Free agency is unofficially a day old and the Jacksonville Jaguars made the biggest splash right away. But it also revealed the pitfalls of the market for a team that has been waiting for success for a long time.
The Jaguars wasted no time on Monday and got down to business with numerous free agents – other teams, mind you. They shocked the competition by signing wide receiver Christian Kirk for 4 years and $72 million. They picked up what is arguably the best guard on the market in Brandon Scherff, and then two more receivers and defenders followed.
With the exception of Scherff, it is noticeable that the Jaguars paid well for their aggressive deals, but did not necessarily bring in the elite in the respective positions. And that starts with Kirk.
Kirk was a second-round pick by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2018 draft and is particularly strong in the slot with deep potential. But you can’t actually say that he has made his breakthrough in the past four years. And it was only in his fourth year that he managed to cross the 800-yard mark for the first time (982 yards). His previous career high was 709 yards in the 2019 season.
In an offense that relies heavily on passing, he’s never been more than a better follower. And handing over such a high-value contract for him, which can be worth a maximum of 84 million dollars, is strange.
The same applies to linebacker Foyesade Oluokon, who led the league with 192 tackles last year but only became a regular in his third year with the Falcons. He got a 3-year, $45 million contract.
The deals for Zay Jones and Evan Engram, on the other hand, were more or less in line with the market, but raise the question of why so many resources were put into one and the same position – slot receiver, especially since Laviska Shenault or returner Jamal Agnew already had players with them anyway overall similar skills were present.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Free-Agent-Deals 2022
| player | Position | previous teams | contract years | salary (dollars) |
| Christian Kirk | Wide Receiver | Cardinals | 4 | 72 million |
| Brandon Scherff | Guard | Commanders | 3 | 49 million |
| Foyesade Oluokun | Linebacker | Falcons | 3 | 45 million |
| Fatukasi Folorunso | Defensive Tackle | Jets | 3 | 30 million |
| Zay Jones | Wide Receiver | Raiders | 3 | 24 million |
| Evan Engram | Tight End/Wide Receiver | Giants | 1 | 9 million |
From a purely sporting point of view, the question arises as to what the Jaguars are planning here. They have a new head coach in Doug Pederson, who has completely different ideas regarding offense than Urban Meyer. That much is clear. And the focus of these early transfers is clear – quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s potential is to be maximized in his second season.
And that makes sense, because the early years of a quarterback are known to be exploited, because at the latest from the sixth year onwards, such a one becomes really expensive. Now, however, you still have enough resources to build around it. And since Meyer hasn’t left a particularly stable framework and general manager Trent Baalke, who is still in office, hasn’t had particularly good offseasons, hurry is required.
A week ago, left tackle Cam Robinson was held for the second time in a row per franchise tag, and Scherff stabilized the center of the offensive line. Protection for Lawrence is the key to success, and there’s a chance they’ll go on the offensive line once more with the first pick in the draft.
In the second step, a clear deficit in Lawrence’s game from the previous season was identified and attacked – loudly Next Gen Stats Lawrence’s short and medium-range passes (1-20 air yards) were mostly below average to at most average productive. Especially the passes within the hash marks and to the left were really bad. The solution? More quality over the middle.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Focus is on the center
This explains why so much emphasis was placed on slot receivers. And Kirk and Jones in particular, who can also be very fast, should help Lawrence to become more consistent over medium distances and also deep balls. Engram is also one who, while listed as a tight end, has been viewed primarily as a slot guy by teams this offseason. And across the middle and in space he’s quite an able pass receiver.
What is of course missing in this group is the clear X-Receiver. That would be free agent DJ Chark. It is all the more surprising that they brought in Kirk and Jones, two players who can theoretically act as outside receivers. Until his 2021 season, which was severely shortened due to injury, Chark was a top performer in this Jaguars offense and was actually number 1 in the receiving corps compared to number 2 Marvin Jones, who might have to focus too much on his qualities if Chark were to leave.
Defensively, on the other hand, any help is welcome and sorely needed. The Jaguars ranked 31st in Defense DVOA according to Football Outsiders (11.8 percent) and had their problems, especially once morest the pass. Why Foyesade Oluokun was then signed can be deduced from the fact that he has recently been very aggressive once morest the pass and has achieved 5 interceptions and 10 pass deflections in the past two years. His coverage skills have improved over the past four years, but are still not outstanding – he allowed an 89.9 passer rating on 63 targets last season.
The signing of Folorunso Fatukasi, on the other hand, is no longer that easy to understand. He’s more of a nose tackle type and will probably be at most half of the defensive snaps on the court. The 30 million dollars over three years is a proud price for a run stopper.
In general, this leaves the realization that the Jaguars, despite the immense investments – they distributed at least $ 124 million in guaranteed salary on day 1 – have not necessarily improved significantly. You have invested in a wide range, but paid top salaries for it.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Recent history makes negotiations difficult
The main reason for this approach is probably that the Jaguars are who they are. A team that has only made it to the playoffs once since 2007, namely in 2017. And following that season, the team was successively completely torn apart once more.
Accordingly, the will to move to North Florida as a free agent should be kept within manageable limits. That excludes the absolute top free agents, because they also get top salaries elsewhere. In order to at least get to the second tier, you also need top salaries, which explains the aggressive price for Kirk in particular.
What is then added is the regime change in the coaching staff and the pressure that GM Baalke is likely to be under by now. Pederson’s concept envisages different types of players than Meyer, although the question must be allowed as to what exactly Meyer’s concept was – if there was one. In any case, the newcomers should help Pederson his to play football.
And Baalke can at least claim to have been proactive. With these deals, he gave the new coaching staff the support they needed right from the start so that they didn’t have to suffer from too many legacy issues. However, no one is in a hotter seat in Duval than the GM, whose whereregardings came as a surprise anyway following the disappointing preseason.
Jacksonville Jaguars: General managers under pressure
Baalke has been working in the Jaguars’ front office since 2020, first he was Director of Player Personnel and then only interim GM and finally full GM since 2021. His drafts – at least last year’s was more on Meyer’s behalf – were not necessarily brilliant .
Rather, despite numerous picks due to the endless exits through trades – if you can accuse a team of tanking, then the Jaguars – Jacksonville wasted the opportunities to position themselves strongly for the future with various mistakes in several years. The numerous first-round picks since 2019 can almost without exception be described as mistakes.
The systematic downsizing led to the desired draft picks, which did not bring the desired yield. And the debt that Baalke is in is likely to have led to the activism that has now been shown.
But the most frustrating part for the organization is that even with all the new additions, there are still a lot of construction sites. Of those that we named a few weeks ago, at least three were tackled – albeit not sufficiently – with the O-Line, Wide Receiver and Defensive Line. Cornerback and safety are still open. But the Jaguars still have a little cap space (around 27 million dollars) available. And with 12 picks in the draft – 5 in the top 105 – there is still plenty of ammunition for further reinforcements. However, these shots must now gradually sit.