pretty good day, good day. That was cool though.
Speaker 1: If anyone can relate, it's it's Trevor, I'm sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we've got rookie Minniember. We're just discussing this the
Speaker 1: end of next week, one of John's favorite times of
Speaker 1: the year. We get these rookies in here and running
Speaker 1: around twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3: Dante Fower popped his ACL in the first ten minutes
Speaker 3: we came in the camp, and so mini camp went
Speaker 3: from being actually a physical endeavor to more of a.
Speaker 2: Mental right, which is what it should be. It's guys
Speaker 2: have been.
Speaker 4: It's intro, it's here's where the bathroom is, so you
Speaker 4: know when you come back next week you can get
Speaker 4: to it. And no, and but here's how so that
Speaker 4: you're not running around and having no idea what's going on,
Speaker 4: you try to give rookies as many reps. They'll give
Speaker 4: them some reps this weekend. You do OTAs, and you
Speaker 4: bring them in early during training camp, training camp so
Speaker 4: that by the time they get like a fourth read
Speaker 4: on something, you're not walking around and going, wow, look
Speaker 4: at the MEC.
Speaker 3: But it is an important point because these guys have
Speaker 3: been training for running forty our dashes and three cone
Speaker 3: drills and bench pressing. They haven't been doing football stuff,
Speaker 3: and so you put them on the field right away,
Speaker 3: and they're not acclimated to it. So it's it is
Speaker 3: much more about here's how we work, Here's how we meet,
Speaker 3: Here's where everything is in the building, so that you
Speaker 3: are more productive when training camp roles.
Speaker 4: And strength guys and trainers have begged coaches for years
Speaker 4: to realize, don't work these guys when they first get here,
Speaker 4: for years that they didn't listen. Finally, over the last
Speaker 4: couple of years, with some injuries like that, most teams
Speaker 4: are doing it this way, which is basically, this is
Speaker 4: an introductory orientation, if you will.
Speaker 1: More than we won't say anything crazy from them in
Speaker 1: mini camp. But is there any player in particularly you're
Speaker 1: looking forward to seeing in person?
Speaker 4: You look for athleticism, right, So, I mean, it'll be
Speaker 4: cool to see Mason Smith because I'm sure you look
Speaker 4: at him and say, well, that's that's what I thought
Speaker 4: it was.
Speaker 3: Well, Miles Cole, the came from Texas Tech, who's a
Speaker 3: project in the seventh round. But talking to some of
Speaker 3: these guys, these coaches yesterday, apparently Ryan Nielsen was banging
Speaker 3: the table to get Miles Cole thought so much of
Speaker 3: his traits.
Speaker 4: Well, and the big thing you don't want is there's
Speaker 4: what eight nine draftees, as a GM or a scout,
Speaker 4: you don't want to be walking off the field that
Speaker 4: many camp going, you know, which occasionally happened.
Speaker 2: I've been here in the past.
Speaker 4: So that's the big thing to get through that weekend.
Speaker 4: They all want to get back to their office and
Speaker 4: go alright, alright, okay, we're all right there. These guys
Speaker 4: can at least line up so because it doesn't happen
Speaker 4: as often as you used to, but occasionally happens.
Speaker 1: All right, that's what we got mini camp headed. Next week,
Speaker 1: we'll get all these rookies in the building. We appreciate
Speaker 1: you joining us. We'll see you next week on JAG's Am.