The NFL is back, and Sportsnet is breaking down everything you need to know about each of the 32 teams in the month leading up to kickoff on Thursday, Sept. 7. Today, the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Head coach: Doug Marrone
Last season’s record: 3-13
Playoff result: Failed to reach the post-season
Key free agent gains: Spending money in free agency like the Washington Redskins in the early 2000s, the Jaguars were one of the big stories of NFL free agency.
Jacksonville spent big on defence with three players, in particular, standing out: defensive lineman Calais Campbell, cornerback A.J. Bouye and safety Barry Church.
Campbell was an Arizona Cardinals staple for the past eight years and helped them become perennial contenders during his time there. He’s a great player, but he will be 31 when the season starts. Bouye had a breakout year with the Houston Texans last season where he established himself as legitimate No. 1 cornerback, leading his team with three interceptions and 10 passes defended. Lastly, Church comes from the Dallas Cowboys where he’s gone for over 100 tackles for four straight years.
Will spending money like this actually work to improve the team? Traditionally, building through free agency is a surefire way to guarantee yourself single-digit wins every year. But Jacksonville is trying anyway, likely hoping for at least one of these guys to pan out the way Malik Jackson has appeared to after they signed him in 2016.
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Key free agent losses: Jacksonville’s biggest free-agent departure came from safety John Cyprian, who signed with division rival Tennessee this off-season. Losing Cyprian sort of forced the Jaguars to make the Church move as the two players are comparable with Cyprian just being two years younger.
Other than that, the Jaguars also traded tight end Julius Thomas to the Miami Dolphins just two years after flashily signing him to a big five-year deal.
Thomas originally came from Denver, where he flourished under Peyton Manning. After signing with Jacksonville, however, he struggled mightily so the trade was likely welcomed by both the Jaguars and Thomas himself.
Key draft picks: The Jaguars had a first and second round to remember at this year’s draft, picking up explosively talented LSU running back Leonard Fournette fourth overall and then projected first-rounder Cam Robinson from Alabama at No. 34.
With Fournette the Jags have a franchise-level player in their backfield who has drawn comparisons to Herschel Walker and Adrian Peterson. He’s a power back, a speed back, an elusive back, a patient back, a receiving back and a blocking back. Fournette can do it all, and, for Jacksonville’s sake, let’s hope he can figure it out sooner than later.
Robinson is an offensive lineman with enough talent to play either tackle position. They gave up a sixth-rounder to move up one spot in the second round to pick him, but that should be well worth it as he’s a player who can start immediately and given his acumen at opening up running lanes, following up Fournette with him was a stroke of genius.
X-factor: Like just about every other rebuilding team in the NFL, success comes down to quarterback play and, right now, Jacksonville doesn’t have it.
Blake Bortles, the 2014 No. 3–overall pick and the supposed-to-be-surefire No. 1 Jaguars quarterback was in a dead-heat race with Chad Henne for the starting job and that shouldn’t have been.
Bortles has shown little to no improvement from his rookie season and there’s been calls to just give up on him. The problem with that, however, is you’d be handing the reigns over to a 32-year-old Henne, who hasn’t thrown a regular-season pass since September 2014, and hasn’t won an NFL game since 2013.
If Jacksonville’s serious about getting better, Bortles needs to surprise everyone and finally start playing the way he’s capable of.
2017 will be a success if: Fournette breaks out the way Peterson did in his rookie season with the Vikings.
Let’s be real here: We all know the Jaguars aren’t going to be any good, no matter how much money they’ve spent. What they do have now, however, is a dynamic running back who could end up as one of the NFL’s best.
Do the fans right and unleash him, Jacksonville. There’s no other reason to watch this sad-sack team, otherwise.
