Jacksonville Jaguars Fan Forums

Last year, the TE class was touted as an all time great TE class.  Scouts and draftniks everywhere salivated over superlative combine performances by several very athletic TEs.

Interestingly, the TE deprived Jaguars did not draft a TE out of that draft class.

Did the Jaguars make a mistake in not doing so, as some of us argued after the draft?

After one year?  Perhaps not, if you measure TE productivity solely on receptions, yards and TDs.

The most productive TE out of the class was 1st runder Evan Engram out of Ole Miss, who went to the Giants.  He finished with 64 catches for  722 yards and 6 TDs, followed by SFs George Kittle, who had 43 catches for 515 yards and 2 TDs.    O.J. Howard, whom some advocated to be picked at 4th overall, finished with 26-432-2 as the 19th pick overall by the Bucs.  Fellow first rounder David Njoku went to Cleveland and finished with 32-386-4.

Aside from these, none of the other TEs in this class caught more than 16 passes.

For the sake of comparison, Marcedes Lewis caught 13-126 his rookie year and 24-318 this past season.

All numbers are from profootballreference.com  https://www.pro-football-reference.com/y.../draft.htm

It is interesting to note that of all of the drafted TEs, only two, Jonnu Smith (18-157-2 for Tenn) and Gerald Everett (16-244 for the Rams) went to teams that were in the playoffs this year.

Also, we are talking about rookies.  Sometimes a rookie that isn't very productive can explode in the second or 3rd year.

So, one season removed from such a draft that was perceived to be deep and talented, what are your thoughts?

Does the productivity/lack thereof of this class impact how you approach this offseason regarding the position?

(01-24-2018, 02:03 PM)Bullseye Wrote: [ -> ]Last year, the TE class was touted as an all time great TE class.  Scouts and draftniks everywhere salivated over superlative combine performances by several very athletic TEs.

Interestingly, the TE deprived Jaguars did not draft a TE out of that draft class.

Did the Jaguars make a mistake in not doing so, as some of us argued after the draft?

After one year?  Perhaps not, if you measure TE productivity solely on receptions, yards and TDs.

The most productive TE out of the class was 1st runder Evan Engram out of Ole Miss, who went to the Giants.  He finished with 64 catches for  722 yards and 6 TDs, followed by SFs George Kittle, who had 43 catches for 515 yards and 2 TDs.    O.J. Howard, whom some advocated to be picked at 4th overall, finished with 26-432-2 as the 19th pick overall by the Bucs.  Fellow first rounder David Njoku went to Cleveland and finished with 32-386-4.

Aside from these, none of the other TEs in this class caught more than 16 passes.

For the sake of comparison, Marcedes Lewis caught 13-126 his rookie year and 24-318 this past season.

All numbers are from profootballreference.com  https://www.pro-football-reference.com/y.../draft.htm

It is interesting to note that of all of the drafted TEs, only two, Jonnu Smith (18-157-2 for Tenn) and Gerald Everett (16-244 for the Rams) went to teams that were in the playoffs this year.

Also, we are talking about rookies.  Sometimes a rookie that isn't very productive can explode in the second or 3rd year.

So, one season removed from such a draft that was perceived to be deep and talented, what are your thoughts?

Does the productivity/lack thereof of this class impact how you approach this offseason regarding the position?

How often do rookie TEs come in a "tear it up"? I really can't think of that many, especially recently.
I don't think we should let one year dictate the next.

If TE is a need (it is) and there is a good player to be had when we select, we should take him.
The draft isn't supposed to be about immediate results, aside from some top 10 first rounders. If say we need TE and Andrews is there, you select him, hoping he is a fixture at the position for a decade. Not because we need a pass catching TE right now to "put us over the hump".
You retain Lewis and O'Shaunnesy (or Koyack) and let the rook come along however he does.

That's how I look at it anyway.

TE is always one of the slowest positions to develop. Lots of TE showed all of the flashes you want to see as rookies. Yes we goofed big time by passing entirely on one of if not the best TE classes of all time. Kittle in the 5th round in particular was the steal of the entire draft to me. He's gonna be so good.

As someone who wanted Engram, Njoku, and Howard I am pretty glad we didn't get them.

Engrams stats are inflated due to all the injuries at Wr for the giants, he was basically their only threat and got force-fed.

Howard and Njoku flashed but were largely inconsistent or disappeared throughout games.

Engram was great. Very promising year.

My predraft thing with Howard was that he's a much rawer receiver than the hype suggested. That held true but still flashed a lot. Njoku will be really good once he gets a QB/new coaches.

I think Jonnu Smith is gonna show up big this year or whenever Delanie Walker decides to hang up his cleats.

(01-25-2018, 12:00 AM)realtorpat Wrote: [ -> ]As someone who wanted Engram, Njoku, and Howard I am pretty glad we didn't get them.  

Engrams stats are inflated due to all the injuries at Wr for the giants, he was basically their only threat and got force-fed.

Howard and Njoku flashed but were largely inconsistent or disappeared throughout games.

I think Howard came on toward the end of the season when he got his shots...
I remember early in the season the other TE (Brate) was getting many more snaps and targets...

I'm willing to bet Howards second year is a good one.

I really like this Dallas Goedert guy from SD St.

I was eyeballing Kittle or Sprinkle in the 5th round of that draft.

Kittle had a nice rookie campaign and Sprinkle looked nice blocking but didn't warrant looks in the passing game much.

I'd love to find a late round guy like Kittle who at least just proved it's possible.

The guy I really liked was Jordan Leggett, but he never played a down for the Jets as a rookie.